WotC PDF??? So Morrus Tweeted this

[Hussar]

Just out of curiosity, does anyone know what the results were of WOTC suing those guys for piracy? Did it ever come to court? What happened?

I wonder, possibly, if there is any connection between the two. Or, perhaps the pundits were right and pulling the pdf's was just another blunder by WOTC.

 

[Echohawk]

Just out of curiosity, does anyone know what the results were of WOTC suing those guys for piracy? Did it ever come to court? What happened?

Two of the people sued by WotC settled back in 2009 (according to, amongst others, this article), and a default judgement was entered against a third person, who failed to respond. According to this snippet, WotC voluntarily dismissed the balance of the cases towards the end of 2009.

So, based on that, it's been more than three years since those matters were resolved, and I doubt that there is any connection between the settlement and the relaunch of D&D PDFs.

 

[Lord Mhoram]

So, based on that, it's been more than three years since those matters were resolved, and I doubt that there is any connection between the settlement and the relaunch of D&D PDFs.

I think a major reason for the PDFs being released now - I remember in a tweet, blog or question somewhere that it was said they would likely just call it "D&D" with no edition labels or whatnot. We know that the 3rd/4E edition war really fractured the fanbase (moresore than earlier editions) and gave rise to Pathfinder.

I really think that WotC is make D&D the game - no matter what edition. The current version is Next, but they are supporting all older editions. They want fans of each playstyle to play next, as a stated goal, but if not - get some money out of them with PDFs. Pushing the branding of D&D rather than 3rd edition or 4th. And with older editions in play in the marketplace, it could lead to greater brand awareness for things like movies and toy tie ins too.

If that is correct, it is brilliant marketing and business decision. You can argue that Pathfinder (for example) sells more that D&D, or that this game or that is bigger than D&D- usually meaning current edition. But nothing can make a claim that it is a bigger deal than all of D&D combined.

 

[Echohawk]

And is that new and hopefully improved scans of some of the back catalog material? And indexed and bookmarked and such too? They're still adding stuff, but please oh please a nice copy of 'On Hallowed Ground' since that one was never officially scanned, so the market had only a bootleg to offer. I will pay money for a good quality, sparkly pdf of that one so my original can sit pretty and non-worn on the shelf.

[MENTION=11697]Shemeska[/MENTION]: Just in case you missed in, On Hallowed Ground was one of this week's PDF releases. Here's a link.

 

[I'm A Banana]

I think I should just let it be known that I've blown well over $100 on old D&D PDFs by this point, and I regret $0 of it. Mostly 2e stuff.

And also, reading through this, I remember how weirdly pretty misogynistic/kind of racist some of the D&D stuff from back in the day was. Man, didn't realize it at the time, but looking back on the various descriptions of, say, the different Amazon kits now sort of makes me glad that 3e was out by the time I was DMing with a group that included ladies. Woof.