WotC Download Recovery Day for Drivethru and RPGNow

PostMonster, delete if this is out of line

It may be too late for the Paizo files, but I got this e-mail last night. IT ONLY PERTAINS TO FILES ALREADY PURCHASED FROM DRIVETHRU OR RPGNOW.

WOTC DOWNLOAD RECOVERY DAY, APRIL 15TH
By now, you have probably learned that Wizards of the Coast recently decided to cease the sale of digital download versions of their books. This means that RPGNow and DriveThruRPG will no longer be able to offer you future downloads of Wizards titles you have purchased.

We are offering you a final 24-hour period in which to re-download copies of any Wizards of the Coast files you have purchased from us in the past. If there are any titles you purchased, and you need a new copy of the file for your personal archive, this is your last chance to get it.

This 24-hour period will begin at 10:00 AM EST (U.S.A. Eastern Time Zone), Wednesday, April 15th and will conclude at 10:00 AM EST on Tuesday, April 16th.

During this time you may visit DriveThruRPG or RPGNow, log in, and click the My Account link found in the upper right corner of the site. Or just visit one of these links:
DriveThruRPG http://rpg.drivethrustuff.com/account.php
RPGNow http://www.rpgnow.com/account.php

For the “My Account” page you will find your order history and download links, including a handy option to view all products updated since your last download of that title (for example a file that was updated with errata since you last downloaded it). During your visit, we certainly invite you to take a look around and see all the titles we have to offer for rpg PDF fans.

As always, thank you for your continuing support of all that we do, and we welcome your feedback and any questions you may have.

Sincerely,

Sean Patrick Fannon
DriveThruRPG and RPGNow

I'm glad they were able to set something up. I wonder why with the value of sober second thought WotC still couldn't give more than a 24-hour window though.

For what it's worth, I can confirm this email.

I just checked my email and had it too.

Hmmm. Nothing from ENworld. I'm not surprised.

I haven't received this email yet - I wonder if perhaps it doesn't apply to people outside the US?

This 24-hour period will begin at 10:00 AM EST (U.S.A. Eastern Time Zone), Wednesday, April 15th and will conclude at 10:00 AM EST on Tuesday, April 16th.

I am hoping that's a typo!

I haven't received this email yet - I wonder if perhaps it doesn't apply to people outside the US?

Emperor7 wrote:

This 24-hour period will begin at 10:00 AM EST (U.S.A. Eastern Time Zone), Wednesday, April 15th and will conclude at 10:00 AM EST on Tuesday, April 16th.

I am hoping that's a typo!

Hopefully. I just copied it as is.

I am hoping that's a typo!

Hopefully. I just copied it as is.

Yeah, that's a typo. As you might expect, we were scrambling pretty hard on the heels of some rather rapid-fire decisions and the subsequent efforts to comply.

The opportunity for the download applies to anyone who purchased any WotC PDFs from us (RPGNow or DriveThruRPG). The amount of time allowed is all we could manage, but we are happy to offer at least that.

And much obliged to Lisa and Co. for allowing us to chat about this here. We share the difficulties of this rather interesting time with our Paizo friends.

Sean Patrick Fannon
Marketing/PR, DriveThruRPG and RPGNow

(And frequent Paizo customer! Go, Flip-Mats!)

Welcome to the Paizo Boards, Mr. Fannon.
:)

Any chance Paizo might make similar arrangements? I was away last week while this went down and realized I did not have a backup copy of my 2e Ravenloft stuff.

Any chance Paizo might make similar arrangements? I was away last week while this went down and realized I did not have a backup copy of my 2e Ravenloft stuff.

I can't speak for Paizo, though I will tell you that one of the staff members said that all of the WotC files were deleted from their servers. Thus, unless WotC supplies them with copies, then probably not.

Just wanted to give a bump for those unaware of this program. Best of luck getting your pdfs everyone!

We are now a tiny bit over 2 hours before this begins.

Oh! Good to know!

(Have to re-download my copy of the Book of Erotic Fantasies... among other PDFs.)

Oh! Good to know!

(Have to re-download my copy of the Book of Erotic Fantasies... among other PDFs.)

Hmmm, as far as I'm aware, that isn't a WotC book, but a 3PP. It was written by a WotC staffer, but they wouldn't grant the d20 logo.

In fact, it's one of the reasons WotC reworded their morals clause for d20, and forced them to print it under the OGL. Which, paradoxically, gave it a longer lifespan, since unlike d20 products, OGL books didn't have to cease production last year.

I am glad I took a look at my account... I thought I did not have anything... But I Had 1.. and I downloaded it... I swear I bought some old 1e, 2e books from somewhere other then paizo.. but I can remember where..

Who else sold Old D&D PDFS?

I am glad I took a look at my account... I thought I did not have anything... But I Had 1.. and I downloaded it... I swear I bought some old 1e, 2e books from somewhere other then paizo.. but I can remember where..

Who else sold Old D&D PDFS?

I got some Greyhawk box sets shortly after the PDFs became available from a place called SV Games, I think. It's long defunct, at any rate (afaik). Other than here and that other big download store, I'm not aware of any.

I got some Greyhawk box sets shortly after the PDFs became available from a place called SV Games, I think. It's long defunct, at any rate (afaik). Other than here and that other big download store, I'm not aware of any.

SV Games stopped selling PDFs of the old TSR products some years ago. They also stopped hosting the files for previous customers to redownload, though they did give plenty of warning via email. They were the place I bought my first TSR PDFs from. I'm not sure if they still are in business though at the time they did also ship physical products. I got the Dragon CD compilation from them too.

Since they stopped supporting the downloads I've considered the 'contracted' ability to download files later to be worth precisely as much as the paper it's written on and made sure I had backups just in case. Even with the best intentions of the vendor, things out of their control can happen, as WotC has just demonstrated to Paizo and OneBookShelf.

About 8.5 hours to go, so if you haven't yet got your stuff - get downloading! :-)

About 8.5 hours to go, so if you haven't yet got your stuff - get downloading! :-)

I had backups, but I've still downloaded some stuff again. Some of the initial releases were incredibly bloated, and subsequently seem to have been recompiled and reuploaded. When the original was 267 meg and the final about 50 (that was Dragon Magic if anyone's curious), it makes a notable difference to how well an older computer handles it.

Even if people are backed up, it might pay to check on the larger files just in case there's a smaller version now. The only one bigger than about 100 meg I had which hadn't been reduced was the 3rd ed Draconomicon. I didn't bother to check stuff smaller than that.