Races of Destiny available as pdf through Drivethrurpg

[Henry]

Is this a file that you'll have to be able to view online (some e-libraries are like this) only or is it an actual file that once you dowload it's your forever like RPGnow?

I can't find the FAQ on their site any longer, but I'll give you the express rundown:

1) You need Adobe Acrobat 6.x to use this. It's DRM enabled.
2) You need to be online to activate the product on EACH system that you use it for.
3) Once it's activated, it's yours on that system, no online connect needed, forever, until your system crashes, or what have you.
4) You can have it on up to six machines at one time.
5) If for any reason you need to install it more than six times (system crashes, etc.) you must contact DrivethruRPG for support, to have some of the previous registrations removed.

That's the simple rundown.

GENERAL NOTE TO ALL POSTERS: We're not looking for slams of DTRPG, or of DRM technology, in this thread. This is about Races of Destiny. Thanks.

 

[Arnwyn]

So what do you think? And please don't start the whole price discussion again, because we've had that 'ad infinitum'...

Don't care.

 

[Mystery Man]

I can't find the FAQ on their site any longer, but I'll give you the express rundown:

1) You need Adobe Acrobat 6.x to use this. It's DRM enabled.
2) You need to be online to activate the product on EACH system that you use it for.
3) Once it's activated, it's yours on that system, no online connect needed, forever, until your system crashes, or what have you.
4) You can have it on up to six machines at one time.
5) If for any reason you need to install it more than six times (system crashes, etc.) you must contact DrivethruRPG for support, to have some of the previous registrations removed.

That's the simple rundown.

GENERAL NOTE TO ALL POSTERS: We're not looking for slams of DTRPG, or of DRM technology, in this thread. This is about Races of Destiny. Thanks.

Thanks Henry.

You better highlight that last sentence in red and increase the font size.

 

[Rodrigo Istalindir]

I'm kinda curious as to the timing. Frostburn, as I recall, was also released electronically at roughly the same time it was released in print. Now we have 'Races of Destiny' but not 'Races of Stone'? It seems like some marketing weasel is trying to isolate what type of player is willing to buy retail-priced ebooks, Frostburn being more of a DMs book and RoD being more of a player's book.

 

[Henry]

Good questions.

Why were books like MMIII, the complete arcane, and Libris Mortis left out? What is WotC's strategy in choosing which books to release in PDF?

At the very least, this is a small piece of evidence that WotC are sticking with this experiment, at least for now.

My thoughts are as follows:

It's still in the experimental stage, as WotC is finding out if it's worth releasing PDF's of their products. They operate on a whole different world and different margins than all other book and PDF publishers. The "fringe" products such as FrostBurn and RoD won't lose them as much money as, say, the Eberron Campaign Setting does if someone cracks DRM wide open tomorrow and copies of it are released far and wide. It's one thing to have someone PDF your book illegally (usually in a graphic format only, from what I've heard) but it's quite another to hand over the keys to the fully text-searchable kingdom yourself. If DRM proves itself to WotC as a reliable technology (which it MUST, for them to even be trying this in the first place) and if PDF sales prove worth it, you'll see more PDF titles.

To me, three months is an ambiguous time period. If it had been five or six months, I'd say Frostburn's PDF was a failure, and they're giving it "one more try." If it were shorter, I'd have said Frostburn was a tentative success, and they are still testing the waters. As it is, I'd just call it "tests for market viability still ongoing."

 

[Cergorach]

Good questions.

Why were books like MMIII, the complete arcane, and Libris Mortis left out? What is WotC's strategy in choosing which books to release in PDF?

At the very least, this is a small piece of evidence that WotC are sticking with this experiment, at least for now.

What i'm guessing is that they are looking to minimizing risks by releasing single 'fringe' books as pdf, these are the books not everyone wants, so when they show up in 'warez' channels financial loss would be minimized.

In the same line of thought i also think that the three month waiting period was to see wether frostburn would show up as hacked pdf in warez channels. As far as i know, it hasn't shown up yet (atleast not as cracked dtrgp pdf).

Races of Destiny is less 'fringe' then Frostburn, so more people will be interested in it, so the chance that it shows up in a warez channel increases. I think that either it shows up in a warez channel and the project would probably be canceled or it doesn't and the next release will come sooner and be less 'fringe' (Complete Adventurer for example).

I think that we'll see less and less single 'fringe' releases until someone at WotC is convinced that the pdf releases are not a threat to paper sales. I personally think that it will probably take another nine months before they are convinced either way...

 

[Psion]

Um, don't scanned printed WotC books show up on warez channels?

As for the price thing... well, let's just say I recall starting a thread requesting people contrasting warforged and ironborn and asked people not to pollute the thread with whines about how they hate metal men and it went unheeded. But instead of mimicking that sort of behavior, I am going to hopefully be an example of respecting the wishes of the OP.

 

[johnsemlak]

Question

Is it possible to get any idea of how the FB PDF sold by looking at the 'hot sales' column at DTRPG? It's not in the top 30 now; was it ever in the top 30? It it was in the top 30, does that mean anything (i.e. is that list linked directly to sales figures?)

 

[JoeGKushner]

I think it's too bad WoTC is following the fire and forget methodology when dealing with PDF's.

What do I mean? I mean taking the whole book and firing it off as a PDF instead of allowing the buyer to pick and choose what they want to buy.

They could've chopped it up into chapters. Into races.

Want everything on Ilumnians? Here's the race, dietieis, feats, prcs, and background appropriate for them.

But no... it's take the whole book or forget it approach again.

 

[johnsemlak]

I think it's too bad WoTC is following the fire and forget methodology when dealing with PDF's.

What do I mean? I mean taking the whole book and firing it off as a PDF instead of allowing the buyer to pick and choose what they want to buy.

They could've chopped it up into chapters. Into races.

Want everything on Ilumnians? Here's the race, dietieis, feats, prcs, and background appropriate for them.

But no... it's take the whole book or forget it approach again.

That would be an interesting approach.

Two possible explainations as to why they're not doing it:

-They're just not that serious about PDFs at this point to endevour in that; or
-Selling it in smaller cheaper parts might break their policy of not selling PDFs below list price, even if it is smaller parts. WotC probably wouldn't want people who only wanted part of the book to buy a PDF cheaper online, and thus cost the company a sale of a full-price item.