The short answer is I don't expect my players to own their own books.

The longer answer is more complicated.  For our heavily played games, players often chose to purchase their own books.  That was perfectly fine with me.  We still have our own copies of AD&D PHBs floating around in the various homes and apartments.  But as the primary viking hat wearer, I own the most stuff and let the friends I trust borrow things liberally.

Now, for an expensive, single-volume book or something we don't play regularly, the picture gets cloudier.  If you're lucky, the publisher provides some kind of free quick-play rules or reference document.  I love those sorts of things, and encourage people to print/bring/read them.  As a player, I seek and bring them to the table too, because I also don't expect my GM to hand over his only book whenever I want to look something up.  I've also seen some clever character sheets/cheat sheets that hide rules right on them.

When you're on your own, I've done similar to what Benoist was hinting at with his spell lists: Make a packet.  Get chargen, equipment, combat options, skill info and anything else you think the players are going to want to keep looking up and build a file or packet.  It saves you time at the table and the lifespan of your book.

I was asking about this here because over on another site I frequent (The Miniatures Page), the topic came up of one guy who wanted to send a copy of a game PDF (for a 2 player wargame) to a guy he was planning to play with.
The folks over there got their panties in a Gordian Knot over telling him how 'unethical' and 'absolutely illegal' that was... a few small game publishers also chimed in about how much profit they are 'losing to piracy like that'.

I don't see any problem with it... but sometimes I find out my opinions are... less than mainstream.

Meh.  Digital items don't have any market value.  I pay for them because I want to support the creators and I want more of that particular type of content, not because of imaginary ethics.

If someone chooses to use digital content and not contribute, that is their choice, but they're shooting themselves in the foot.

I'd prefer people not share my PDF's without asking first.


 I don't mind sharing a physical book.

I myself send out PDF's of games I wrote as needed for friends, players, etc.



As usual, I'd like people to pay for my hard work. I'm quite poor you see. I manage, but a little extra money helps. I won't beg for it, just do the work that I can and hope it is worth something to someone.

Quote from: Tommy Brownell;410911I don't make my friends own their own copies of video games or board games that we play...I see no reason to make them do the same with RPGs.

Quite.  I see no moral imperative to buy products we have no use for, and in the vast majority of cases we simply have no need for more than one book.

People either have or don't have their own rulebooks. Depends on the game. If we're trying out a new game, usually just I have a copy.

If I had a PDF, I might loan it out, asking the person using it to delete it afterward. I wouldn't loan it out to someone who didn't agree to those terms.

But usually I don't have PDFs 'cause I don't like 'em too much.

Seanchai

I like at least 2 copies of the 'core' book or relevant materials to be available. Sometimes I will purchase an additional copy (used) to facilitate. I will loan to friends and share PDF's though I prefer print medium at the table.

In most games I run here I'm the only one with the book.  In many of the games I run here I'm the only one IN THE ENTIRE COUNTRY with the book.

I do not have a policy of giving out PDFs to people, but nor would I ever expect them to buy their own books.

I know that nowadays the powers-that-be are trying to convince us that "if you lend someone a book you're committing PIRACY, and that's COMMUNISM and its a CRIME", but none of those things are actually true, and they can go fuck themselves.

The whole idea that someone would actually be morally outraged at person a lending person b a book rather than forcing them to either buy the book themselves or do without is just a complete ultra-conservative wank fantasy. I don't get how people who aren't usually ultraconservative wankers can believe it with a straight face.

RPGPundit

Quote from: RPGPundit;411112In most games I run here I'm the only one with the book.  In many of the games I run here I'm the only one IN THE ENTIRE COUNTRY with the book.

I do not have a policy of giving out PDFs to people, but nor would I ever expect them to buy their own books.

I know that nowadays the powers-that-be are trying to convince us that "if you lend someone a book you're committing PIRACY, and that's COMMUNISM and its a CRIME", but none of those things are actually true, and they can go fuck themselves.

The whole idea that someone would actually be morally outraged at person a lending person b a book rather than forcing them to either buy the book themselves or do without is just a complete ultra-conservative wank fantasy. I don't get how people who aren't usually ultraconservative wankers can believe it with a straight face.

RPGPundit

100% win.

A lot of this copyright crap is just getting ridiculous. Say I buy a book, like, "The prefect" and after I'm done I let a friend read it. Am I violating some law? Well, fuck the law if I am, when it makes somehting like that illegal, it deserves to be broken.

Likewise recently I took about 30 old books to an animal shelter store to sell to raise money for the animals. Was I violating copyright by selling the used books? Would I be violating copyright if I donated used DVDs to the shelter store? In both cases, if I am I don't give a damn.

If I choose to loan a rulebook to someone so they can see if they want into a game, I'll damn well do it, and if the law doesn't like it, GOOD!

 It's just getting ridiculous, like you can't even lend a friend a DVD or book now. Hell with it.