I recall from Dungeon magazine free web supplements that had print-outs of the maps and art from the adventure. I found those really handy to share with the players.
I buy the hardcopy books for Mummy's Mask adventures. I just like the hardcopy. I even bought the map folios, face cards, and item cards.
It would be nice to have free printable versions of the maps*, the fiction, and the art.
For example, it is hard to share the fiction short stories that run through the series with my players as I won't also buy the PDF - that just seems seems excessive. I could photocopy the pages but that would look like crap, exert huge stress on the books fragile binding, and is probably illegal. I could pass the book around but that would either take huge amounts of game time or present a logistic challenge.
Paizo could solve this just by uploading the fiction for free. Yes, the fiction is good, but how many people not playing the adventure path would actually read it? And, more important from a business standpoint, how many people who read the fiction for free online would have bought the issue if the fiction was not available for free online? I'm guessing that is a trivial number of people - and that number represents the actual lost sales for the issue.
Just a lament here for the old Web Supplements that were for free from Dungeon.
*I know others diligently create printable maps, but that is only more reason for Paizo to just make the maps a free download.
