simonjrogers: Massive Info Dump

simonjrogers (

simonjrogers) wrote,
@ 2008-05-06 17:42:00

Entry tags:

dying earth, gumshoe, pelgrane, trail of cthulhu

Massive Info Dump
A day of tons of new releases. On the Pelgrane Press store or IPR.

For GUMSHOE:

We've released Stunning Eldritch Tales, a collection adventures by Robin D Laws for Trail of Cthulhu. Gosh, they are good, and well playtested. The street date is 13th May.

The Trail of Cthulhu PDF. As it says. People who preordered have been emailed a voucher for a free copy. People who have ordered to date have been sent a voucher for a reduced price copy. If you haven't heard, email me.

Trail of Cthulhu Player's Guide The ToC Player's Guide is a subset of the ToC (99 pages) and includes all non-GM material, but (and I whisper this) you can run GUMSHOE games using this alone.

Trail of Cthulhu Game Group PDF Bundle (1 x ToC and 3 x ToC Player's Guide). The bundle is an interesting experiment in the spectrum of honesty of PDF users. If I sell lots of these, I'll be pleased but slightly surprised. The idea is, the GM gets the Trail of Cthulhu PDF, the players get three copies of the Player's Guide between them.

For the Dying Earth RPG:

We've released after a slight hiatus Tooth, Talon and Pinion :The Excellent Prismatic Spray 7/8 Double Issue. It's full of creatures which you might eat, might eat you, or there might be some negotiation involved to determine who is eaten. There are also adventures and a walking tour by the famed Grashpotel.

I've emailed all of our subscribers for updated addresses. If you are a subscriber and you haven't heard, please contact me.

(Post a new comment)

	drivingblind 2008-05-06 04:42 pm UTC (link)
	I don't think I got TT&P info from you yet! (Reply to this)(Thread)

	simonjrogers 2008-05-06 09:30 pm UTC (link)
	Oops! I'll look into this tomorrow. (Reply to this)(Parent)

	flamesrising 2008-05-06 05:09 pm UTC (link)
	I gave a small plug for these updates over at RPGNews and we'll be happy to post some reviews of them at Flames Rising as well. (Reply to this)(Thread)

	simonjrogers 2008-05-06 09:29 pm UTC (link)
	Thank you very much. Let me know what you fancy. (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	flamesrising 2008-05-06 09:32 pm UTC (link)
	We'd be happy to review the Trail of Cthulhu books. Any of the Gumshoe line actually. We're a Horror website, so they pretty much fit our target audience rather well. My e-mail is flamesrising01@yahoo.com if you need it. (Reply to this)(Parent)

	13th March! armchair_gamer 2008-05-07 04:30 am UTC (link)
	I hope you meant May! That'd be mean to make us wait a whole year for Stunning Eldritch Tales. If it's 13th May, it'll be a nice birthday gift! Also - why can't we use the reduce price voucher against the Trail of Cthulhu Game Group Bundle? (Reply to this)(Thread)

	Re: 13th March! (Anonymous) 2008-05-07 10:51 am UTC (link)
	Oops. I did. (You could use the voucher against the bundle) (Reply to this)(Parent)

	Re: 13th March! simonjrogers 2008-05-07 10:51 am UTC (link)
	Oops. Date corrected. (You could use the voucher against the bundle. If you have already ordered, please let me know and I'll fix it.) (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	Re: 13th March! armchair_gamer 2008-05-07 03:23 pm UTC (link)
	Great news! I figured I'd ask before I tried, since the email said not to use it against any other purchase. Thanks for the quick response, looking forward to Stunning Eldritch Tales! (Reply to this)(Parent)

	(Anonymous) 2008-05-07 06:35 am UTC (link)
	You might want to check whether any mailshot re: the XPS issue 7/8 went out. I know about it from here, and because I received the e-mail re: the Trail of Cthulhu PDF (which mentioned the release of the ToC scenario supplement, and by extension when I looked at the ordering page I saw the new XPS listed), but otherwise I wouldn't have heard about it. Regards, Rob Nott (Reply to this)

mattcaron
2008-05-07 03:14 pm UTC (link)

The bundle is an interesting experiment in the spectrum of honesty of PDF users

Here is my take on it. This is all personal. Your mileage with other folks may vary.

In general, I respect copyright, at least in the original terms which were put forth in the constitution (28 year max). All these endless extensions are complete and total crap, and I lobby against them. But, I digress, as it is not relevant to most modern things. Hell, I think even 1st ed D&D is just barely out of this 28 year period (and, as such, I'd argue that putting scans of them online would be agreeable by the founders, if not by current copyright law). Anyway..

I buy PDF's for two reasons:
(1) A junk copy
(2) Handouts

(1) Is used to I can run a copy, punch it and put it in a 3 ring binder, then mark the crap out of it - note in the margins, revise rules, whatever. The actual bound copy of the book is not passed around, loaned out, or otherwise really used, except for me to read from because it's all nice and pretty - and it should stay that way. I may run multiple copies (skirts the letter of copyright, I know), and I may loan out some of these copies, but the always come back. If someone wants their own copy, they can buy one. In this case, it is the same logic as applied to printed bound copies. I never share the PDF - they can buy the PDF if they want it, same as a bound copy. Thus, I am not responsible for someone getting a copy of my PDF and running of a bzillion copies. I must emphatically state that I do not run off copies of the rules for my whole group, and that I strongly disapprove of the practice. (I will, however, act as a print shop for them if they have bought their own PDF, because I happen to own a laser printer, but that is incidental)

(2) I will run off various frequently referenced sections of the book (charts and tables, equipment lists and descriptions, etc) and will often copy and paste sections of the PDF into a page layout program to composite tables on different pages into a reference sheet (it takes all the hard work out of transcribing the info, and I don't have to break the spine of the book to scan them).

So, there you have it. This is reality. Does it technically violate copyright? Probably. Would it stand up in court? Maybe. Is it morally wrong? I don't think so. Does it violate the spirit of copyright and fair use? I don't think so. Does it encourage players to buy more books and PDF's? I think so. So, what is the net result? Personally, I think it is a wash. Take PDF's out of the equation - what happens in a typical group of 6 players? Well, the GM buys a book, and maybe 1-2 other players. Maybe the GM buys the supplements too. The GM scans or transcribes tables out of the book and composites them into cheat sheets. Folks share books and loan the around. So, you've sold 3 books.

Now, let's add PDF's. The GM will likely buy the book and the PDF (at least, I do), and the 1-2 players who buy a book will likely be 1 buying a book and 2 buying a PDF (because 1 wants the book, and 1 wants to save money by buying a PDF, and 1 isn't willing to buy the book at that price point, but is willing to buy the PDF, especially if the GM will print it for free). Result? 2 books, 3 PDFs. Essentially, a wash.

(These numbers are contrived and may completely be wrong.)

On a social/goodwill front, I realize that this represents uncertain territory for publishers, and I can appreciate that. However, I believe that if one treats customers as friends, and raise them up to your level, they will be loyal, buy other games of yours (even if they never end up playing them) and generally speak well of you and effectively market for you. If one says "we're not going to release PDFs because you are all a bunch of thieves", then they will give you the finger and talk about how you are a bunch of money grubbing so and so's. Now, some folks are going to be jerks either way, and will do whatever to minimize their cost, either because of actual lack of resources, or because of the way they're wired, but they're going to do that anyway. These were the folks who, back in the day, bought a book, cut it out of the binding, and then photocopied the whole thing. They will always exist.

Anyway, that's my take on it.

(Reply to this)(Thread)

	simonjrogers 2008-05-08 01:34 pm UTC (link)
	Your behaviour sounds perfectly reasonable. I don't mind people printing off the odd chart and table for general use. I can't do much about people illegally distributing PDFs of our games, so we do our best to support paying customers in one way or another. (Reply to this)(Parent)

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