Free Gaz 5 promotion from www.DriveThruRPG.com !

[Joël of the FoS]

I have used that promotion as a potential Ravenloft boost and posted advertising of this promotion on all important D&D boards.

Please do the same and use it to convert one DM to RL

I can see a near future where Hickman, Baker, Skip and Greenwood will beg to write for Ravenloft!!! mwahhaha! (OK, time to get my green pill)

Joël

[Shadowsworn]

When I get home I'm going to post this on my blog, and on www.onrpg.com

[Le Noir Faineant]

Hahaha!

Amazing!

Printing and binding it comes to a total of 3€!!! Hooray!

*Given that I will probably never ever adventure there, it's just a good and cheap background resource!

[Reginald de Curry]

I already own a print copy, but it's nice to have a backup. Thanks for the tip!

[Le Noir Faineant]

Delicate question:

If we got a free pdf that way, may we redistribute it to our friends?

*Not that I was going to to do something illegal (simple reason: internet too slow), but is the RL Gaz 5 PDF now FREEWARE?*

[ScS of the Fraternity]

No, it would not be freeware.
After the promotion is over, no one will be able to download it for free from drivethroughRPG - thus it would stand to reason that distributing amongst friends would be illegal.

Sadly, your question shows why it is a silly idea to allow free downloading of documents that are not freeware. It is foolish and a little hypocritical to distribute a document for free for a short period of time.

For example, anyone connected to the internet can now argue that it was within their ability to download that document, so if they illegally download it later, they have theoretically committed no crime.

Whats free should be free, and what's not should remain not.

[Le Noir Faineant]

Well said, ScS.

To be honest, I don't quite understand why DrivethruRPG can exist; after all, they sell the pdfs for a ridiculous price, sometimes even more expensive than the book in printed form would cost...

Do they honestly believe they make money with that in an age where everyone can rely on P2P?

*As I hold my hobby very dearly, I try to keep out of such illegal actions, but really: It's always just a mouseclick away for everyone. And now: 30$ for the PDF of MotRD?! -No thanks!*

[Rhuvein]

This is fantastic! Got mine and I am reading it now.



Enjoy,

Rhuvein.

[Le Noir Faineant]

TBH, this may leadto a certain RL renaissance in many gaming groups, at least for a while...

But Nova Vaasa... That's REALMERS' land!

Can we really dare to enter there?

[Steve Miller]

Well said, ScS.

To be honest, I don't quite understand why DrivethruRPG can exist; after all, they sell the pdfs for a ridiculous price, sometimes even more expensive than the book in printed form would cost...

Do they honestly believe they make money with that in an age where everyone can rely on P2P?

You're right. Publishers and distributors should stop trying to make a living because there are immature theives in the world.

The products *my* online publisher has on sale at DriveThru are not available for rediculous prices. In fact, they could probably be sold for a bit more than they currently are, but I'm encouraging the fine folks at IDA to keep them low. (I agree there are some things on DriveThru that are WAAY overpriced, but it's hardly everything.)

Of course, if enough people talk about buying one copy and then ripping us off, I guess I can't keep arguing for what *I* consider a reasonable price. (In fact, it was proven through some experimental pricing that the market was willing to may MORE than what IDA charges for the products. I still think they should keep the prices where they're at.)

BTW, I saw you said that YOU don't do illegal downloading... but I'm still mad at the folks who do.

[Jester of the FoS]

Delicate question:
If we got a free pdf that way, may we redistribute it to our friends?

*Not that I was going to to do something illegal (simple reason: internet too slow), but is the RL Gaz 5 PDF now FREEWARE?*

It depends on the copyright laws in your individual countries. But do you really want to take money away from Swords&Sorcery? Or would you rather see them make lots of money and keep the product line going?

As for the price people can get the internet almost anywhere but shops where you can buy gaming products, let alone Ravenloft ones, are fewer and farther between. There are alot of people here who would agree that finding what you want can be a pain in the butt.

[Le Noir Faineant]

Oh please, don't get me wrong!



PDF-Shops running well or not doesn't bother me at my gaming desk. I am quite happy about it, indeed, because without pdf publishing, a majority of niche market books would not get any chance of being brought to their audience.
Besides, since the amazon system of world wide order is far from perfect, it's the only way for some readers to get their stuff from.

However, I personally would never expect it to be so expensive.
I personally think, with regards to possible binding and printing costs, prices should be kept reasonably low.
- Never would I dare to spent my money for bare DATA, at least as long as I can expect to get the book in print at the same price if I wait some months at ebay. (Happened that way with the MotRD 3.5 book that I bought a while ago, for example.)

On which I absolutely agree with Mr Miller is that P2P is dull! I mean, if you download books/CDs/movies JUST TO HAVE MILLIONS OF THEM, you really destroy the market... And that, in our case, is quite unfair, because rpg authors may not be among the richest of the writing profession. I mean, that's not like ripping a big company off, that's like destroying some person the base for living. That's not like downloading the *American Idol* CD for your lttle cousin. (Note: My cousins all prefer metal , so that phrase is hypothethical.)

So, in one sentence, I'd never download an actually avaible book illegally!

-----------------------

Just to clarify my question about Gaz 5 being freeware, it's a problem you others might also have faced (although, to be honest, I don't think noone ever cares).

If one of my players wants to have it to look something up, may I *lend* him my licensed pdf? - That's not a RL specific problem, and I think noone ever would think of accusing me for that, but would such thing be legal?

------------------------

I am one of the consumers who strictly only buy/dowload the stuff they absolutely need to play... On the one hand, that narrows my knowledge (and my video collection), on the other hand, that keeps me off from messy-like P2P download-collectionism...

[tec-goblin]

I have downloaded it this 5 days ago. The prices on other RV products are great too - I plan on buying Masque of the Red Death, too. Soon.

[The Nightmare Man]

I'm not entirely sure I am happy with all of this.

I've always been a big fan of doing what you can to support and promote gaming publishers. To me, downloading the GAZ V for free seems... wrong... for lack of a more appropriate word.

I like the fact that I paid for the copy I have sitting on my desk.

[Shadowsworn]

I think that if Arthaus is sponsoring something like this the line must be in trouble. Putting it out there will hopefully get more people into the setting and get them to buy the other books. Of course, on the downside, like Deschidado said, it encourages them to download other products via P2P