Pdf's

Posts: 13 · Posted: Sat Jul 26, 2008 5:54 pm

Hello, I was checkng out a few websites and noticed that they were selling Tsr modules in a downloadable pdf. Anyone have any experience with this? Is it even legal?
Thanks

Posts: 2339 · Posted: Sat Jul 26, 2008 6:05 pm

There are a couple sites that sell legal pdfs and many more that sell illegal ones.

Posts: 194 · Posted: Sat Jul 26, 2008 7:43 pm

If you tell us which one, we can probably tell you which this is pretty easily.

Posts: 610 · Posted: Sat Jul 26, 2008 7:44 pm

mordrin wrote:

If you tell us which one, we can probably tell you which this is pretty easily.

And this crew is so amazing, they can even tell you which ones are worth the trouble! Wow! Surprised

Posts: 13 · Posted: Sun Jul 27, 2008 5:27 am

Hello, one site that I noticed is located at: http://paizo.com/store/downloads/wizardsOfTheCoast/classicDAndD/rulebo oks/v5748btpy7mvs&source=top

It's my understanding that WOTC wont deal with you unless you have a physical storefront. If these pdf's are licensed to sell through wotc, why would you have to have a physical storefront when these are downloads?
Am I making sense? I can be kind of dense at times.
Ive been looking around and it looks like no one will deal with a strictly internet based business-Its a conspiracy!!
Thanks for your time

Posts: 74 · Posted: Sun Jul 27, 2008 5:41 am

tekmanmike wrote:

Hello, one site that I noticed is located at: http://paizo.com/store/downloads/wizardsOfTheCoast/classicDAndD/rulebo oks/v5748btpy7mvs&source=top

It's my understanding that WOTC wont deal with you unless you have a physical storefront. If these pdf's are licensed to sell through wotc, why would you have to have a physical storefront when these are downloads?
Am I making sense? I can be kind of dense at times.
Ive been looking around and it looks like no one will deal with a strictly internet based business-Its a conspiracy!!
Thanks for your time

I don't know about the physical store part of your question, but paizo.com is a reputable site for these pdf's. Paizo used to publish Dragon magazine as well as Dungeon magazine. They've been in partnership with WOTC for awhile now so I would assume this has something to do with Paizo selling WOTC's pdfs. Hope this helps

Posts: 107 · Posted: Thu Aug 07, 2008 5:49 pm

Doing internet searches for different modules I was looking for I have seen sites that you can download pdf's for no charge.

Posts: 74 · Posted: Thu Aug 07, 2008 6:04 pm

SH60B wrote:

Doing internet searches for different modules I was looking for I have seen sites that you can download pdf's for no charge.

I may be wrong (and someone here will correct me if I am), but I believe the only place you can download FREE AUTHENTIC (non-stolen) pdf's of TSR/WOTC modules is on WOTC's website itself. I know they have some available for free download but not many and only specific ones --> http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/oa/20030530b .

Posts: 107 · Posted: Fri Aug 08, 2008 8:10 am

I was was just making note that they are out there.

Posts: 2525 · Posted: Sat Aug 09, 2008 4:40 am

I believe Dave Arneson made his ODD Supplement available in PDF form on his website, and there was a slew of Basis, 1E and 2E stuff available at WoTC at one point. Whether any of them are still available I have no idea.
You might also want to seek out Midkemia's Black Tower and Towns of the Outlands (I have links on my site), and RJK's City of Brass (not a PDF) from this site.

Posts: 3999 · Posted: Sun Aug 10, 2008 11:56 am

mbassoc2003 wrote:

I believe Dave Arneson made his ODD Supplement available in PDF form on his website, and there was a slew of Basis, 1E and 2E stuff available at WoTC at one point. Whether any of them are still available I have no idea.
You might also want to seek out Midkemia's Black Tower and Towns of the Outlands (I have links on my site), and RJK's City of Brass (not a PDF) from this site.

Confused...RJK's City of Brass is available in some form?

Posts: 216 · Posted: Sun Aug 10, 2008 1:42 pm

FormCritic wrote:

Confused...RJK's City of Brass is available in some form?

It's "To The City of Brass" not City of Brass itself.

Posts: 943 · Posted: Sun Aug 10, 2008 4:28 pm

"To the City of the Brass" is in the Downloads section of the Library page on the Acaeum (towards the bottom of the page).

http://www.acaeum.com/library/library.html

See the introduction for an explanation of what it is. It's actually not a download (except the map) - it's just the text in an html page. However, there is/was a free pdf version of the same material available somewhere at one point.

Here's a link I found in Google:
www.greyhawkonline.com/canonfire/city_of_brass_tournament.pdf

This pdf states:
"It is freely distributable, provided it is kept intact and in its entirety."

Posts: 101 · Posted: Sun Aug 10, 2008 5:32 pm

What's the deal with sharing PDFs with friends. Is that legal or not?

Posts: 1200 · Posted: Sun Aug 10, 2008 6:21 pm

xraygord wrote:

What's the deal with sharing PDFs with friends. Is that legal or not?

It is not legal but there is no reasonable method to enforce it.
One of my Chaosium monographs has been released in PDF format.
I anticipate that they will be circulated.
I do the occasional Google search to see if one shows up on somebody's web site..
The copyright on the monograph belongs to me and I will do what I can to protect it.

Posts: 101 · Posted: Sun Aug 10, 2008 6:26 pm

jasonw1239 wrote:

It is not legal but there is no reasonable method to enforce it.
One of my Chaosium monographs has been released in PDF format.
I anticipate that they will be circulated.
I do the occasional Google search to see if one shows up on somebody's web site..
The copyright on the monograph belongs to me and I will do what I can to protect it.

The reason I ask is this, when we were kids playing, we would share modules and resource books with each other for the purpose of gaming. I was wondering if you could do the same with PDFs. I guess the difference is that the recipient of the PDF would have a permanent copy, and the sender would still have theirs.

Posts: 107 · Posted: Sun Aug 10, 2008 9:07 pm

I am always looking for PDF's so I can browse the modules or books without adding wear to my hard copies. If I had a way to make my own pdf copies I would.

Posts: 2130 · Posted: Sun Aug 10, 2008 10:31 pm

SH60B wrote:

I am always looking for PDF's so I can browse the modules or books without adding wear to my hard copies. If I had a way to make my own pdf copies I would.

Buy Acrobat and start scanning Smile

Posts: 196 · Posted: Sat Aug 16, 2008 9:51 pm

I bought Adobe Acrobat recently so I could remove the watermarkings and such from purchased PDFs. I hate that when I buy a legit PDF from a company (such as Goodman Games), they put my personal info on every page. OK, I get that I'm not supposed to share - does that mean you can treat me like a criminal just in case I might be? It looks really ugly to have my name & order number print out on every page.

As for sharing PDFs, I don't see it as much different than sharing the physical product. If you printed out a PDF, would you loan it to a friend? If so, why not loan them the PDF?

As for piracy, my view has always been thus: If I would never pay money for a legit copy of a pdf/mp3/video/etc, then the company loses no money in my having a bootleg. There are a number of things I simply don't care enough about to pay even a few dollars, but I'm interested in enough to flip through it. Plus, I lost count of the number of times I didn't think i'd ever spend money on a product, downloaded a bootleg, loved it, and then went out and bought a legit copy. That's the other side of my view - if it turns out the product is worthwhile, then give the company their money.
My most recent example was the D&D 4.0 players handbook. I didn't think I'd be interested in 4.0, but after looking through the PDF, really liked it, and soon ordered a physical copy of the book.

Posts: 18 · Posted: Mon Aug 18, 2008 4:23 pm

tekmanmike wrote:

Hello, I was checkng out a few websites and noticed that they were selling Tsr modules in a downloadable pdf. Anyone have any experience with this? Is it even legal?
Thanks

Paizo and RPGNOW.com are among internet stores that have old modules available for a modest price. It only makes sense for WotC to make them available as it's positive cash flow for virtually zero effort. One of the modules I bought was a fairly poor scan, so don't expect the crispness of documents designed in the post-.pdf age.