Want To Earn $50 Scanning Classic D&D Books?

The article title sounds like a spam email, but it's a real thing. DTRPG, which runs D&D Classics (now folded into the DM's Guild online store) is looking for help building its digital library of old D&D modules. To that end, the company is offering a $50 fee to anyone who scans a classic title they own. It needs to be high quality and meet some specifications, of course. There's a list of few hundred titles they're currently looking for.

Here's the list/spreadsheet of titles they are seeking; it will be updated with titles they've received scans for ("Pending") and those which have been accepted ("Submitted"). There are tabs for OD&D, 1E, 2E, Dragonlance Fifth Age, 3E, and 3.5. If you have one of these titles and want to send in a scan you need to fill out this form.

The $50 is added as credit to your DTRPG account, and you can cash it out via PayPal or you can spend it in store.

More info? Click here.

The main problem is that the prescribed scanning process involves you destroying your book (and that doesn't even guarantee they'll accept it). DTRPG asks you to cut off the spine and use a sheet-fed scanner. Given the classic status of older titles, the book itself may be worth more than $50 to you. That said, a lot of them can be found on eBay for reasonable prices, so it may be worth it. I, personally, am incapable of destroying, selling, or losing a book, but that's just me.

 

[Torg Smith]

I have to say, I am glad they are doing this. I was getting worried when Mike Mearls was making reference to if they have a digital version of some book on Twitter.

The down side to this is there is no mention of the older editions of Gamma World and Top Secret. I was eager for those to show up on DriveThruRPG.

 

[HonorBoundSamurai632]

And of course, I have tons on that list (mostly from the 1st and 2nd edition list, even some from the 3.5 list too) ..... but don't own a printer.

 

[Queer Venger]

This has the potential for real awesome.

 

[SerHogan]

I could make some serious platinum if my old modules didn't have notes and highlights scribbled all over them...

 

[Jhaelen]

Well, I have all of the Fantastic Locations supplements and wouldn't mind separating the pages of the booklet. But I have no idea how to scan the poster maps without cutting them into pieces, which I definitely won't do.

Edit: Oh, there's several tabs! I've been wondering already why they weren't looking for older supplements... I have all of the 2e Dark Sun and most of the Planescape stuff, hmm...

 

[Delazar]

I've got a complete collection of several 2e campaign settings (Planescape, Dark Sun, Dragonlance, Birthright, Spelljammer, Mystara, Dark Sun, Al-Qadim), but what if I scan it, and they say "sorry, in the meanwhile we already got that" or "sorry, not good enough..."

I need some more insurances that I'm not going to destroy my books for nothing.

 

[Nine Hands]

That's weird. Given the books that can be bought for less than $50, why don't they have someone doing this? They could get better scans more reliably by doing it in-house. Is it just saving money by being able to reject bad scans?

Well, it only costs them $25 or so since its store credit. Plus they don't have to pay someone to do it and, as someone mentioned, it is a parallel effort.

 

[Benji]

Yeah, I have like a ton of these books but unless they're actually falling apart, then I'm not shredding them. No wonder they don't have the 30th ed celebration, who's gonna kill that?

 

[Jester David]

That's weird. Given the books that can be bought for less than $50, why don't they have someone doing this? They could get better scans more reliably by doing it in-house. Is it just saving money by being able to reject bad scans?

As mentioned, since it's credit, they only need to give out 60% to the author and keep 40%.
And even if they could purchase a book for $25 they'd still need someone to scan, and that's pricey and time consuming. Likely more than a couple hours.

Also, it assumes they have an "in house". I'm nit sure but I'd expect DriveThru to be a virtual company without a physical location. Since publishers tend to supply the PDFs, they might not even have a scanner. There's no need.

 

[delericho]

No wonder they don't have the 30th ed celebration, who's gonna kill that?

Yep, no way I'm taking that apart!

I'm slightly bemused that they're looking for scans of the 2nd Edition "Core Rules" CD-ROMs.

And I'm also slightly shocked that WotC don't have digital files for most of the 3e/3.5e stuff from which they could generate PDF versions.