Troll Lord Games

I've been thinking a lot about this subject, and have come to the conclusion that yes, eventually I will make PDFs available of the magazine... note that the PDF would be the magazine only, not the campaign installments or gazetteers.

I'm not sure of the hows yet, but I will LIKELY make them free to the subscribers and available for purchase by others at the same time.

When? Most likely after the stock of the magazine sells out. I will be printing at least 300 copies of each issue at first, and as (hopefully) the subscriptions increase beyond that, a cushion of issues and campaign installments to sell to stragglers.

Once the magazine is sold out, it will be out of print. The campaign installments, though, will remain in print, so those will not be available in PDF format (at least in the forseeable future).

If demand warrants, I might also print compilations of various sections of the magazine (i.e., a class compilation, a monsters & treasures compilation, etc.) But that would not affect the availability of the magazine PDF.

Again, I don't want to point fingers at anyone in particular, but PDF piracy is one of the leading causes of the collapse of the RPG print market. And this has got to work as a money-making venture; this magazine and the campaign installment and the gazetteers and whatall else I will publish are going to be my bread and butter. If I end up unable to sell enough copies because someone keeps giving everything away on the web, then that's the end of it... and I go off and find a job in the "real world."
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James Mishler

Main Man, Adventure Games Publishing
jamesagp1@gmail.com
http://adventuregamespublishing.blogspot.com/
http://jamesmishler.blogspot.com

Thats a start. Maybe it will be possible for you to do something that allows the subscribers to get PDF's of everything? Some way to tag them so if any of us use them illegally it will allow you to track it back to a subscriber?

Like others have said, you won't stop pirates by not selling PDF's, you'll just make them go through one extra step to pirate whatever it is they want.

Just worry about making your legitimate customers happy.
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The Ruby Lord, Earl of the Society

Next Con I am attending: http://www.neoncon.com/

My House Rules: http://www.freeyabb.com/phpbb/viewtopic ... llordgames

PDF piracy is unavoidable if you put them up for sale, or if you are successful enough to tempt others to scan your books. Although strictly speaking, I am not sure the PDF pirates are using them - those I know who have multiple DVDs of these usually just look at what they downloaded and then never bother to read them again. Crunch books are probably less safe; it's easier to just take a feat or PrC...

I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that with 300 print copies and many less pdf copies honestly sold, you might want to consider watermarking each individually to know where the pirated copy came from.

there is technology that exists that can make this happen relatively easy and painless.

may make it easier to

a) catch the pirate

b) refuse service to said pirate

c) control how products make it to the black market

cheers,

J.