As someone who just uses roll20 and edits in any feature I need from any book for free after looking it up on wikidot, I have no clue why ya'll weren't here sooner
Effort. Roll20 has a lot of nice features that are, more or less, awesome, but there's a rather steep learning curve when it comes to customizing your character sheets and the likes. I spent several hours trying to get a home brew item entered into one of my character sheets and it still didn't work correctly. It just wasn't worth the effort at the time. Is it worth the effort now? Absolutely! Am I going to do it? No, cause I already have access to all the stuff I need.
Hijacking the top comment to ask:
Have you guys ever heard of [Aurora Legacy](https://github.com/AuroraLegacy/elements)?
Seriously, i don't use anything but it.
LOVE Aurora, I've used it build so many characters, look up spells and items, it's a staple for me when I'm playing as a PC. Maybe I'm not as familiar with it as I thought, but do you get any value from using it as a DM? Recently started running a campaign for our group after our Forever DM opened up about some burnout.
When you chase away the company that made your property beat back LEGEND OF ZELDA OF ALL THINGS at every game award, you kind of deserve for fans to take everything not bolted down
Oh man, BG3 beat TotK? And they STILL showed them the door despite it being hands down one of their most successful product releases in the better part of a decade??? It tell you, the CEOs at Hasbro must have read their economics textbooks upside down, because there’s no other way I can rationalize their decision making process.
I wonder how much of that was executive decision and how much was shareholder decision. Ultimately shareholders are the bosses and are often even more incompetent.
Executive decision.
They were downsizing and laying off employees, dumbasses laid off everyone who worked with Larian.
Then when Larian tried to re-establish contact, Hasbro said take a hike.
It's so much worse than it sounds.
Larian worked extremely closely with multiple staff members from WoTC, but when the big layoff by Hasbro happened, everyone that Larian was in communications with was gone. Larian tried to re-establish contact and was told to take a hike.
Then WoTC tried to reclaim BG3 using the new OGL rules, and Larian said "oh well we're done then" and all the content support went out the window.
Legally no. But if Larian wanted to continue making content, they would have to owe something to WoTC. Because when all the licensing was done for BG3, The OGL wasn't updated.
Granted Larian didn't plan DLC purchases or anything post OGL to begin with, but WoTC really put the nail in the coffin on that account
I thought the OGL was dead in the water? Is it just the fear of another attempt by WotC that’s keeping them from ever returning to it, worried that Hasbro will try to muscle in and take a cut of whatever earnings they make from new content they spent their time and resources making when they could have spent it producing something they didn’t have to pay the legbreakers at WotC a portion of?
I haven´t heard about them wanting to reclaim BG3 before, do you have a source on that? Not because I don´t believe it, I believe most bad things people say about WOTC, but I am curious and want to read up on it myself.
The news of that came out right after the new OGL was announced and Larian in return announced that they were ceasing development on BG3, that the last update would include dev tools to continue advancing mods for those interested. I'll see if I can hunt down an article
I hate to break it to you but BG3 wasn’t all Larian. I know people on Reddit love them because they say all the right things that Reddit wants to hear (while still being funded by Tencent money), but BG3 was built on a lot of the work Bioware, WoTC, and TSR did before them.
The setting, many of the characters, and in many ways the popularity of the game was thanks to D&D. There was a massive advertising effort from wotc that capitalised on the huge popularity of D&D at the time (along with the brand of Baldur’s Gate games in the past, which were the pinnacle of CRPGs and set the standard for decades).
There’s no way that if this was just Divinity 3 it would have been anywhere as popular.
I think any of the main CRPG developers like Obsidian would have nailed this project at this time.
It’s also very unlikely WoTC “drove them away”. What probably is much more likely is after paying Tencent back and D&D licensing fees, Larian didn’t pocket as much as they would have liked given the games success. This is also one of the reasons BioWare went out on their own after BG2 and created Dragon Age.
You've never played another Larian game, have you? BG3 is basically Divinity: Original Sin 2 but with 5e rules. You also severely overestimate how much the established Forgotten Realms NPCs matter to people. Only a very small sliver of players know the novels (so they have no idea who Elmister is or why House Baenre is significant) or have played previous BG titles (to get Minsc and Jaheira, Viconia, etc.). The actual setting is also unknown to anyone who has never played official modules and only knows homebrew worlds, which is a lot of D&D players. Hell, a lot of people who enjoy the game know *nothing* about D&D and they still like it. Recognising bits of the lore is just a small bonus for those who know.
Personally I'm really glad the game *doesn't* play like BG1 and 2 because I hate real time with pause.
> BG3 is basically Divinity: Original Sin 2 but with 5e rules.
during the beta not even that, they just added an extremely thin reskinning at first keeping everything from D:os2
Well to be honest I've never tried pirating games specifically because the games I wanted to play are too far for my pc's performance ( or should I say Poorformance). The only not legit thing I had it run on this crappy computer was a Private server version of Vanilla WoW.
These days I'm so busy playing D&D almost everyday.
I'm not against pirating games, on the contrary, with the way the industry is going and prices not dropping, it makes sense to go criminal and say fuck it.
My last obstacle would be pirating games on PS5 and then I would be set.
Imagine if 8 years from now the car manufacturers seize your car because "It's not supported anymore" and "there is a new version available with more features".
See how that's insane?
Sure. But I see it more as a battle cry for the general consumer pushback against opressive ownership practices used by million/billion dollar corps, not something that should be scrutinized. But I see what you mean.
The secret is pirating PF2e handbooks too just to have a look at the artworks and the layout.
I know Pathbuilder is real handy, but sometimes you just wanna read the whole thing in order.
Sail bravely, mateys 🏴☠️🏴☠️🏴☠️🏴☠️
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In practice that makes no difference. I know where to find the rules, me and my players have sheets on Roll20, next session is next weekend and we're looking forward to it
You can download a pathetically incomplete basic version of the rules.
The Archives of Nethys legally contains all pathfinder content ever published excluding most art and all adventures(but not excluding player options from said adventures), and that's a shitload more content than has ever been published for 5e.
WotC won't even let you legally buy pdfs of their books, there is no sane comparison between the two companies practices.
I have been preaching the way of the form fillable pdf for as long as I have been playing. Between that and [website redacted due to rule 6 (its 5e{dot}tools)], you really don't need anything else to play dnd.
The great thing about pirating source books is that they’re literally just static images you can find with a google search. It’s way harder to do any kind of DRM on a still image than audio, video, or especially games.
The barrier to entry is zero, which is why it makes no sense for a company like wizards to try to lock down their IP rather than pursuing the “piracy is a service problem” model.
Magic cards have the same problem, you can literally just print them out on card-stock and put them in a sleeve and no one will even notice as long as you aren’t trying to play them in a tournament.
My usual group just fills out their sheets in a drawing app and puts them in a shared google doc. Hidden stuff goes in your own notes. If the one person in the group who read the rule you need has to look at your sheet: Bing bam, It's right there.
juuuust pointing out almost all content in Pathfinder 2e is free to use and catalogued in a website for quick reference AAAAAAAND it is all officially included in FoundryVTT.
Character sheets? Yeah, those are free. The piracy part of this post refers to the guide books, though. I don't even know why form fillable pdfs is included in it.
it could be in regard to certain pdf's out there that pretty much can create a character and autopopulate most everything including classes, races, feats, weapons, magic items and autgenerates the text on a notes page as a reference without needing to buy a source book
Oh stuff like D&D Beyond? I've never used those, but I guess it would be nice if I could have all of the books online in one place. Too bad I can't do that any other way. /s Honestly, I like making characters, and I find manually typing or writing the information out to be pretty fun. Would never pay to not do that myself.
Not dnd beyond, just a PDF made by a third party. Just auto populates based on javascript code, I have my players who only own the PHB use them for any other options that fall outside the handbook.
Oh that's my bad, I'm not a super experienced DM at this point, so I do generally prefer that my players use stuff within the PHB (+ artificer because that one seems to naturally fit in with the PHB ones) just for ease of balance, so that I didn't really think of that
I used Dicecloud for the longest time. Switched to DnD Beyond for a while because of a Discord server, but I still prefer Dicecloud. Way more control, you can fill in whatever skills you want, it's unlimited customizablities and characters, everything works together well(as long as you know how to code it correctly), and you can even set up your own homebrew without any issues
Casual case of the right hand not knowing what the left is doing. Most rum drinkers pirate not for spite of the company but financial issues. By cutting out a la carte, they just incentivize more piracy than ever. lmao. I swear almost all game companies have been replaced by clowns instead of competent people.
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This isn’t new it’s been that way for a few releases. I’m stuck though cus my group won’t try a different system. I want them to use cypher but they’re lame
If you search the internet something like "tools for 5e" (basically, number 1 type of search for any type of addons and stuff for other stuff), you will find the website. It's so good that even people which buy stuff on beyond prefer using it (which idk if it's a testament to how good the website is or how awful searching stuff on beyond is).
Pretty much any site meant for downloading books for free [AKA book piracy] has them. You Dan look those up on r[slash]piracy.
That's for books, for quick reference I would look into the comment section of this very post, someone made a very good suggestion.
Do what you want, justify your choice however you feel right, but I remind people.
Someone who would pirate official Wizards content for insert any number of reasons both legitimate or made up.
Are likely going to apply that same reasoning to Third Party content creators and other systems to pirate their material.
WoTC is a big company and so they can absorb the losses. So their CEO doesn't get a raise this year. Boo hoo.
But that indie developer or third party creator is going to feel every $5 supplement that is pirated.
Wizards has economy of scale to absorb this, your third parties and indies don't. Your little guys cant financially create content anymore cause they are losing 10-20% of their sales to pirated material. They get discouraged and stop producing content as its not worth doing this full time for pennies.
Wizards can still operate even with their losses. So you end up in a scenario where the only creator still operating is Wizards and we as a community loose across the board.
Again your choice is your own and while I might not agree your choice or reasoning you are free to make that decision what you feel is right for you.
I've seen discussions between some of the 3rd party content creators. For many of them, widespread piracy actually contributes to there popularity and in turn drives up sales. Most notably, Lancer (not piracy, but still free) can only sell books because it's well known, and it's only well known because you don't need to buy the books.
Well, no. They’re very different and most people in pirating communities make distinctions between say EA and some nerd making a passion project.
Even throwing out morals the price tags are a difference of $80 or like $.99 so the effort to pirate because less incentivized.
> They’re very different and most people in pirating communities make distinctions between say EA and some nerd making a passion project.
< Snort >
Some do, most don't.
It's the same source as "They’re very different and most people in pirating communities make distinctions between say EA and some nerd making a passion project."
So your response to what you believe to be a false claim is to make a false claim yourself, which you are now openly admitting to? Great argument you got their chief.
Unfortunately it’s not that simple. If you want to play DnD, well wizards of the coast have a monopoly on that, you either buy or pirate. Now that’s not to say that piracy is morally right, but in the case of wizards and hasbro.. when you look at their track record, I can’t condemn anyone for deciding that it’s ok in this instance..
I disagree
Free market purists will lick corporate boots like they're made of lollipops, hoping you're not one of them but just mispoke
Massive corporations aren't people, pirating as a response to their anti consumer practices or other fuck ups is not only morally right but also should be encouraged
Pirating from companies who made no such mistakes and want to avoid becoming like Hasbro, EA, etc., now that is fucked up
Have a nice day and may your scheduling issues be few
There's plenty of other TTRPG publishers out there.
* Paizo/Pathfinder is the most prominent alternative.
* G.U.R.P.S. by Steve Jackson Games
* Warhammer Fantasy (40k is also available to play in TTRPG.)
If you want to try non Fantasy:
* Cyberpunk Red (2077 is based on this).
* Shadowrun
* Warhammer 40k
* The various Star Wars, D6 by West end Games, D20 by WOTC, or the current license holder Fantasy Flight Games
* The World Of Darkness games by White Wolf (Mage, Vampire, Werewolf, Hunter) and other games using the Story Teller/Story Path rule system like Exalted and Scion.
And numerous TTRPGS based on IPs such as Marvel Superheroes, Diablo video games, Dragon Age video games, and the IP that started it all - Lord of the Mother Fucking Ring.
So, /u/carlos_quesadilla1 makes a point.
If you don't want to support McDonald's, don't steal a cheeseburger from them. There's other options like Burger King, Wendy's, Checkers, Five Guys, local diners and fancy restaurants that also make cheeseburgers. Support them instead and buy and use their products instead.
Wizards ain't the only game company in town. If you got beef with them, don't pirate their stuff, *Stop Using Their Stuff!!!*
I like the recommendations, though I'd not exactly recommend giving money directly to GW.
Instead I'd recommend searching up used models, but that's up to preference.
GW isn't publishing the RPG rulebooks (not since 1st and 2nd Edition)
WH Fantasy is being published by Cubicle 7 games, and 40k is being published by Fantasy Flight/Black Industries Games.
GW already has their money from the license fees to those publishers.
Stop equating piracy to theft. It is legally distinct. Theft deprives an entity of property. If you don't understand that, stop acting like you know what you are talking about. Stealing a physical item from McDonald's is nothing at all like downloading a digital ***COPY*** of something.
It's not stealing.
If I went to a friend's house and wrote down a book of theirs word for word then take my copy home, did I steal my friend's book?
No, I made a copy. So I didn't steal.
It's copyright infringement if anything.
Did I say I was only talking about d&d beyond?
That said. 4e had a site. It eventually went down. The internet isn't forever. D&D Beyond eventually will as well.
And all your content, the same way.
Just like Apple music pulls songs they no longer want to pay to host
Just like HBO takes off shows they no longer want to pay to host, even when they're the only ones licensed to carry them, leaving ONLY piracy as an option (Infinity train, recently)
Just like video game companies don't allow ways to access retro games for their old systems, but then hit people with legal action if they give pirating options to play those games with emulators (can't even LIST the amount of examples just with Nintendo)
Just on d&ds side once out of print buying from third party sources for old books at an insane price increase or pirating is the only way NOW to get things from older editions that are out of print.
It'll happen here too. It always does as things continue moving forward. 4e is already there. 5e will be within a few years.
Yes, and they can. The topic is absolutely linked, and if you can't see how other examples where that same thing has happened even if it's not in the licensing...then you're just purposely missing the point now on the nature of production, ESPECIALLY digital products.
2.1. License. Subject to your compliance with these Terms, Wizards provides you a limited, personal, non-exclusive, nontransferable, non-assignable, fully revocable license to use the Websites and Services solely for your individual and non-commercial use. **Wizards may terminate or suspend any or all portions or features of the Websites, Games, or Services at any time and for any reason or for no reason with no liability to you.**
you're stupid
Edited to add the first time the clause appears:
1.4 Digital Content License: In the realm of D&D Beyond, the term "Digital Content" refers to the array of downloadable, playable, or accessible materials such as virtual items, artwork, digital sourcebooks, and adventures offered within the platform. This collective designation includes all forms of virtual goods, enhancements, and digital services available for acquisition or access through D&D Beyond.
Please be advised that the acquisition of Digital Content does not give you ownership rights. Instead, you are granted a limited, non-exclusive, and non-transferable license to use the Digital Content for personal, non-commercial entertainment purposes only. It is expressly stated that Digital Content cannot be redeemed for monetary value or equivalent, and all transactions related to Digital Content are final, with refunds issued solely at our discretion. **Furthermore, we reserve the right to revoke this license at any time, without prior notice or liability, particularly in instances of account termination.**
ADDITIONAL TERMS FOR DIGITAL CONTENT
Regional Availability: Digital Content might not be accessible everywhere or at all times. We cannot guarantee that this content will always be available in your area.
Access to Digital Content on D&D Beyond: We may offer you limited access to various forms of Digital Content and other virtual goods. You might gain access to this Digital Content through various means, such as purchasing a license with a fee (i.e. ’real money’), redeeming it using Promotional Code or special digital key specific to D&D Beyond, or earning it by subscribing to relevant Subscription tier.
Use and Management of Digital Content: Your license to use Digital Content is defined by several key restrictions: it's non-exclusive, non-assignable, non-transferable, and can be revoked by us at any time if your account is terminated. **We retain the full authority to manage, alter, or even remove Digital Content as deemed necessary, without owing you any compensation.** By engaging with Digital Content, you acknowledge and accept that you hold no ownership or proprietary rights to any items you access, and we will not be held liable for any loss or changes made to these items, including their potential removal when your account is terminated.
get entirely fucked
Counterpoint: I want D&D 5e, not any of the other systems. I've looked into them, and they all have to change things for the worse to differentiate themselves from D&D (if you're wondering about PF, I find it too complicated and bloated). 5e isn't the best either, but has the best skeleton in the market if only the designers weren't incredibly greedy and incompetent. While I agree that stealing is still wrong and won't be doing it, I can see why people would.
That'll get you maybe the PHB. You'd still be missing
-the DMG
-the Monster Manual
-Tasha's
-Fizban's
-Xanathar's
-three Mordekainen books
-Volo's
-Strixhaven
-Swordcoast
And once you have those you'll only have the basics for a DM and roughly 80% of player options. If you're just starting out or are not creative enough you'll still need adventure books at $30 a pop.
All in all that would be, if I'm generous and price everything at $30, around $390 to start an adventure in which both the players and the DM get access to most of what they need for 2 adventures.
The other option would be to pirate 12 rulebooks and spend those $390 bucks on getting 13 adventures preloaded on a VTT of choice.
Did I mention character sheets and dice are not included? Because those are also $20 bucks for a dozen sheets and another $20 for a single set of dice.
Assuming a single DM and 4 players if everyone wanted to have their own dice that's $510 bucks for 5 sets of dice and 3 characters for each player before you have to buy more sheets.
That is a *lot* of money to get started on the hobby without having to tell your players "no, you can't use that subclass/variant rule" fifty times.
Even at the *barest minimum* it's $160 for PHB, DMG, Monster Manual, an adventure, sheets and a single set of dice.
Assuming 5 people that's $32 per person for an adventure that, depending on which chosen, can take anywhere from 6 weeks (Lost Mines of Phandelver/Dragons of Stormwreck Isle) to a year (Rime of the Frost Maiden/Wild Beyond the Witchlight/Baldur's Gate: Descent into Avernus) assuming a single session per week and nothing going wrong.
Still a decent chunk of money, though manageable, for anywhere between 15 and 130 hours of fun. After that you'll have to start slapping down $30 per book you want/need to add.
Hell, if you want to, for whatever reason, start with the new Vecna book you'll need 5-6 adventures *besides* Eve of Ruin to play Eve of Ruin because it simply states "look at [insert adventure] for the necessary details".
I somewhat feel for the rank and file of both WotC and Hasbro, but the C-suite can eat a dick.
Where I'm going with this is that, due to the way WotC has been doing things, you're forced to buy a dozen books to play the game.
If you want to only use material from books you have actually bought from WotC (no looking up stuff online) you'll need at least 6 books to play anything released before 2020 (PHB, DMG, Monster Manual, Volo's, Mordenkainen's Tome of Foes and an adventure book) and an additional 2 books (Tasha's and Mordenkainen's Monsters of the Multiverse) to play anything released between November 2020 and anything before Eve of Ruin.
This is because most of the adventures don't actually explain what anything does, instead referring to the other books and assuming you have all of them nearby.
This could have been solved in one of two ways: include the necessary statblocks in the books that need them or release a new book that combines several older books so you only have to buy one.
The point where 5e went from "You need several books because they're all about different things" and "you need several books because we're trying to squeeze every dollar out of you because short term profits are more important than customer satisfaction" has long since passed.
Defending their practices now means you're okay with a company squeezing more dollars out of you than you really need to spend.
5e SRD is free and contains most monsters and items and the base rules. You only need the PHB for feats and not being restricted to one subclass.
Also there are free online dice rollers and free fillable character sheets online as well.
And if you need a map there's the free VTT Owlbear
PHB is $30, split between 5 people that's $6 per person, with an additional $6 per person to buy a campaign, which can provide months of DND entertainment.
You don't have the right to steal something because you want it and can't pay for it.
The 5e SRD is free and contains the rules for most magic items, most monsters, the base rules, and the basic rules for the 12 classes. The only one you would need is the PHB is for more subclass options, which is $30.
Character sheets are also free and there's a digital fillable one made by WOTC themselves. (https://media.wizards.com/2022/dnd/downloads/DnD\_5E\_CharacterSheet\_FormFillable.pdf)
Google also has its own dice roller and is free to use, and there are other websites you can use.
Need to use a VTT? Owlbear rodeo is online and also free.
carlos is absolutely right, The hurdle is $30 to start playing.
Well I already have all I need from them on Fantasy Grounds and a physical library, so this isn't my problem to begin with. But what *everyone* on both sides of this is doing is wrong, and that's how stories like Robin Hood started. It's injustice to combat injustice, which is more morally complicated than you're making it out to be.
The comparison was in the morals. The book's designers aren't getting the money, the company is and then they're paying the designers. This gap means pirating hurts the company first. The pirates are stealing the documents and releasing them to the public that doesn't want to buy them (Whether they're poor or just frustrated). Now, again, see above comment. I'm not defending this practice. I simply understand why it's happening and am trying to help you do so.
Robin hood stole from the King to give back to the poor who he was unfairly taxing.
WOTC makes books with pictures and asking $30
Stealing from a corporation when you could just go to a different TTRPG company is blatantly wrong and nothing like stealing from an unjust tyrant-king. This isn't morally complicated at all.
Oh I do. The money not spent on DnDBeyond will instead go to releases of 5e content released under OGL.
Its just that I will have all of WotC's shit for free cause I am not buying Jimmy Bingus' Guide to Krogas for £49.99 just so I can have access to the one option that actually interests me. ☺️
The fundamental problem at the root of your disagreement with these other users is that you seem to have conflated adherence to US copyright law with ethical behavior, while in fact any overlap is just coincidence.
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I don't care what the law says.
Good try though!
If I go into a gas station and take a soda without paying, that is stealing. I have taken something of theirs.
If I download a scanned PDF of a book, that book is still there. Hence it is not stealing, because nothing is being taken away from them.
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Now be a big kid and make your own thoughts on the topic
Of course legally it's gonna be considered theft when any big enough corp can just throw money at politicians until they do what they want. Since piracy mildly agitates their bottom line, of course they're gonna throw money at politicians until they get what they want
Because 4 year olds need simple lessons to learn from. When you get older, you're expected to develop more complex views on topics because the world is more complex than simple storybook morals. We're not gonna teach 4 year olds about the nuances of things like the nigh untouchable nature of megacorps under capitalism, the philosophical reasonings behind acts like theft *usually* being bad, etc.
Even then, there are stories like Robin Hood, where thievery from those less affected by it is actively portrayed as a good thing
Good thing I'm not stealing and am just making a copy of a book for my own enjoyment in a way that doesn't financially support a god awful megacorp. Unless of course you wanna say taking a photo of a book at a library or borrowing a friends copy is also stealing, which you'd have to do to remain logically consistent.
Also don't be surprised when your entire point requires such a dumbed down and childlike view of the world that actual children's stories are more complex when people quote actual children's stories to show that things are more nuanced than you believe
Are you with me? Are you with me? Are you with me? Thankyouverymuch!
As someone who just uses roll20 and edits in any feature I need from any book for free after looking it up on wikidot, I have no clue why ya'll weren't here sooner
Effort. Roll20 has a lot of nice features that are, more or less, awesome, but there's a rather steep learning curve when it comes to customizing your character sheets and the likes. I spent several hours trying to get a home brew item entered into one of my character sheets and it still didn't work correctly. It just wasn't worth the effort at the time. Is it worth the effort now? Absolutely! Am I going to do it? No, cause I already have access to all the stuff I need.
Hijacking the top comment to ask: Have you guys ever heard of [Aurora Legacy](https://github.com/AuroraLegacy/elements)? Seriously, i don't use anything but it.
LOVE Aurora, I've used it build so many characters, look up spells and items, it's a staple for me when I'm playing as a PC. Maybe I'm not as familiar with it as I thought, but do you get any value from using it as a DM? Recently started running a campaign for our group after our Forever DM opened up about some burnout.
I dont use anything but it for form fillable pdfs*. Should've said that last part. I use plenty other software as a DM.
I’d feel bad for them, but they kind of blow.
When you chase away the company that made your property beat back LEGEND OF ZELDA OF ALL THINGS at every game award, you kind of deserve for fans to take everything not bolted down
Oh man, BG3 beat TotK? And they STILL showed them the door despite it being hands down one of their most successful product releases in the better part of a decade??? It tell you, the CEOs at Hasbro must have read their economics textbooks upside down, because there’s no other way I can rationalize their decision making process.
I wonder how much of that was executive decision and how much was shareholder decision. Ultimately shareholders are the bosses and are often even more incompetent.
Executive decision. They were downsizing and laying off employees, dumbasses laid off everyone who worked with Larian. Then when Larian tried to re-establish contact, Hasbro said take a hike.
Holy shit. How can **anyone** think that was a good idea?
Idk but the Larian head that worked with WoTC literally said "we went to contact our WoTC rep and it turns out there's no one left"
Maybe the exec who got some dingdong quarterly bonus for laying off staff
It's so much worse than it sounds. Larian worked extremely closely with multiple staff members from WoTC, but when the big layoff by Hasbro happened, everyone that Larian was in communications with was gone. Larian tried to re-establish contact and was told to take a hike. Then WoTC tried to reclaim BG3 using the new OGL rules, and Larian said "oh well we're done then" and all the content support went out the window.
So does WotC have any stake in BG3 or is it all Larian’s?
Legally no. But if Larian wanted to continue making content, they would have to owe something to WoTC. Because when all the licensing was done for BG3, The OGL wasn't updated. Granted Larian didn't plan DLC purchases or anything post OGL to begin with, but WoTC really put the nail in the coffin on that account
I thought the OGL was dead in the water? Is it just the fear of another attempt by WotC that’s keeping them from ever returning to it, worried that Hasbro will try to muscle in and take a cut of whatever earnings they make from new content they spent their time and resources making when they could have spent it producing something they didn’t have to pay the legbreakers at WotC a portion of?
Basically it's dead in that it's very hard to defend and use, but that won't stop Hasbro or WOTC from bullying with it
I haven´t heard about them wanting to reclaim BG3 before, do you have a source on that? Not because I don´t believe it, I believe most bad things people say about WOTC, but I am curious and want to read up on it myself.
The news of that came out right after the new OGL was announced and Larian in return announced that they were ceasing development on BG3, that the last update would include dev tools to continue advancing mods for those interested. I'll see if I can hunt down an article
happy Cakeday!! :3 !1 Fuck Hasbro!! :3 !!
I hate to break it to you but BG3 wasn’t all Larian. I know people on Reddit love them because they say all the right things that Reddit wants to hear (while still being funded by Tencent money), but BG3 was built on a lot of the work Bioware, WoTC, and TSR did before them. The setting, many of the characters, and in many ways the popularity of the game was thanks to D&D. There was a massive advertising effort from wotc that capitalised on the huge popularity of D&D at the time (along with the brand of Baldur’s Gate games in the past, which were the pinnacle of CRPGs and set the standard for decades). There’s no way that if this was just Divinity 3 it would have been anywhere as popular. I think any of the main CRPG developers like Obsidian would have nailed this project at this time. It’s also very unlikely WoTC “drove them away”. What probably is much more likely is after paying Tencent back and D&D licensing fees, Larian didn’t pocket as much as they would have liked given the games success. This is also one of the reasons BioWare went out on their own after BG2 and created Dragon Age.
You've never played another Larian game, have you? BG3 is basically Divinity: Original Sin 2 but with 5e rules. You also severely overestimate how much the established Forgotten Realms NPCs matter to people. Only a very small sliver of players know the novels (so they have no idea who Elmister is or why House Baenre is significant) or have played previous BG titles (to get Minsc and Jaheira, Viconia, etc.). The actual setting is also unknown to anyone who has never played official modules and only knows homebrew worlds, which is a lot of D&D players. Hell, a lot of people who enjoy the game know *nothing* about D&D and they still like it. Recognising bits of the lore is just a small bonus for those who know. Personally I'm really glad the game *doesn't* play like BG1 and 2 because I hate real time with pause.
> BG3 is basically Divinity: Original Sin 2 but with 5e rules. during the beta not even that, they just added an extremely thin reskinning at first keeping everything from D:os2
I wasn't against pirates per sé. I was more envious of them. I joined the dark side. Now I got everything pirated except videogames.
One day you'll be able to pirate games too
You can do it now on PC, I demo games then buy them that way
I know, I pirate games too, but the joke was with this commenter being able to
Well to be honest I've never tried pirating games specifically because the games I wanted to play are too far for my pc's performance ( or should I say Poorformance). The only not legit thing I had it run on this crappy computer was a Private server version of Vanilla WoW. These days I'm so busy playing D&D almost everyday. I'm not against pirating games, on the contrary, with the way the industry is going and prices not dropping, it makes sense to go criminal and say fuck it. My last obstacle would be pirating games on PS5 and then I would be set.
Through the power of a VPN and a torrent app the games can become your's too.
Don’t post this on /r/DnD, you’ll get muted and possibly banned 😂😂😂
You'll 100% get banned, they explicitly forbid piracy.
If digital isn’t owning then piracy isn’t stealing. :)
Honestly fair game considering most AAA gaming companies shamelessly mug gamers in broad daylight and advertise it as a "premium live service." lmao.
so if I keep the car I rented from avis its not stealing?
You managed to download a digital car?
Imagine if 8 years from now the car manufacturers seize your car because "It's not supported anymore" and "there is a new version available with more features". See how that's insane?
I really dont give a fsck about pirating, its just that phrase "if its not owned its not stealing" that doesnt work, really
Sure. But I see it more as a battle cry for the general consumer pushback against opressive ownership practices used by million/billion dollar corps, not something that should be scrutinized. But I see what you mean.
You can't even say "piracy" on the D&D discord or Daddy Davyd will smite thee with a warning.
I don't chat there anymore. Davyd mutes me for no reason at all.
"Variant sailor"
Friendly reminder PF2E has all of their rules online for free, you don't have to deal with money hungry corporations.
The secret is pirating PF2e handbooks too just to have a look at the artworks and the layout. I know Pathbuilder is real handy, but sometimes you just wanna read the whole thing in order. Sail bravely, mateys 🏴☠️🏴☠️🏴☠️🏴☠️
Also they voluntarely recognized their worker's union.
Oh hell yeah, based. Makes me wanna run PF2E campaign.
Also, goblins have a feat where the benefit is that you set yourself on fire, dealing fire damage to people that touch you.
It's a good system, you should give it a shot!
I mean 5E also has all the tools you need if you know where to look
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Wow, there were certainly some useful tools. Thank you, helpful stranger
Hey, thanks for contributing to r/dndmemes. Unfortunately, your post was removed as it violates one of our rules: **Do not share or request pirated content**. No linking, hinting at, or naming hosts of illicit non-SRD D&D content. You are allowed to copy-paste relevant rules or sections from sources, but large blocks of text may be removed. What should you do? First, read the rules thoroughly. Secondly, if you are able to amend your post to fit the rules, you're welcome to resubmit your meme. Lastly, if you believe your post was removed by mistake, [message the moderators through modmail](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose?to=/r/dndmemes&subject=&message=). Messages simply complaining about a removal (or how many upvotes your post had) will not be responded to. Thank you!
previous commenter meant that like, they are meant to be found for free by the company
In practice that makes no difference. I know where to find the rules, me and my players have sheets on Roll20, next session is next weekend and we're looking forward to it
Pretty sure you can just download the rules for 5e from official websites.
You can download a pathetically incomplete basic version of the rules. The Archives of Nethys legally contains all pathfinder content ever published excluding most art and all adventures(but not excluding player options from said adventures), and that's a shitload more content than has ever been published for 5e. WotC won't even let you legally buy pdfs of their books, there is no sane comparison between the two companies practices.
Bruh, google “x free pdf download”. But ONLY for things that are free
I ain't buying the whole book when I want to use a feat. Switched to Fight Club 5e and it's been great so far.
🏴☠️🎵 Yarr harr fiddle dee tee! 🎵🏴☠️
🏴☠️🎵 Being a pirate is alright to be! 🏴☠️🎵
Do what you want because a pirate is free!
🎵 🏴☠️ You are a pirate! 🏴☠️ 🎵
I have been preaching the way of the form fillable pdf for as long as I have been playing. Between that and [website redacted due to rule 6 (its 5e{dot}tools)], you really don't need anything else to play dnd.
The wikidot is SUCH a useful tool
The great thing about pirating source books is that they’re literally just static images you can find with a google search. It’s way harder to do any kind of DRM on a still image than audio, video, or especially games. The barrier to entry is zero, which is why it makes no sense for a company like wizards to try to lock down their IP rather than pursuing the “piracy is a service problem” model. Magic cards have the same problem, you can literally just print them out on card-stock and put them in a sleeve and no one will even notice as long as you aren’t trying to play them in a tournament.
My usual group just fills out their sheets in a drawing app and puts them in a shared google doc. Hidden stuff goes in your own notes. If the one person in the group who read the rule you need has to look at your sheet: Bing bam, It's right there.
I’ve played in many a D&D game and WOTC haven’t seen a cent from me
juuuust pointing out almost all content in Pathfinder 2e is free to use and catalogued in a website for quick reference AAAAAAAND it is all officially included in FoundryVTT.
Yo ho yo ho a pirate's life for me.
Don't they have PDFs on the official WTC website?
They have these basic rules available but missing most races, classes, etc. No replacement for dmg or mm. Meant as a demo for new players.
I just mean the blank sheet PDFs, I just print them
Character sheets? Yeah, those are free. The piracy part of this post refers to the guide books, though. I don't even know why form fillable pdfs is included in it.
it could be in regard to certain pdf's out there that pretty much can create a character and autopopulate most everything including classes, races, feats, weapons, magic items and autgenerates the text on a notes page as a reference without needing to buy a source book
Oh stuff like D&D Beyond? I've never used those, but I guess it would be nice if I could have all of the books online in one place. Too bad I can't do that any other way. /s Honestly, I like making characters, and I find manually typing or writing the information out to be pretty fun. Would never pay to not do that myself.
Not dnd beyond, just a PDF made by a third party. Just auto populates based on javascript code, I have my players who only own the PHB use them for any other options that fall outside the handbook.
This sounds like a very nice alternative, where can you find these?
https://www.flapkan.com
Oh that's my bad, I'm not a super experienced DM at this point, so I do generally prefer that my players use stuff within the PHB (+ artificer because that one seems to naturally fit in with the PHB ones) just for ease of balance, so that I didn't really think of that
Obligatory MPMB sheet plug.
I used Dicecloud for the longest time. Switched to DnD Beyond for a while because of a Discord server, but I still prefer Dicecloud. Way more control, you can fill in whatever skills you want, it's unlimited customizablities and characters, everything works together well(as long as you know how to code it correctly), and you can even set up your own homebrew without any issues
Casual case of the right hand not knowing what the left is doing. Most rum drinkers pirate not for spite of the company but financial issues. By cutting out a la carte, they just incentivize more piracy than ever. lmao. I swear almost all game companies have been replaced by clowns instead of competent people.
yarr
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Hey, thanks for contributing to r/dndmemes. Unfortunately, your post was removed as it violates one of our rules: **Do not share or request pirated content**. No linking, hinting at, or naming hosts of illicit non-SRD D&D content. You are allowed to copy-paste relevant rules or sections from sources, but large blocks of text may be removed. What should you do? First, read the rules thoroughly. Secondly, if you are able to amend your post to fit the rules, you're welcome to resubmit your meme. Lastly, if you believe your post was removed by mistake, [message the moderators through modmail](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose?to=/r/dndmemes&subject=&message=). Messages simply complaining about a removal (or how many upvotes your post had) will not be responded to. Thank you!
This isn’t new it’s been that way for a few releases. I’m stuck though cus my group won’t try a different system. I want them to use cypher but they’re lame
Why not try Dicecloud and Piracy?
Where would one seek a different source of dnd books? Asking for a friend.
If you search the internet something like "tools for 5e" (basically, number 1 type of search for any type of addons and stuff for other stuff), you will find the website. It's so good that even people which buy stuff on beyond prefer using it (which idk if it's a testament to how good the website is or how awful searching stuff on beyond is).
Annas-archive [dot]org is a good place
Pretty much any site meant for downloading books for free [AKA book piracy] has them. You Dan look those up on r[slash]piracy. That's for books, for quick reference I would look into the comment section of this very post, someone made a very good suggestion.
Until WotC fires Crawford, sales will not go to paying for development of good game books.
Let's not pretend Tasha wasn't popular
And that was how many releases ago?
Fizbans isn't that old either and was pretty popular
Do what you want, justify your choice however you feel right, but I remind people. Someone who would pirate official Wizards content for insert any number of reasons both legitimate or made up. Are likely going to apply that same reasoning to Third Party content creators and other systems to pirate their material. WoTC is a big company and so they can absorb the losses. So their CEO doesn't get a raise this year. Boo hoo. But that indie developer or third party creator is going to feel every $5 supplement that is pirated. Wizards has economy of scale to absorb this, your third parties and indies don't. Your little guys cant financially create content anymore cause they are losing 10-20% of their sales to pirated material. They get discouraged and stop producing content as its not worth doing this full time for pennies. Wizards can still operate even with their losses. So you end up in a scenario where the only creator still operating is Wizards and we as a community loose across the board. Again your choice is your own and while I might not agree your choice or reasoning you are free to make that decision what you feel is right for you.
I've seen discussions between some of the 3rd party content creators. For many of them, widespread piracy actually contributes to there popularity and in turn drives up sales. Most notably, Lancer (not piracy, but still free) can only sell books because it's well known, and it's only well known because you don't need to buy the books.
Well, no. They’re very different and most people in pirating communities make distinctions between say EA and some nerd making a passion project. Even throwing out morals the price tags are a difference of $80 or like $.99 so the effort to pirate because less incentivized.
I doubt the vast majority if people that pirate stuff are in "pirating communities".
> They’re very different and most people in pirating communities make distinctions between say EA and some nerd making a passion project. < Snort > Some do, most don't.
>Some do, most don't. Source?
His source is he made it the fuck up
Source: trust me bro
It's the same source as "They’re very different and most people in pirating communities make distinctions between say EA and some nerd making a passion project."
Op of that, but true. Both are anecdotal.
So your response to what you believe to be a false claim is to make a false claim yourself, which you are now openly admitting to? Great argument you got their chief.
>losses What loses? I wasn't going to buy it from WotC anyway. They didn't lose anything
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I'm not morally bankrupt, just regular bankrupt.
HAH That's pretty good
Unfortunately it’s not that simple. If you want to play DnD, well wizards of the coast have a monopoly on that, you either buy or pirate. Now that’s not to say that piracy is morally right, but in the case of wizards and hasbro.. when you look at their track record, I can’t condemn anyone for deciding that it’s ok in this instance..
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I disagree Free market purists will lick corporate boots like they're made of lollipops, hoping you're not one of them but just mispoke Massive corporations aren't people, pirating as a response to their anti consumer practices or other fuck ups is not only morally right but also should be encouraged Pirating from companies who made no such mistakes and want to avoid becoming like Hasbro, EA, etc., now that is fucked up Have a nice day and may your scheduling issues be few
There's plenty of other TTRPG publishers out there. * Paizo/Pathfinder is the most prominent alternative. * G.U.R.P.S. by Steve Jackson Games * Warhammer Fantasy (40k is also available to play in TTRPG.) If you want to try non Fantasy: * Cyberpunk Red (2077 is based on this). * Shadowrun * Warhammer 40k * The various Star Wars, D6 by West end Games, D20 by WOTC, or the current license holder Fantasy Flight Games * The World Of Darkness games by White Wolf (Mage, Vampire, Werewolf, Hunter) and other games using the Story Teller/Story Path rule system like Exalted and Scion. And numerous TTRPGS based on IPs such as Marvel Superheroes, Diablo video games, Dragon Age video games, and the IP that started it all - Lord of the Mother Fucking Ring. So, /u/carlos_quesadilla1 makes a point. If you don't want to support McDonald's, don't steal a cheeseburger from them. There's other options like Burger King, Wendy's, Checkers, Five Guys, local diners and fancy restaurants that also make cheeseburgers. Support them instead and buy and use their products instead. Wizards ain't the only game company in town. If you got beef with them, don't pirate their stuff, *Stop Using Their Stuff!!!*
I like the recommendations, though I'd not exactly recommend giving money directly to GW. Instead I'd recommend searching up used models, but that's up to preference.
GW isn't publishing the RPG rulebooks (not since 1st and 2nd Edition) WH Fantasy is being published by Cubicle 7 games, and 40k is being published by Fantasy Flight/Black Industries Games. GW already has their money from the license fees to those publishers.
Thanks! Sorry for spreading misinformation then Didn't know this and will keep it in mind
Stop equating piracy to theft. It is legally distinct. Theft deprives an entity of property. If you don't understand that, stop acting like you know what you are talking about. Stealing a physical item from McDonald's is nothing at all like downloading a digital ***COPY*** of something.
Agreed.
You wouldn't download a car I would We are not the same
[Actually, yes, I would. At the first opportunity. ](https://youtu.be/Fb7N-JtQWGI)
Don't shiet yourself
I don't care about morals, I pirate because free stuff, if I feel inclined to buy it in the future, I will, if I don't, I won't. Simple as.
It's not stealing. If I went to a friend's house and wrote down a book of theirs word for word then take my copy home, did I steal my friend's book? No, I made a copy. So I didn't steal. It's copyright infringement if anything.
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> unauthorised copying and distribution of books, which is a violation of copyright laws. You said it yourself. Not stealing.
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[One last point I'd like to make ](https://youtu.be/0Qkyt1wXNlI)
>support a different fucking company Aight, I’ll support the pirates then by using their services. :3
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you should cry more
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premise incorrect. bitch and moan more.
If buying isn't owning, then piracy isn't stealing
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Oh boy access that can be taken away at a moment's notice! Sign me up!
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Because websites and services never ever go down
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Yeah literally every license says that, sorry I assumed you were being disingenuous rather than ignorant
And yet it keeps happening with digital products when companies decide to move on from franchises or websites that hold them.
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Did I say I was only talking about d&d beyond? That said. 4e had a site. It eventually went down. The internet isn't forever. D&D Beyond eventually will as well. And all your content, the same way. Just like Apple music pulls songs they no longer want to pay to host Just like HBO takes off shows they no longer want to pay to host, even when they're the only ones licensed to carry them, leaving ONLY piracy as an option (Infinity train, recently) Just like video game companies don't allow ways to access retro games for their old systems, but then hit people with legal action if they give pirating options to play those games with emulators (can't even LIST the amount of examples just with Nintendo) Just on d&ds side once out of print buying from third party sources for old books at an insane price increase or pirating is the only way NOW to get things from older editions that are out of print. It'll happen here too. It always does as things continue moving forward. 4e is already there. 5e will be within a few years.
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Yes, and they can. The topic is absolutely linked, and if you can't see how other examples where that same thing has happened even if it's not in the licensing...then you're just purposely missing the point now on the nature of production, ESPECIALLY digital products.
2.1. License. Subject to your compliance with these Terms, Wizards provides you a limited, personal, non-exclusive, nontransferable, non-assignable, fully revocable license to use the Websites and Services solely for your individual and non-commercial use. **Wizards may terminate or suspend any or all portions or features of the Websites, Games, or Services at any time and for any reason or for no reason with no liability to you.** you're stupid
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Edited to add the first time the clause appears: 1.4 Digital Content License: In the realm of D&D Beyond, the term "Digital Content" refers to the array of downloadable, playable, or accessible materials such as virtual items, artwork, digital sourcebooks, and adventures offered within the platform. This collective designation includes all forms of virtual goods, enhancements, and digital services available for acquisition or access through D&D Beyond. Please be advised that the acquisition of Digital Content does not give you ownership rights. Instead, you are granted a limited, non-exclusive, and non-transferable license to use the Digital Content for personal, non-commercial entertainment purposes only. It is expressly stated that Digital Content cannot be redeemed for monetary value or equivalent, and all transactions related to Digital Content are final, with refunds issued solely at our discretion. **Furthermore, we reserve the right to revoke this license at any time, without prior notice or liability, particularly in instances of account termination.** ADDITIONAL TERMS FOR DIGITAL CONTENT Regional Availability: Digital Content might not be accessible everywhere or at all times. We cannot guarantee that this content will always be available in your area. Access to Digital Content on D&D Beyond: We may offer you limited access to various forms of Digital Content and other virtual goods. You might gain access to this Digital Content through various means, such as purchasing a license with a fee (i.e. ’real money’), redeeming it using Promotional Code or special digital key specific to D&D Beyond, or earning it by subscribing to relevant Subscription tier. Use and Management of Digital Content: Your license to use Digital Content is defined by several key restrictions: it's non-exclusive, non-assignable, non-transferable, and can be revoked by us at any time if your account is terminated. **We retain the full authority to manage, alter, or even remove Digital Content as deemed necessary, without owing you any compensation.** By engaging with Digital Content, you acknowledge and accept that you hold no ownership or proprietary rights to any items you access, and we will not be held liable for any loss or changes made to these items, including their potential removal when your account is terminated. get entirely fucked
Meanwhile me: I own a few of the books, use a certain reliable site more than the books for quick easy access during a session.
Counterpoint: I want D&D 5e, not any of the other systems. I've looked into them, and they all have to change things for the worse to differentiate themselves from D&D (if you're wondering about PF, I find it too complicated and bloated). 5e isn't the best either, but has the best skeleton in the market if only the designers weren't incredibly greedy and incompetent. While I agree that stealing is still wrong and won't be doing it, I can see why people would.
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That'll get you maybe the PHB. You'd still be missing -the DMG -the Monster Manual -Tasha's -Fizban's -Xanathar's -three Mordekainen books -Volo's -Strixhaven -Swordcoast And once you have those you'll only have the basics for a DM and roughly 80% of player options. If you're just starting out or are not creative enough you'll still need adventure books at $30 a pop. All in all that would be, if I'm generous and price everything at $30, around $390 to start an adventure in which both the players and the DM get access to most of what they need for 2 adventures. The other option would be to pirate 12 rulebooks and spend those $390 bucks on getting 13 adventures preloaded on a VTT of choice. Did I mention character sheets and dice are not included? Because those are also $20 bucks for a dozen sheets and another $20 for a single set of dice. Assuming a single DM and 4 players if everyone wanted to have their own dice that's $510 bucks for 5 sets of dice and 3 characters for each player before you have to buy more sheets. That is a *lot* of money to get started on the hobby without having to tell your players "no, you can't use that subclass/variant rule" fifty times.
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Even at the *barest minimum* it's $160 for PHB, DMG, Monster Manual, an adventure, sheets and a single set of dice. Assuming 5 people that's $32 per person for an adventure that, depending on which chosen, can take anywhere from 6 weeks (Lost Mines of Phandelver/Dragons of Stormwreck Isle) to a year (Rime of the Frost Maiden/Wild Beyond the Witchlight/Baldur's Gate: Descent into Avernus) assuming a single session per week and nothing going wrong. Still a decent chunk of money, though manageable, for anywhere between 15 and 130 hours of fun. After that you'll have to start slapping down $30 per book you want/need to add. Hell, if you want to, for whatever reason, start with the new Vecna book you'll need 5-6 adventures *besides* Eve of Ruin to play Eve of Ruin because it simply states "look at [insert adventure] for the necessary details". I somewhat feel for the rank and file of both WotC and Hasbro, but the C-suite can eat a dick.
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Where I'm going with this is that, due to the way WotC has been doing things, you're forced to buy a dozen books to play the game. If you want to only use material from books you have actually bought from WotC (no looking up stuff online) you'll need at least 6 books to play anything released before 2020 (PHB, DMG, Monster Manual, Volo's, Mordenkainen's Tome of Foes and an adventure book) and an additional 2 books (Tasha's and Mordenkainen's Monsters of the Multiverse) to play anything released between November 2020 and anything before Eve of Ruin. This is because most of the adventures don't actually explain what anything does, instead referring to the other books and assuming you have all of them nearby. This could have been solved in one of two ways: include the necessary statblocks in the books that need them or release a new book that combines several older books so you only have to buy one. The point where 5e went from "You need several books because they're all about different things" and "you need several books because we're trying to squeeze every dollar out of you because short term profits are more important than customer satisfaction" has long since passed. Defending their practices now means you're okay with a company squeezing more dollars out of you than you really need to spend.
5e SRD is free and contains most monsters and items and the base rules. You only need the PHB for feats and not being restricted to one subclass. Also there are free online dice rollers and free fillable character sheets online as well. And if you need a map there's the free VTT Owlbear PHB is $30, split between 5 people that's $6 per person, with an additional $6 per person to buy a campaign, which can provide months of DND entertainment. You don't have the right to steal something because you want it and can't pay for it.
The 5e SRD is free and contains the rules for most magic items, most monsters, the base rules, and the basic rules for the 12 classes. The only one you would need is the PHB is for more subclass options, which is $30. Character sheets are also free and there's a digital fillable one made by WOTC themselves. (https://media.wizards.com/2022/dnd/downloads/DnD\_5E\_CharacterSheet\_FormFillable.pdf) Google also has its own dice roller and is free to use, and there are other websites you can use. Need to use a VTT? Owlbear rodeo is online and also free. carlos is absolutely right, The hurdle is $30 to start playing.
Well I already have all I need from them on Fantasy Grounds and a physical library, so this isn't my problem to begin with. But what *everyone* on both sides of this is doing is wrong, and that's how stories like Robin Hood started. It's injustice to combat injustice, which is more morally complicated than you're making it out to be.
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The comparison was in the morals. The book's designers aren't getting the money, the company is and then they're paying the designers. This gap means pirating hurts the company first. The pirates are stealing the documents and releasing them to the public that doesn't want to buy them (Whether they're poor or just frustrated). Now, again, see above comment. I'm not defending this practice. I simply understand why it's happening and am trying to help you do so.
Robin hood stole from the King to give back to the poor who he was unfairly taxing. WOTC makes books with pictures and asking $30 Stealing from a corporation when you could just go to a different TTRPG company is blatantly wrong and nothing like stealing from an unjust tyrant-king. This isn't morally complicated at all.
Oh no, not the poor corporation! What would they ever do with me copying(not stealing, copying) data?
Oh I do. The money not spent on DnDBeyond will instead go to releases of 5e content released under OGL. Its just that I will have all of WotC's shit for free cause I am not buying Jimmy Bingus' Guide to Krogas for £49.99 just so I can have access to the one option that actually interests me. ☺️
Flagrantly advocating for piracy on a sub that has a rule against doing so is all the evidence I need. Your laziness and entitlement is astounding.
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"I know it's wrong, and I'm doing it anyways." Say less.
The fundamental problem at the root of your disagreement with these other users is that you seem to have conflated adherence to US copyright law with ethical behavior, while in fact any overlap is just coincidence.
"stealing is wrong" it's not stealing.
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Piracy isn't stealing.
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I don't care what the law says. Good try though! If I go into a gas station and take a soda without paying, that is stealing. I have taken something of theirs. If I download a scanned PDF of a book, that book is still there. Hence it is not stealing, because nothing is being taken away from them.
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Way to admit you have no counter point, bud.
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Hey, thanks for contributing to r/dndmemes. Unfortunately, your post was removed as it violates one of our rules: Rule 1. **Be Excellent to One Another**: No trolling, harassment, personal attacks, [sea-lioning](http://wondermark.com/1k62/), hate speech, slurs, or name-calling. Overly off-topic, political, or hateful debates will be removed, and bans may be issued based on severity. This includes both posts and comments. We reserve the right to remove content or comments that contain discrimination or distasteful content. Be kind and stay on topic. What should you do? First, read the rules thoroughly. Secondly, if you are able to amend your post to fit the rules, you're welcome to resubmit your meme. Lastly, if you believe your post was removed by mistake, please [message the moderators through modmail](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose?to=/r/dndmemes&subject=&message=). Messages simply complaining about a removal (or how many upvotes your post had) will not be responded to. Thank you!
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Now be a big kid and make your own thoughts on the topic Of course legally it's gonna be considered theft when any big enough corp can just throw money at politicians until they do what they want. Since piracy mildly agitates their bottom line, of course they're gonna throw money at politicians until they get what they want
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Because 4 year olds need simple lessons to learn from. When you get older, you're expected to develop more complex views on topics because the world is more complex than simple storybook morals. We're not gonna teach 4 year olds about the nuances of things like the nigh untouchable nature of megacorps under capitalism, the philosophical reasonings behind acts like theft *usually* being bad, etc. Even then, there are stories like Robin Hood, where thievery from those less affected by it is actively portrayed as a good thing
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Good thing I'm not stealing and am just making a copy of a book for my own enjoyment in a way that doesn't financially support a god awful megacorp. Unless of course you wanna say taking a photo of a book at a library or borrowing a friends copy is also stealing, which you'd have to do to remain logically consistent. Also don't be surprised when your entire point requires such a dumbed down and childlike view of the world that actual children's stories are more complex when people quote actual children's stories to show that things are more nuanced than you believe