Why Can't People Just STOP...

[Old One]

...making things that I have to BUY !

OK, I am a notorius gaming tightwad these days. After spending thousands of dollars on 2E crap that I never used, I promised myself I would be much more circumspect with 3.x purchases. Heck, I don't even have the 3.5 Core Books...I have just been DMing using an excellent (and free) HTML version of the SRD.

First, Wulf and crew come along with the outstanding Grim Tales stuff...

Then, Green Ronin entices me in with the Black Company Campaign Setting...

Now, the upstarts over at Eldersygn Press have put out the first of their Skillcraft series in .pdf format and slapped a nice sale price on it:

Agility and Athleticism

Very well done...creative...nice illustrations...a neat little bonus section on healing. Dagnabit...now I will have to budget for the other two books in the series.

{walks away grumbling about the drain on his wallet}

~ Old One

EDIT: Added "&SRC=Enworld" to link...

 

[Crothian]

I understand, there was a time late last year and early this year that I didn't buy anythign and I thought it finally happened but then they started up with more cool book.

 

[osarusan]

This makes me wonder -- since the SRD is open content and therefore can be made into a website, or a pdf, or searchable help file, or whatever you want... has anyone begun to collect open material from other sources besides WotC and done the same?

Sort of like a massive open content SRD? Or separate files that index open content from each company (i.e. "WotC Open Content," "Green Ronin Open Content," "FFG Open Content," etc.)...

I've seen numerous projects translating the SRD into as many different formats as possible so anybody can use it with whatever program they want; but has anyone considered doing this with other company's open content as well? (I'm assuming that would be legal... correct me if I'm wrong.)

That would be a really cool idea, IMHO, and could even help sell these companies' books -- if you include the source book in each open content piece, people could browse through these rules and if they see something they like, they might be inclined to purchase the book it is from.

Just a thought...

 

[woodelf]

This makes me wonder -- since the SRD is open content and therefore can be made into a website, or a pdf, or searchable help file, or whatever you want... has anyone begun to collect open material from other sources besides WotC and done the same?

Sort of like a massive open content SRD? Or separate files that index open content from each company (i.e. "WotC Open Content," "Green Ronin Open Content," "FFG Open Content," etc.)...

I've seen numerous projects translating the SRD into as many different formats as possible so anybody can use it with whatever program they want; but has anyone considered doing this with other company's open content as well? (I'm assuming that would be legal... correct me if I'm wrong.)

That would be a really cool idea, IMHO, and could even help sell these companies' books -- if you include the source book in each open content piece, people could browse through these rules and if they see something they like, they might be inclined to purchase the book it is from.

Just a thought...

Just about impossible, without the collusion of the original producers of the OGC. Almost every user of the WotC OGL declares their product names and company names as PI. You can't use PI without permission. Therefore, it's generally impossible to identify the source of reused OGC when reusing it. It's one of the biggest flaws in the WotC OGL, IMHO: it not only fails to demand a proper chain of credit, but it makes one just about impossible even if you want to do it. You *can't* give proper credit for others' work under the WotC OGL.

As to extracting the material, just for the greater good of gamers everywhere: the main reason it's happened with the D20SRD and not other producers is that it's already in digital form, so you don't have to scan or retype it all. As evidence of this, GoO has released much of their OGC as digital files, and those files *have* been collated into free PDFs and the like, just like the D20SRD (though not by as many people).

On indexing OGC: that's the point of ...damn, can't remember the name of it. Anyway, there is a group trying to do just that, but they're mostly relying on [sparse] volunteer labor, and haven't gotten much help from the publishers, so it's slow going.

Which gets me, finally, to the idea of reusing/releasing other companies' OGC in PDF/HTML/whatever collations. I'm working on it, but unlikely to do just a straight OGC extract of another game, 'cause it's not worth the effort. Though, if i end up using as much of Arcana Unearthed and Spycraft as i think i will for the basis of one of my projects, i may have scanned/retyped all,or nearly all, the OGC from each of them, and then i *might* get around to releasing just some OGC extracts, while i'm at it. Or not.

 

[Yair]

d-minky: I think that would be a cool idea, but a proper discussion would be hijacking.... I think I'll open one. Edit: I did .

As for the original post: preach on, brother! I'm finding myself buying more and more stuff lately. Even old stuff, that I'm rediscovering. Hmph.

 

[Keeper of Secrets]

At least if you discover old stuff you might be able to get it used or cheap. Since I got into 3e a little later (as I was playing other games at the time), the amount of stuff I am getting used is really great.

 

[osarusan]

(Sorry for the almost-thread-hijack.)

There definitely is way too much stuff to buy... but that's where I'm really glad the pdf's come in. Even if you do buy as many books as you did for 2nd edition (yea... so did I ) at least if you buy them in pdf form you may save yourself quite a bit of money.

 

[Darth K'Trava]

[Jedi Mind Whammy ]::waves hand::You will buy these books.....[/Jedi Mind Whammy]




But then what do I know of "Jedi Mind Whammies"? Other than the "Know thy enemy!" intel.....

 

[Yair]

(Sorry for the almost-thread-hijack.)

There definitely is way too much stuff to buy... but that's where I'm really glad the pdf's come in. Even if you do buy as many books as you did for 2nd edition (yea... so did I ) at least if you buy them in pdf form you may save yourself quite a bit of money.

And shelf space!
Man, I'm buying too much of these... you know, costs add up

 

[Jolly Giant]

First, Wulf and crew come along with the outstanding Grim Tales stuff...

Then, Green Ronin entices me in with the Black Company Campaign Setting...

Now, the upstarts over at Eldersygn Press have put out the first of their Skillcraft series in .pdf format and slapped a nice sale price on it

Don't forget keep a few dollars in reserve for Vikings D20!