Races of Destiny available as pdf through Drivethrurpg

[Cergorach]

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 kewl, but it would require someone to do it, time = money, and this doesn't really eat a lot of time on the part of time. Unless you want it chopped in chapters, that wouldn't take a lot of time, but that wouldn't have everything of a race in a single pdf...

 

[DungeonmasterCal]

Well, given what I've read about the book's contents, I doubt I'll buy it in either format. Maybe somebody will give it to me for Christmas, but my hard earned ducats will likely be spent on something else.

I, too, am a little curious though as to why they chose this book to follow up Frostburn as a .pdf instead of some of the others that've been recently released.

 

[Castellan]

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

Yes, but I believe the point being made above is that (in general) they're images and not searchable text. Granted, there are some pretty resourceful folks out there using OCR software to solve that problem, but hard drive sizes being what they are, most folks who are likely to pirate the books probably don't care. (I also suspect that a lot of the piracy issue is still one of bragging rights more than one of usefulness.)

As for the price thing...

Well, I clearly got a knot jerked in my tail quick about that. I believe that the issues of electronic downloads and cost are inexorably linked, but I'll let it go.

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

I suspect this is against WotC policy, but it's worth some consideration. I wonder how Monte Cook is doing, considering he chose to do this with Arcana Unearthed? And, given that he's only one man (though I wouldn't put it past him to purchase a few clone spells...) it's clear that the only necessary resources for doing this come in the planning/layout phase of the actual document.

And if WotC (and other companies, for that matter) did this, it might stop people like me from whining about DTRPG prices. (Hey, I can dream... right?)

 

[Henry]

I suspect this is against WotC policy, but it's worth some consideration. I wonder how Monte Cook is doing, considering he chose to do this with Arcana Unearthed?

I don't know about anyone else, but I'll make this point: When Monte released Way of the Sword, Way of the Staff, and the Grimoire, I didn't buy them. When he released the Unearthed Arcana PDF, I bought it. It wasn't worth my time to buy pieces/parts, but it is to buy the whole thing. Heck, I have one copy as PDF, and one copy in Print! I don't often do that, but with his, I made an exception.

 

[Castellan]

I don't know about anyone else, but I'll make this point: When Monte released Way of the Sword, Way of the Staff, and the Grimoire, I didn't buy them. When he released the Unearthed Arcana PDF, I bought it. It wasn't worth my time to buy pieces/parts, but it is to buy the whole thing. Heck, I have one copy as PDF, and one copy in Print! I don't often do that, but with his, I made an exception.

I'm guessing that the appeal is different between players and DMs. As a DM, I'd rather have the whole thing (and I do, as a hardback book). However, I have a couple of players who are interested in only a couple aspects of AU, and not the whole thing. For those people, the appeal of a cheaper document focusing on only what they want is there.

In the case of a book like Races of Destiny, some players might only be interested in certain aspects of that book and not others. Will splitting the book up cannibalize sales? Maybe. But what about those people who won't buy the whole thing because they can't justify the price given their limited interest?

I'm guessing that this is what Monte Cook was betting on. DMs are going to grab the whole thing. Players are less likely to do so. Of course, you'll have crossover in both cases. DMs who only want to ad Mage Blades to their campaign, or players who want all of the options presented throughout AU's text.

 

[Wraith Form]

i think that the paper consumer kind of digs that the books they buy are kept at a decent price.

Hunh? Apparently you've never compared the current "everything must be hardcover and $35 even if it's 16 pages of crap" trend of WotC vs. "a little softcover love for $20 and we had Colin McComb and Wolfgang Bauer writing it" that TSR used to put out.

Not that I'm trying to derail the topic by including price or anything.

(see example above about books + price = baseball + players analogy)

 

[Wraith Form]

As far as i know, it [Frostburn] hasn't shown up yet (at least not as cracked dtrgp pdf).

Heh.

Aheh.

Ahahahaha.

HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA!

I mean, um, no...I sure haven't seen it...no way. Not at all. Nope.

 

[johnsemlak]

Hunh? Apparently you've never compared the current "everything must be hardcover and $35 even if it's 16 pages of crap" trend of WotC vs. "a little softcover love for $20 and we had Colin McComb and Wolfgang Bauer writing it" that TSR used to put out.

...TSR being especially known for their sound business plan...

 

[Cergorach]

Hunh? Apparently you've never compared the current "everything must be hardcover and $35 even if it's 16 pages of crap" trend of WotC vs. "a little softcover love for $20 and we had Colin McComb and Wolfgang Bauer writing it" that TSR used to put out.

Not that I'm trying to derail the topic or anything.

Erm... I believe that the $30 books have 192 pages, let me dig up a comparable example. Let's take Plane Scape (the products where in full color), On Hallowed Ground (192 pages and text density is about the same as the current D&D books), it cost in 1996 $25 and is written by Colin McComb. So EIGHT years later you get for $5 more a hardcover book (not to mention the fact that prices have increased in the last eight years, not that i'm happy about it).I've always been of the persuasion that i'm more then happy to pay $5 extra for a book of 150+ pages to get it in hardcover, so blame me for the hardcover. ;-)

 

[Cergorach]

Heh.

Aheh.

Ahahahaha.

HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA!

I mean, um, no...I sure haven't seen it...no way. Not at all. Nope.

To be honest my normal box (computer) has been out of commision for the last two months (it started leaking, water cooled), so i've been a bit out of the 'scene' (having been stuck on a less then quick laptop with not all my 'stuff' within reach). So what your saying is that someone cracked the Frostburn pdf from drivethrurpg (very simple really) and it's available on some channel, right? If that is the case, then i'm very suprised by this release. If on the otherhand your saying that someone scanned the book and made a pdf of it, then i say, what else is new...