Playing with a PDF game.

[James]

I'll come right out and say it: I'm a Nazi.

No, I'm not a jackbooted Nazi in a snappy black uniform (dig those skulls!), but I'm a Nazi when it comes to protecting the right of artists to make money off their work.  I don't "share" MP3s and video files, for example, and I don't want to make free copies of PDF games to give to all my players when I run something like, say, Paladin.  I want my players to pay so that nice guys like Clinton can continue to have extra money for DVDs and dinner on the town.

It's a lot easier to get people to cough up for the rules when they're in print.  You photocopy a character sheet and maybe a couple essential pages, and you tell the players to head on over to the game store to pick up the rest if they like it.  The pressure to simply hand over a pile of 8 1/2"x11" sheets hot off the printer when playing Donjon...well, that's a whole other beast.

"Come on, just make me a copy!"

"But I want you to get your own.  It's not fair for me to make you a copy when [name of designer] worked his ass off to make it.  Doesn't he deserve $10?"

"Come on, just make me a copy!"

So what do you think constitutes fair use when it comes to running a session with a PDF game?  I want to use Paladin as the heart of my Old Republic-era Star Wars game, and I want to give over some of the rules to my players in the form of a handout.  At the same time, I'm uncomfortable with the idea of simply zapping out a full copy for someone who asks for one, because that's taking money out the pocket of a designer who deserves the cash.

[Clinton R. Nixon]

I think that copying a small amount of rules (the same amount you'd copy from a print game) for the players' usage is fine. Some discussion recently has led me to think about including a small PDF with each of my games with a rules summary on it. This PDF would be free to print and distribute as something you could hand out to your players.

[James]

Some discussion recently has led me to think about including a small PDF with each of my games with a rules summary on it. This PDF would be free to print and distribute as something you could hand out to your players.

This would be an excellent idea, I think.  Not much extra effort on the part of the designer, but a piece of added incentive not to pirate the game.

[Ron Edwards]

Hi James,

Some thoughts of mine on the subject - and they are definitely a personal call - can be found in the Ethics of rules summaries thread.

Best,
Ron

[Jared A. Sorensen]

I think that copying a small amount of rules (the same amount you'd copy from a print game) for the players' usage is fine. Some discussion recently has led me to think about including a small PDF with each of my games with a rules summary on it. This PDF would be free to print and distribute as something you could hand out to your players.

Relevant tables/charts/rules right on the character sheet (front or back)...well, they rock.

[Jeffrey Miller]

I think that copying a small amount of rules (the same amount you'd copy from a print game) for the players' usage is fine. Some discussion recently has led me to think about including a small PDF with each of my games with a rules summary on it. This PDF would be free to print and distribute as something you could hand out to your players.

That's a great idea, Clinton, even for those who own the actual game.  I frequently find myself making up 1-3 page summaries of the most important rules for my character(s) - it would be helpful if more published games had that.. or better yet, since we're talking somewhat about an electronic medium, some sort of cut n' paste method of choosing only this rules summaries that you need.

[kevin671]

Personally, I don't give out copies of a writer's original materials.  It just feels  WRONG to me on so many levels.  I have myself had my intellectual property abused by less than scrupulous persons, so I know how it feels.  Indie press RPG's and thier publishers have enough problems to begin with without people making copies of thier stuff.  As far as I'm concerned, if my players want a copy of the rules they can bloody well shell out the cash for them.  I allow people to borrow my rulebooks, particularly during the Character Creation phase of any new game I'm starting up, and if another member of my gaming group wants to run a game they can borrow my rulebook (with an encouragement to get one for themselves), but I will not cut a copy of anything for anyone.

The only thing I will copy are character sheets and other "worksheet" type materials useful for running the game.

[Ian Cooper]

There is a business argument used in software that a certian amount of piracy actually increases market share and thus overall sales. It is the network theory at work, the more people that open a copy of MyFineSoftware the more of a standard it becomes, so the more people who will buy it. There is, of course, a lot of argument about the healthy percentage of the market that is pirated copies. If it gets too high everyone pirates the material because it is percieved as acceptable to do so. So you have to make it difficult enough that most people want a legitimate copy, or rewarding enough for people to want your copy over the pirate. The breakpoint is of course that at which your increased market share from piracy gains you more sales than you have lost to piracy.

Before someone misunderstands me, I am firmly opposed to theft from authors of their rightful income from their work, I'm just pointing out that accepting some piracy, some copying, could be in an author's interest - provided that they are getting increased market penetration and thus sales. Unfortunately, I doubt that this industry has the data on which to make such a call easily.

Rules summaries are, I would opine, firmly in the, increasing market penetration and not in the lowering sales category.

Comments?

[Clay]

since we're talking somewhat about an electronic medium, some sort of cut n' paste method of choosing only this rules summaries that you need.

See this thread for a discussion on the technical merits of just such a project:
electronic publishing potential