Here’s the thing — I love roleplaying games. I never have time anymore to actually play one, but when I’m in the comic shop I just can’t resist the damn things. The problem is that RPGs are such a niche market that they can be very expensive. The Buffy RPG core book cost me $40 alone.
So enter DriveThruRPG.Com. They’ve been around for awhile, offering high quality PDFs of RPGs. Yes there are services like RPGNow and Steve Jackson Games’ new PDF store, but those tend to offer either a) materials from small, independent publishers (which tend to be very amateurish in the case of RPGNow) or b) reprinting out-of-print stuff, which is nice but I also want stuff that’s out now.
DriveThruRPG.Com fit that bill, but had one major drawback — their files were heavy on the DRM. Yuck. Thanks, but no thanks.
Recently, however, DriveThruRPG.Com has had a change of heart and began offering publishers the ability to sell DRM-free PDFs. Quite a few of them have decided to go DRM-free. According to the DriveThruRPG.Com site,
Our publishing partners are now able to offer their titles in either the standard DRM format or in a new watermarked, standard PDF. The new watermarking option imprints a small watermark on the bottom of each page of a PDF file at the time of purchase, making each such file purchased at DriveThruRPG a uniquely labeled file. The file is otherwise a standard PDF file that can be searched, text copied, printed and otherwise used like any other PDF file.
Many of our publisher partners are choosing to embrace the new format. So, hundreds of new and classic RPG titles will be available in standard PDF for the first time ever.
As far as the watermark, there is a small line of text at the bottom of each page giving the name of the person who ordered the PDF and an order number, so if they show up on alt.binaries groups or filesharing networks, at least they can trace back who released them and take appropriate action as the site warns,
Warning: If any books bearing your information are found being distributed illegally, then your account will be suspended and legal action may be taken against you.
I’m very glad to see that although they haven’t been converted yet, Eden Studios is going to be selling all of their books DRM-free on the site. Because I need a copy of Terra Primate on my laptop (and, at half the price of the book version).