DriveThruRPG

[DarkShadow316]

Greetings,
I am currently bouncing around the idea of putting some of our books out as PDF's and selling them on DriveThruRpg. The reason I am here is to ask if anyone has done buisiness with DriveThru and how did it go? Did you find the process fast and easy? Would you do it again?


Any feedback would be great

Chip Dobbs
Pres. VESI
www.visionaryentertainment.com

 

[Krieg]

Chip,
I hope you are ready for the can of worms you just opened.

Good luck!

For the record...my position...put it on DRPG and I won't buy it...put it on RPGNow and I will (contingent on whether it is a good product and one that I can use of course).

 

[maddman75]

I personally won't use DTRPG because of their DRM. I had all kinds of trouble just getting a free file to download, I'm certainly not going to pay for it. I heartliy recommend http://www.rpgnow.com which sells PDF files that work just fine with whatever OS or PDF program the user prefers.

 

[2WS-Steve]

I'm curious what advantages other than the possible bonus of DRM a smaller publisher would see from DTRPG.


DTRPG takes a larger cut.

You should get more traffic to the main webpage since people go there to look for White Wolf books. [This IS a benefit, but see the next item.]

Will you get your own menu spot or be lumped in to the "Other Publishers" category down below the German and Italian translations?

RPGNow offers customer mailings for its gold vendors (and still takes a smaller cut).

RPGNow has a much better categorization feature, allowing the customer to easily jump to d20 Modern products, d20 Fantasy adventures, non-d20 horror books, and so on, so that people who are looking for your type of material don't have to sift through four dozen splatbooks on entirely different genres to find it.

 

[Buttercup]

If you put your PDFs for sale at some other online store, I'll be happy to take a look at them, but I will never buy from DriveThruRpg unless they stop using DRM.

 

[BrooklynKnight]

I prefer RPGNow myself. Much more customer and consumer friendly. And excellent vendor service.

 

[BryonD]

what they said

Me too

 

[Kesh]

I have zero problems with DTRPG. I've downloaded most of their free stuff, and bought a couple books from them. No problems whatsoever.

 

[Laslo Tremaine]

I have not yet, and have no plans to give money to DrivethruRPG. I have downloaded some of thier free stuff, but that's it.

On the other hand, I love RPGNow, and have spent hundreds of dollars on PDFs there...

 

[wingsandsword]

I like most people here, actively avoid buying from DTRPG. The DRM they insist on makes .pdf's not worth using, it hobbles them and makes the nearly useless as gaming books, especially when you realize the amount you're paying for them as compared to a text copy. Even "Free" products have so many DRM hobbles on them that it's just not worth it to grab them with all the strings they have attached. You can search these boards for the many, many heated threads DTRPG has created.

RPGNow is the popular and fans choice for gaming .pdf's. From everything I've seen, DTRPG requires DRM (thus taking product decisions about format out of your hands), they take a larger share of the proceeds (thus encouraging higher prices on your part), and normally insist on exclusive contracts (again limiting your business decisions). DTRPG honestly has a pretty bad reputation on these boards, and I'd personally go with RPGNow.