I csn understand and sympathize. I am mot happy woth Wotc either on their PDf stance. If you look hard enough you can find anything you want on the internet. It's does nothing to deter priacy and imo encourages it.
I must be thinking out-of-context in my reply. I was intending to refer to the reason why I chose Pathfinder. Part of that reason is/was - at the time - that the access to the PDFs I had purchased was unexpectedly, with very short notice, revoked. Those PDFs spanned all 3 previous editions.In other words, at that point in time, what I had paid for was summarily no longer something I had access to through the vendors I had purchased them through.
Mental hoops still in place ?
Which is also sad (and pathetic IMO - the piracy stuff, grrrr ...).
I do not and will not knowingly ever acquire such material, even if I am not happy with a given company. Piracy is wrong. I earn my money, and I decide what to spend that hard-earned entertainment budget on. The companies/artists/authors/etc that make the stuff - whatever it is - that I want to spend that budget on earn their money in turn. They really earn it with return/subscription business. Buying something once is a test - repeat business is commitment.
Or warranting committal, but that's another discussion. ;)
And I would say that is where the harm came from. These online pdf sellers did not make it clear that they didn't actually have the authority to make any such suggestion. Now I know that probably none of the sellers ever actually said, "You'll be able to download it forever." But they should have made it clear that a purchase does not guarantee you access beyond the initial purchase.
Again, I am not suggesting that I think WotC decision to pull the pdfs was a good idea. I think it was a dumb idea personally. But I am saying that pdf sellers should have made sure their customers were aware that this could happen.
It is funny, when the whole thing went down, and I told my wife, she was amazed. "You mean they had allowed you to download it more than once?" See, she does a bit of crafting and on occasion purchases patterns on various sites. In those situations, you usually only get one download and if you lose the pattern and want it again you have to purchase it again. I'm glad that the RPG market is not like the crafting market. But I think the whole WotC-pdf thing was a wake-up for some businesses and customers. Don't get complacent.
And I would say that is where the harm came from. These online pdf sellers did not make it clear that they didn't actually have the authority to make any such suggestion. Now I know that probably none of the sellers ever actually said, "You'll be able to download it forever." But they should have made it clear that a purchase does not guarantee you access beyond the initial purchase.
Again, I am not suggesting that I think WotC decision to pull the pdfs was a good idea. I think it was a dumb idea personally. But I am saying that pdf sellers should have made sure their customers were aware that this could happen.
It is funny, when the whole thing went down, and I told my wife, she was amazed. "You mean they had allowed you to download it more than once?" See, she does a bit of crafting and on occasion purchases patterns on various sites. In those situations, you usually only get one download and if you lose the pattern and want it again you have to purchase it again. I'm glad that the RPG market is not like the crafting market. But I think the whole WotC-pdf thing was a wake-up for some businesses and customers. Don't get complacent.
I do not disagree with you on the PDF thing. Not a bit. I chalk it up to "get it ASAFP" afterwards. :)
And yes, that should have been made clear.
Starts budgeting entertainment money to get a USB back up hard drive for his PDF gaming goodies.
|
And I would say that is where the harm came from. These online pdf sellers did not make it clear that they didn't actually have the authority to make any such suggestion.
I am not sure what vendor the poster was using, but I believe DriveThruRPG.com use to limit you to 5 or so downloads (although you they would often extend that if you gave a reason). While that does not say they can withdraw the PDFs from sale at any time, it does at least imply you didn't get downloads forever.
You should buy GURPS 4ed Characters book, a much better game than both D&D 4 ed and Pathfinder.
And an order of magnitude more difficult to find a group of sane participants for.
You just have to brainwash your current D&D group. It's not that hard, I promise!
^_^ Just wait to give an answer to " Soooo , what about my vorpal sword lopping his head off? "
Three words: "[choice of Block/Dodge/Parry] Roll succeeded"
Two more words (and the more desirable to inspire fear in the players' hearts of the foe): "Dodged It"
Hell, I can do THAT in D&D!
"I shoot him with my bow."
"He deflects it."
Yes - but you can't dodge a vorpal sword in Da Game - you can in GURPS.
Yes I can! I'm using Rule Zero! My deflector shields stop your vorpal sword! :)
^_^ "Nuke them from orbit."
Amber > all. Dice are a folly.
I hereby introduce Mongoose's Law, which is a gaming variant of Godwin's Law:
As an online discussion of which version of D&D is best grows longer, the probability of someone asserting that ADRPG is superior approaches 1. When this has happened, the discussion is officially over.
I had been out of the gaming loop for about two years. Oddly enough I was out on a blind date waiting for my date to show up and perusing the stacks at Barnes and Noble when I saw the Pathfinder Core rules. I knew about D&D 4E and I wasn't terribly impressed but I had never even heard about Pathfinder so I started to thumb through the book and it was immediately apparent that they had perfected 3.X. My date flaked on me so I went home and started gaming.
I have stuck with Pathfinder because it seems like Paizo is genuinely dedicated to putting out a few high quality products instead of a mess of whatever crap rolls out of the creative department every month.
Now where is that dwarf character? You'd think he'd have something to say about this.
Because that someone is right? :)
I'd have said because it's a different enough game to be irrelevant to the discussion, even though in some superficial respects it seems similar.
It's like someone asserting that chess or boxing (or chessboxing) is a better game.
What were we talking about?
Dropping rocks from orbit?
"Shields ... SHIELDS!!"
Ummm ... oohh yeah, the whole "why we chose Pathfinder" OP thing. Yep yep, that's the ticket. Yeah ... :)
I removed some posts (and replies to those posts.)
Is it really so hard to be nice to one another?
Guess I'm late to the party, but here's my story:
My group started 3.0 and then moved to 3.5. The first module I got chance to run is a free adventure called "Frozen Whispers" pulled from Wotc website.Later I found out it was written by James Jacbos, the current Paizo Creative Director. As it turns out, the 3.5 books I enjoy the most, such as Expedition to the ruins of Greyhawk or Fiendish Codex I were all written by Paizo staff. And then of course the dungeon magazines, I love those adventures and was sad to see the licence gone.
So when Pathfinder came out I jumped right in and never looked back.
Thank you,Paizo! For bringing endless hours of fun and excitement to me and my group.
I am trying to decide between 4E and pathfinder. i can only invest time and money into one game.
I just want to know why you chose Pathfinder. Not necessarily over 4E but maybe just in general, but you could include reason why you chose PFRPG instead of 4E if you like.
I am not trying to start a 4E vs PFRPG thread. I just want to here some thoughts on PFRPG.
Pros about Pathfinder:
Monte Cook was the design consultant. I was sold on the system before this point, but for fans of Ptolus, I feel that we should point to Monte's name in the credits of the Core Rulebook.
Easily adaptable into published 3E settings. Fans of Scarred Lands could rejoice along with the Forgotten Realms people.
You already have a ton of books that you can use with this.
Necromancer Games likes the system enough to publish with it.
Great artwork. Wayne Reynolds might be the most overrated artist for Fantasy in the 2010's, but there is a reason why he's thought of immediately and that is the fandamtastic work that he and the other stable of artists (I can't leave out Wilderman, Udon, or the others) crank out for every product. I suggest flipping through the Gamemastery Guide and looking for all the great pictures of goblins.
Awesome support across the spectrum. Paizo.com has a great amount of gear that ties into the game directly or not. From battlemats to critical hit and fumble cards, you can use as much or as little in the way of props as you see fit.
Lastly, the reason why my group plays Pathfinder is simple. The folks at Paizo build world-shaking events through six-part masterpieces called Adventure Paths. These campaigns are great for playing through and feeling like your time at the table has affected the world in some way or another. This is something that at my table, we knew it was missing.
We never saved the world, we never staved off the Armageddon and up until Rise of the Runelords, very few published campaigns had this sort of feel.
Not that every game needs to shake your experience to the core, but for my table of munchkins, the AP's offer a lot of bang for your buck.
Cons:
You will probably buy more books. And have more adventures sitting on your shelf than you will have time to play through them.