DriveThruRPG.com now has six Shadowrun books available for sale in PDF format. I for one am glad to see this, and they are watermarked rather than DRM'd plus are original electronic files rather than scans. Having downloaded the free one (the Quickstart Rules) the only complaint I would have is that the images are stored at screen resolution rather than print resolution, but other than that they're great.

HAHA! I like for the character dossier 4.99 is slashed and 5.00 is written in red instead. What a saving!

Indeed. Other than that, glad to see them but I hope they get a more extensive variety soon.

*Goes and hides before Adam hunts him down and gnaws on his femurs*

~J

a Matrix pdf with searchable text and bookmarks. Adam, you are my hero.

also, note that the Quick Start Rules (as well as Critters and the GM Screen) can be bought for the low, low price of zero dollars. free Retard Club Decoder Rings for everyone who doesn't grab these.

I'm very glad to see them start to show up. Although, I would have figured the core rulebooks would have all made it up there in the first batch. Hopefully SR3 and the rest follow quickly.

EDIT: Missed Adam's remark there...I bet those books are the ones DriveThru is still getting put up...heh.

I'm actually still working on the core rulebook. It should be up later today, but might slip to monday ... I'm not sure if the DTRPG staff work outside of office hours, and they're a few time zones ahead of me now.

Also note that Shadowrun books will be available through BattleCorps at http://battlecorps.com/catalog/index.php?cPath=28. BattleCorps does awesome work supporting the Classic BattleTech line with original content, so if you want to spend your money and help support FanPro and a company that supports FanPro products and helps extend them, consider making your purchases there. [They're a little behind DTRPG right now, but will be catching up soon]

Are the BattleCorps PDFs watermarked in the same fashion as DTRPG then?

I agree that the dossier is more useful in PDF format... especially since I can edit PDF files now.

For the record: I just love what I've got so far ...

But some questions:

1. How does DTRPG handle payment? The free books simply download and I can't seem to find a page on DTRPG that explains that in detail. Creditcard, Paypal, etc.?

2. Adam, since you promote BattleCorps:
a) How do they sell them? Without any watermark / DRM? *I find it rather nice seeing my name in the bottom left corner of every page in those DTRPG documents*
b) How do they handle payment?

Also, can we get DTRPG to drop that crappy brick image from the sides, their text color choice gave me a migraine last night trying to pick it out from the brick.

Hi. Uh, tons of questions, and I'm really busy, so short answers to questions I have easy answers for:

Payment options: Should be detailed on each site. That's their hassle, nor ours!

BattleCorps PDFs: Just plain PDFs, no DRM.

DriveThru dropping that brick image: I complained about it when I was beta-testing the site before it launched last year. They said no.

Kage: I'm not sure what you're talking about ... can you elaborate?

Well, it's either they drop it or I take business else where, cause if I can't read the text, i ain't clickin to buy.

I'd suggest BattleCorps, then.

Most FanPro [print] books do /not/ have that right given. The character sheets in many do; the print version of the Dossier does not, the electronic version of the Dossier does.

Yeah, I definitely think BattleCorps is going to get my business on this deal.

Thanks for keeping up with the questions Adam!

So I illegally photocopied the character dossier I paid for?

Yep. But you didn't have to share, you know

~J

Actually, I haven't done that yet, since I really didn't like them, and my group is new, so they don't need something so complex.

Can they even legally enforce that? I can copy CDs I own all day long, for my use.

No, you can't actually. You can make one for backup purposes, but not use it unless your original kicks the bucket.

When I said "share", though, I meant share the info that you'd done it rather than the copies themselves.

~J

As an owner of every SR book ever published (or at least a buyer), I'd hope it wouldn't matter too much

For the sake of my sanity and trying to get relevant questions answered, please take the extended copyrights/photocopying discussion to another thread. Thanks.

The Quick Start Rules are FREE?
Good move, me thinks.

Another question: didn't you mention a few months back that the agreement with DTRPG was exclusive?

~J

Yeah.

It's not, anymore.

Figured as much just rare for deals like that to become unexclusive.

~J

It appears BattleCorps does not take Paypal.

Any plans to change that soon?

Adam, are you planning on including the long gone Kage and others prozines issues in some batch at some point ?

Do the pdfs come with permission to print and bind?

Figure I should ask rather than assume

Laz

I for one would love to get my hands on a set of Kage. I've never even seen one here in the UK.

I just bought Matrix and the Character Dossier. I´m propably going to buy most of the books you add that I don´t already have. Saves me some money and a lot of space. I´m moving tomorrow, and the Shadowrun stuff fills a box of it´s own as it is.

I moved two weeks ago and all my RPG-stuff had been a real pain - besides my way to huge CD-collection

Still waiting for Bug City as pdf.

any eta on when/if Rigger 3 revised will be available?

None yet. As a book that's in print and readily available, it's lower in priority than other out of print rulebooks [Magic in the Shadows, Matrix] or older OOP stuff [Portfolio of a Dragon, Bug City, etc]