D&D PDFs on sale once more • Collecting General • The Acaeum

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D&D PDFs on sale once more
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Echohawk
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Posted: Tue Jan 22, 2013 7:09 am

I'm sure some of you have been following the rumors that WotC was planning to start selling PDFs of out-of-print D&D products once more. The rumors were true, and the first batch of products is now available for sale here. In today's column on the WotC web site, Mike Mearls makes it clear that this is "the first of many waves of classic content".

Zenopus
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Posted: Tue Jan 22, 2013 9:31 am

B1 (brown cover version) is a free download this week. You need to have an account

http://www.dndclassics.com/product/1708 ... ic%29?it=1

Zenopus Archives website & blog: Exploring the Underworld of Holmes Basic D&D. Holmes Ref: Reference Sheets for Holmes Basic Referees, also compatible with OD&D plus the Greyhawk supplement

Zenopus
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Posted: Tue Jan 22, 2013 10:32 am

More good news: if you purchased a pdf previously, you can download the new version for free. I checked my account and was able to download the new version of B6 Veiled Society. It's a completely new scan, much better than the old one. They even scanned the map on the inside of the folder as one large page rather than two separate pages in the old pdf.ï»¿

Zenopus Archives website & blog: Exploring the Underworld of Holmes Basic D&D. Holmes Ref: Reference Sheets for Holmes Basic Referees, also compatible with OD&D plus the Greyhawk supplement

ExTSR
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Posted: Tue Jan 22, 2013 2:48 pm

We'll see how this refines the collectibles market.

Will Original 1st Printings go up? Will Shrink go up even more?
or will everything crash for a while?

We shall see...

smarmy1
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Posted: Tue Jan 22, 2013 3:40 pm

ExTSR wrote:Will Shrink go up even more?

Hello Mrs. Cleaver, Theodore.

Gee, Mrs. Cleaver ... That certainly is a lovely dress.

TheHistorian
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Posted: Tue Jan 22, 2013 5:00 pm

ExTSR wrote:We'll see how this refines the collectibles market.

Will Original 1st Printings go up? Will Shrink go up even more?
or will everything crash for a while?

We shall see...

It will have no effect whatsoever. All of this material has been available for years. No, not legally. I don't see much crossover between people who wanted original printed versions and those who want pdfs.

Areas of interest/knowledge: Harn, WFRP, Ars Magica, anything BRP based such as CoC, Runequest, Pendragon and all their related games

bbarsh
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Posted: Tue Jan 22, 2013 6:56 pm

TheHistorian wrote:
ExTSR wrote:We'll see how this refines the collectibles market.

Will Original 1st Printings go up? Will Shrink go up even more?
or will everything crash for a while?

We shall see...

It will have no effect whatsoever. All of this material has been available for years. No, not legally. I don't see much crossover between people who wanted original printed versions and those who want pdfs.

Sorta what I was thinking. Although, I will certainly buy some of the pdfs for easy research, I can't imagine it will affect anything too much. At worst, ebay prices may dip for a couple weeks. Then again, if the pdfs stir the interest pot, people may want the original hard copies after buying a pdf.

And I could've bought these damn modules off the 1$ rack!!!

New modules for your Old School game http://pacesettergames.com/

Everything Pacesetter at http://pacesettergames.blog.com/

bamajon1974
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Posted: Tue Jan 22, 2013 7:03 pm

Zenopus wrote:More good news: if you purchased a pdf previously, you can download the new version for free. I checked my account and was able to download the new version of B6 Veiled Society. It's a completely new scan, much better than the old one. They even scanned the map on the inside of the folder as one large page rather than two separate pages in the old pdf.ï»¿

I purchased many of the PDF files from TSR/WOTC 12 years ago or more, but none from DriveThruRPG. Would I by incredibly lucky chance get any of the ones I purchased so long ago for free as well?

ExTSR
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Posted: Tue Jan 22, 2013 8:19 pm

As I said, I'll be interested in the trends.

We all remember what the Dragon CD did to mag prices...
single digits still do fine, but the rest? Mostly packing material. :/

Very interesting that the pile-on broke the servers WotC was using. Down for hours.

Echohawk
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Posted: Tue Jan 22, 2013 11:37 pm

ExTSR wrote:Very interesting that the pile-on broke the servers WotC was using. Down for hours.

It wasn't WotC's servers that took a knock, but rather those of DrivethruRPG, who are their partner for the distribution of the PDFs. (WotC's servers did fall over last year when they released the first playtest packet for D&D Next, but they upgraded, or did something to prevent that from happening again for subsequent playtest releases.)

nev
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Posted: Wed Jan 23, 2013 1:16 am

What's great is all the history they're providing for each item!

http://www.auctionsieve.com

Sardan
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Posted: Wed Jan 23, 2013 8:45 am

bamajon1974 wrote:
Zenopus wrote:More good news: if you purchased a pdf previously, you can download the new version for free. I checked my account and was able to download the new version of B6 Veiled Society. It's a completely new scan, much better than the old one. They even scanned the map on the inside of the folder as one large page rather than two separate pages in the old pdf.ï»¿

I purchased many of the PDF files from TSR/WOTC 12 years ago or more, but none from DriveThruRPG. Would I by incredibly lucky chance get any of the ones I purchased so long ago for free as well?

Apparently not, I am in the same boat but couldn't see how to get time stuff I had bought previously.

How does the quality of these scans and OCR compare to the last lot. I remember there were some issues and complaints previously. Are these all new scans or the same old ones?

Echohawk
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Location: North West, South Africa

Posted: Wed Jan 23, 2013 9:19 am

Sardan wrote:How does the quality of these scans and OCR compare to the last lot. I remember there were some issues and complaints previously. Are these all new scans or the same old ones?

For the pre-3rd edition titles, these are completely new scans -- much cleaner and with vastly improved OCR.

For the 3rd/4th edition titles, the files on sale are proper electronic copies of the books, and not scans at all, so the quality is excellent.

Sardan
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Posted: Wed Jan 23, 2013 12:24 pm

Fantastic!

(Except I will probably end up buying everything!

)

Keith the Thief
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Posted: Wed Jan 23, 2013 4:39 pm

I really enjoy reading the old material -- and the part of me that has a moral compass prefers to buy these legally -- so I am glad.

Plus, I'll get a chance to finally read some modules I'd never bothered with in the past.

"Never let it be said I didn’t do the least I could do."

bamajon1974
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Posted: Wed Jan 23, 2013 6:07 pm

Sardan wrote:
bamajon1974 wrote:
I purchased many of the PDF files from TSR/WOTC 12 years ago or more, but none from DriveThruRPG. Would I by incredibly lucky chance get any of the ones I purchased so long ago for free as well?

Apparently not, I am in the same boat but couldn't see how to get time stuff I had bought previously.

How does the quality of these scans and OCR compare to the last lot. I remember there were some issues and complaints previously. Are these all new scans or the same old ones?

"Apparently not, I am in the same boat but couldn't see how to get time stuff I had bought previously."

That is what I thought. Would it be worth asking WOTC/DriveThruRPG if buyers of the old TSR PDF offered years ago might by chance get the new pdfs for free or at a discount?

misterspock
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Posted: Mon Jan 28, 2013 7:05 pm

just got this email from our buddies over at Wizards

"As part of this release, your previous purchase of B1 In Search of the Unknown (Basic) is now available for download with an updated file.

All Basic edition titles have been re-mastered with better quality scans and re-bookmarked. Scanning equipment has improved considerably over the last decade, and it was time to replace the scans created under the ESD program with all new scans."

I haven't taken a look to see what they just updated from the file I downloaded a week ago.

Zenopus
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Posted: Wed Feb 20, 2013 12:14 am

They just added L3 Deep Dwarven Delve. $4.99. I don't think this one was available previously.

Zenopus Archives website & blog: Exploring the Underworld of Holmes Basic D&D. Holmes Ref: Reference Sheets for Holmes Basic Referees, also compatible with OD&D plus the Greyhawk supplement

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