Hollister Gorgonton the Lich's Big Idea for PFS Product Confirmation

[JohnF]

claudekennilol wrote:

John Francis wrote:

Paizo prohibit printing out copies of your PDFs for anything other than personal use, so if you're complying with the "legally obtained" restriction, ownership is already dealt with.

Are you telling me that my wife and I can't both use printed pages from our one PDF while sitting at different tables?

You're fine - households are explicitly called out as a permitted case.

(You probably qualify under the "personal use" clause, in any case).

[Jeff Merola]

claudekennilol wrote:

John Francis wrote:

Mark Stratton wrote:

See the part about ownership. Since one must not actually prove ownership, perhaps we can drop that part of the conversation.

Note that this is predicated on presenting either a physical copy of the book in question, or a legally-obtained printout from a (watermarked) PDF.

If you turn up at the table with a copy of the Advanced Class Guide hardback, you don't have to prove that it's yours - it could very well belong to your room-mate. Fairly obviously, your room-mate can't be simultaneously using the same hardback at a different table.

A printout from a PDF will usually have your name and email address shown in the headers and footers. Paizo prohibit printing out copies of your PDFs for anything other than personal use, so if you're complying with the "legally obtained" restriction, ownership is already dealt with.

Are you telling me that my wife and I can't both use printed pages from our one PDF while sitting at different tables?

I believe it was ruled that one of you would use the printout and the other would need the PDF itself.

[Damanta]

Actually, one of them needs to have it on an electronic device, the other can use a printout.

If two members of the same household wish to share a PDF, and find themselves playing at separate tables, one can utilize an electronic version on an iPad or similar item, while the other utilizes a printed watermarked copy.

[claudekennilol]

Thanks, I thought that it was already allowed (not that we ever play at separate tables), but his post implied otherwise (to me, at least).

[Andrew Christian]

trollbill wrote:

So your solution is that if we don't like it we should stop buying new books? Somehow I don't think that is a solution Paizo would approve of.

Now you are just trolling me.

[trollbill]

I am sooo getting a reputation.

[Mekkis]

Rereading the as-written rules, it seems that there are a lot of holes in the current system.

A player could have a watermarked PDF on a nonfunctional device, and I would be - as written - able to use that resource.

Yet a photocopy out of the hardcover Advanced Class Guide that's in the boot of a player's car would not be.

I would much rather the latter case to occur on my table.

[Silhren Rilbahn]

What if Paizo made it's own document that listed books purchased by each persons account? Make a 'register your copy' kind of deal for physical books? Of course this would be easier for people who have purchased PDF's. Somehow link purchases directly to a Paizo account? Maybe give each book a special code that you could then "redeem" on Paizo.

I don't know if there is a way for a player to fully prove they own the books other than bringing them in. Now at the local level, if you bring books in regularly or can otherwise prove ownership, I wouldn't mandate they show up every time.

At a convention though? I'd probably bring books, there is no reason not to.

I'm not sure there is any way to resolve this topic short of players constantly bringing materials. My local lodge is a little lax on requiring books. I am waiting for the day I'm not allowed to play because I end up forgetting my stuff... especially when I can access them in 4 different ways.

[Mekkis]

Silhren Rilbahn wrote:

At a convention though? I'd probably bring books, there is no reason not to.

I'm not sure there is any way to resolve this topic short of players constantly bringing materials. My local lodge is a little lax on requiring books. I am waiting for the day I'm not allowed to play because I end up forgetting my stuff... especially when I can access them in 4 different ways.

I would think that the "excess baggage charges" would be a perfectly good reason not to bring books to a convention.

I daresay that in the last convention I attended, I would have very few characters available to play had they enforced the rules to the letter.

It would largely prevent me from attending any international conventions.