How many RPG PDF's on your hard drive?

Knightcrawler · March 06, 2006, 12:38:55 AM

Quote from: RoudiDitto.

I honestly can't find a good reason for pirating RPG PDFs wholesale. The core rules for d20 gaming are freely available. Most PDF scans of RPG books lack what I appreciate most about PDFs: hyperlinking, bookmarks, and selectable/searchable text. Also, some of the bigger names in PDF publishing (ie Ronin Arts) are run by people who make their living selling PDFs; pirating them isn't denying a faceless corporation of one sale among thousands, but is spitting in the face of a hard-working writer/publisher. Finally, most of the PDFs I want are cheap enough to purchase. Cheap and legal is, in my mind, a better bargain that free and ill-gotten.

Most of the pdf's I have are actually scans of print books that I own. I try when I can to buy the ones from the small press places, basically anything other than WotC and White Wolf.

Bagpuss · March 06, 2006, 08:26:43 AM

Quote from: Harry JoyInternet piracy ruined my life's work and my career.

I must have missed this story, care to share?

Zalmoxis · March 06, 2006, 10:08:04 AM

Quote from: Harry JoyI spent most of the last twenty years working in record retail. I was very good at it, and my last store was an awesome place to hang out and listen to music. The culmination of all my work, the ultimate record store. I was very responsive to my customers and changing trends, but it got to the point that I would pimp the hell out of the latest and greatest tunes, but instead of buying the records, my customers would thank me for the tips and go rip them off the 'net.

Honestly, for many years I refused to touch a computer because of it. I was very late getting on the pc bandwagon. And it is why I am a grocer now. When I exited music, I sat down and made a list of businesses I didn't think the web could destroy.

It's very unfortunate that happened to you, and many others I am sure. Any time competition due to technology pushes people out of business, an unfortunate side effect is the loss of professionals such as yourself. The march of progress often has unintended consequences. I hope you are able to find happiness in whatever you do from now on.

IronWolf · March 06, 2006, 10:23:15 PM

50-ish, maybe? Not a whole lot, I guess I am still a hardcopy type of person still.

Aelfinn · March 08, 2006, 03:48:57 PM

There comes a point in many a person's life where they stop counting the physical number of any single item, and start measureing it in Gigabytes. I'm currently at 6.82 Gigabytes, and that number is increasing constantly...

Nicephorus · March 08, 2006, 04:03:29 PM

Quote from: ZalmoxisIt's very unfortunate that happened to you, and many others I am sure. Any time competition due to technology pushes people out of business, an unfortunate side effect is the loss of professionals

The thing is, in Harry's case, it wasn't just progress, it was also copyright theft.

Of my hundreds, a couple dozen are purchased, the rest are legal freebies.

Knightcrawler · March 08, 2006, 04:06:23 PM

Quote from: AelfinnThere comes a point in many a person's life where they stop counting the physical number of any single item, and start measureing it in Gigabytes. I'm currently at 6.82 Gigabytes, and that number is increasing constantly...

24.8 GB and that is also constantly increasing.

Elidia · March 08, 2006, 04:41:58 PM

Quote from: Harry JoyI spent most of the last twenty years working in record retail. I was very good at it, and my last store was an awesome place to hang out and listen to music. The culmination of all my work, the ultimate record store. I was very responsive to my customers and changing trends, but it got to the point that I would pimp the hell out of the latest and greatest tunes, but instead of buying the records, my customers would thank me for the tips and go rip them off the 'net.

Honestly, for many years I refused to touch a computer because of it. I was very late getting on the pc bandwagon. And it is why I am a grocer now. When I exited music, I sat down and made a list of businesses I didn't think the web could destroy.

Harry, while I feel you on the subject, I'll say that I had stopped buying records before I ever owned a computer. Traditional ways and means of obtaining music were already frustrating and expensive unless one was buying the trash the record companies were pushing heavily. I'm sorry you've become a casuality to both bad business and technology.

Ragnarok N Roll · March 08, 2006, 06:03:24 PM

Quote from: Name LipsI just checked. 1,319.

*shits self* :eek:

P&P · March 08, 2006, 06:13:57 PM

I should add that the .pdf's on my hard drive are all products of which I have bought physical copies legitimately. I ... obtained ... pdf's of my 1e AD&D stuff on the grounds that my books are starting to look a bit battered.

If they were still in print, I'd have bought replacements, but they just aren't.

Kyle VOltti · March 08, 2006, 11:01:15 PM

11 ish... more if you count rules for Warhamer mini games...

Ghostwind · March 10, 2006, 11:42:47 PM

I'm sitting on around 10 gig plus or minus a few megs.

BOZ · March 11, 2006, 01:11:56 AM

ah, yay, my computer is back up and running.

BOZ · March 13, 2006, 10:03:31 PM

so then, how would i get onto the hub?

Nightfang · March 14, 2006, 08:29:36 AM

No way I am going to figure that out. Way too many, since I only use probably 5% of them.