...due to recent findings of illegal copying and online distribution (piracy) of our products, Wizards of the Coast has decided to cease the sales of online PDFs.
But this is a real boon for the publishing arm of the old-school renaissance. The simulacra are suddenly a lot more valuable to all of us with readily-available pdfs of the originals no longer being available. Perhaps this is just the kick in the pants we need to take the bit in our teeth and run wild, just to see how far we can take this madness. ;)
So due to college kids pirating their preeeeciousssssss they're screwing over wll of those of us who were going to buy, oh, say, the OD&D White Box package I had on my RPGNow wishlist. Oh, thanks, Costal Wizards! Nice move there guys. Just another reason to give my gaming money to people who give a shit about their customers, like Pelgrane Press (who's having a half-off sale at RPGNow at the moment - they're losing the Dying Earth license at the end of the month. Typical - shit like 4th Ed lurches on while a infintely better game like DERPG dies on the vine.)
wv - pailate - of or dealing with small crawling insects of the Kaiin River Valley, ex. "He had a disreputable, pailate look about him".
Okay, I can understand not selling their 4th ed books as pdfs anymore... don't think it will actually help the problem at all, but it's their decision to make. But halting sales of out of print books as pdfs just strikes me as bad business (they're throwing away pure profit). And insisting Drivethrurpg and the like disallow downloads of products people have already bought? How is that even legal?
...and we're back to the old "no legitimate copy to buy" square. Good job, WotC/Hasbro, removing a stumbling block for people trying to rationalize not pirating your material.
I just checked my Paizo account and realized I´ve downloaded 50 Legacy D&D-products. That´s about $200 worth of purchases. I´m not angry, I´m puzzled by this nonsensical move.
Sounds like a bit of misdirection there. Stuff you get through Paizo (and I think Drive Thru too) is watermarked, so it's more difficult to copy illegally without getting caught. It's much easier to copy and distribute the non-watermarked Dragon pdfs WotC are putting out every month...
That's the sort of comment I normally seen applied to people who demand it is their right to pirate stuff. It's a little weird to see it among a group of people unhappy that they can no longer actually pay for their downloads.
The Revisitation
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Following on from the role-playing games I have and haven't played, here
are the games I've played but would very much like to play again before my
body fa...
ShadowDark of Strahd - Game 2
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If you're new to this series about running Curse of Strahd as a sandbox for
ShadowDark, there have been a few other posts (here). The previous post
rela...
The Theory of the Labyrinth
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A good part of the magic of D&D is from a specific aesthetic effect it
shares with several other types of fiction that I'm going to call The
Theory of th...
A dungeon is two dungeons at once
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When the last torch is extinguished, when the last drop of oil in the
lantern is consumed, there is a moment of true dark. But soon you begin to
see. You m...
Appendix Probi of the OSSR
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Sandbox, not Any Box
Roll Tables, not Story Beats
Rumors, not Hooks
Character Progression, not Character Development
Scenario Generation, not Plot W...
Ritual Locations (for Liminal Horror)
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1. Where a nun drowned.
2. Between two unmarked graves.
3. A waterway that has never seen the sun.
4. Where five roads meet.
5. A place with po...
The greatest horror game ever is here.
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That's pretty much it, folks.
DEMON CITY can now be bought, both in printed format and as a PDF.
I've had the PDF for some time now, and I'm really hap...
"Ark Against Time" Submitted for DunDraCon #48
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[image: A colorful thing seems to be made of several elongated pods]
(Ark of Time)
*GM: Matt MorrisonType: RPGSystem: D&D/Arduin GrimoireEdition: 5...
Forgotten Homework
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Ugh a boring bookkeeping post: I haven’t forgotten about my Stock-a-Dungeon
jam… it’s just taken more time than anticipated! I thought it would be a
[…] Re...
Imperium Maledictum Session 0
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Warhammer 40,000: Imperium Maledictum is the new Warhammer 40,000
roleplaying game from Cubicle7. Unlike Cubicle7’s other Warhammer 40,000
RPG, Wrath & Glo...
OBSCURE RPG – Free A4 character sheet
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I recently made an A4 character sheet for the OBSCURE roleplaying game by
Tommy Sunzenauer. If you feel like using it – download it here for free.
What i...
The Time Bandits
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Six boisterous dwarves, who, until recently, were employed by the *Supreme
Being* to fix holes in the space-time continuum. Then they had a
brainstorm: W...
cryptid in july poetry day 09, the enfield horror
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a poem about the enfield horror
I’m an armpit leaping
around the woods on three
legs waiting
for police to arrest me
I’m the living
embodiment of cough...
Ãœbersiedelt
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Dieser Blog ist Anfang des Jahres 2022 übersiedelt. Am Blog von
gazerpress.at schreibe ich weiterhin über Historisches und Aktuelles rund
ums Rollenspiel.
In Defense of Race As Class
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Race As Class! Baffling to some, overly simplistic to others, gold to me.
Race As Class does what even AD&D didn't have the balls to do: it not only
says "...
A Fresh Start
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Morning Folks
I came across someone's blog the other day and I liked it's focus, focus is
something I could use so I'm going to steal it along with anyt...
Vengeful Cuckold and Cuckquean Generator
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I submitted a table I made to Jeff Rients for his awesome Flame Princess
Cult Zine. I have already used it in several ways during games and have
enjoye...
REVIEW – Fish Fuckers
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Fish Fuckers is a Lamentations of the Flame Princess Adventure with Text
and Art by Kelvin Green, Graphic Design by Alex Mayo, and Editing by
Jarrett Crade...
eXPerience
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The following are some alternative ways I want to try out in my home LotFP
game. I already use Session Attendance & Carousing but I want to try the
othe...
La torre del Necromante (Sessione 5 - ToEE)
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*La quinta sessione, dove i nostri si avventurano a Nord alla ricerca di un
luogo pericoloso...*
*T1-4 Il tempio del male elementale*
*Personaggi* *g...
Knights and their Towers
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Knight's towers were fortified self-standing buildings, several-stories
high, most often erected on a plan similar to a square. They contained both
livi...
Two Thieves
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Jeff Easley's BECMI Thief I’ve recently decided to run an OD&D game. This,
of course, brings with it the age-old question of which version of OD&D
(3LBBs...
[Review] – Kickstarter “Killer Rabbits”
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Late last year I kicked in on a slightly less-disastrous KS than the usual
(where’s my damned Ref book, Raggi?). I’ve always been a big fan of
manuscript a...
Folk Horror Wyrdness in Traditional Low Fantasy
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My Dreadful Ghoulies,
I think it started when I read an old blog post from Dreams in the Lich
House where John was combining Oerth with darker influence...
One page dungeon contest!
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The one page dungeon contest's deadline is coming up on May 1st and I am
currently finishing up my rough draft and sketches on mine. It's my first
time giv...
New adventure
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Finally got around to uploading a new adventure. You can find it under
the adventures tab or just jump right to it from the link below. The
adventure is...
How's the View at Scenic Dunnsmouth?
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*[First, there are major spoilers here, so I wouldn't recommend reading
this if you're a player. That said, this is one of the few adventures that
changes...
Dark Sun for Lamentations of the Flame Princess
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The wife and I have been hard at work preparing Dark Sun for Lamentations
of the Flame Princess. Whilst we didn't manage to complete this one over
the we...
Conformity is Easy but Often Unwise.
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*"Trying to conform to frantic society is like trying to dance in rhythm
with an erupting volcano. The awakened see society's problems as
originating fro...
Wow I got to hand it too you. What I talk about in a half dozen post. You nail in a single picture.
ReplyDeleteBest. Reaction. Yet.
ReplyDelete"Hello, I'm Johnny Cash...and Wizards of the Coast can suck my Old School hump."
ReplyDeleteMight want to grab these while you can -
ReplyDeletehttp://www.enworld.org/forum/general-rpg-discussion/154448-free-adventure-path.html
A picture is indeed worth a thousand words...nicely done Jeff!
ReplyDeleteBut this is a real boon for the publishing arm of the old-school renaissance. The simulacra are suddenly a lot more valuable to all of us with readily-available pdfs of the originals no longer being available. Perhaps this is just the kick in the pants we need to take the bit in our teeth and run wild, just to see how far we can take this madness. ;)
ReplyDeleteSo due to college kids pirating their preeeeciousssssss they're screwing over wll of those of us who were going to buy, oh, say, the OD&D White Box package I had on my RPGNow wishlist. Oh, thanks, Costal Wizards! Nice move there guys. Just another reason to give my gaming money to people who give a shit about their customers, like Pelgrane Press (who's having a half-off sale at RPGNow at the moment - they're losing the Dying Earth license at the end of the month. Typical - shit like 4th Ed lurches on while a infintely better game like DERPG dies on the vine.)
ReplyDeletewv - pailate - of or dealing with small crawling insects of the Kaiin River Valley, ex. "He had a disreputable, pailate look about him".
Okay, I can understand not selling their 4th ed books as pdfs anymore... don't think it will actually help the problem at all, but it's their decision to make. But halting sales of out of print books as pdfs just strikes me as bad business (they're throwing away pure profit). And insisting Drivethrurpg and the like disallow downloads of products people have already bought? How is that even legal?
ReplyDeleteWell played, Jeff.
ReplyDeleteMy reaction is similar in tone, but yours is expressed much better.
@Pere: You can still grab it at Paizo, I think, at least for a few more hours. Make a CD backup or something for yourself!
ReplyDeleteGreat post, Jeff. You summed up the mood nicely.
I love Johnny Cash.
ReplyDeleteInterestingly, my security word is "chill". Which would seem to be the right thing to say to WotC.
ReplyDeleteThat and "yeah, ok, take down your legal pdfs. Because that worked SO WELL for the music industry."
Wow. I could not have put it better than that. And I've tried...
ReplyDelete...and we're back to the old "no legitimate copy to buy" square. Good job, WotC/Hasbro, removing a stumbling block for people trying to rationalize not pirating your material.
ReplyDeleteF**k yeah! Just more fuel added to this "hobbyist" movement is all...
ReplyDeleteGrinds my gears though to think that I didn't get in there early enough to get my LBB PDFs... Dang.
Picture's worth a thousand words. You summarized my own, shared visceral reaction very well, Jeff.
ReplyDeleteI just checked my Paizo account and realized I´ve downloaded 50 Legacy D&D-products. That´s about $200 worth of purchases.
ReplyDeleteI´m not angry, I´m puzzled by this nonsensical move.
My sentiments exactly.
ReplyDeleteI love Johnny Cash too. :-)
ReplyDeleteWoTC suck. I'm furious. By removing all authorised distribution of OOP works they have lost all moral standing to object to unauthorised distribution.
Sounds like a bit of misdirection there. Stuff you get through Paizo (and I think Drive Thru too) is watermarked, so it's more difficult to copy illegally without getting caught. It's much easier to copy and distribute the non-watermarked Dragon pdfs WotC are putting out every month...
ReplyDeleteJeff + Johnny Cash?
ReplyDeleteTuesday made!
wv: dimiphy - a mental effect noticed if you spend too long over at WOTC HQ.
WotC doesn't have material worth pirating.
ReplyDeleteLong live the oldschool movement!
@Sett: Good luck! Hope you get them all in time!
ReplyDelete(I had the same reaction, only a lot of my stuff was on RPGNow, and I can't get to it).
The Man in Black never disappointed. Here's to hoping corporate Wotc falls down in a burning ring of fire.
ReplyDeleteYour inflated sense of entitlement is palpable.
ReplyDelete"Your inflated sense of entitlement is palpable."
ReplyDeleteThat's the sort of comment I normally seen applied to people who demand it is their right to pirate stuff. It's a little weird to see it among a group of people unhappy that they can no longer actually pay for their downloads.
You are buy our chinese wow gold now?
ReplyDeleteOh yeah, and cool post, Jeff!
One picture worth a thousand effing words! Thanks for posting this!
ReplyDeleteIronically it seems that WotC's action may have been a visceral response as well: a spasm of pique or panic after the PHB2 leak.
ReplyDeleteWotC can eat a bowl of male sexual organs...
ReplyDelete