OBS - Monopolies and their TOC. (Split off thread).

Best Selling RPGs - Available Now @ DriveThruRPG.com
This reminds me of a few years ago when I was working for a company that provided accounting services for a broadcaster who had been sued by a legacy artist over royalty payments that blew up into a class action and multimillion dollar settlement. About a year later I got a call from that artist’s business manager asking about their royalties from that service - that they were getting statements and checks for their other clients but not this one, which was strange because this artist had several big hits and had previously seen a lot of activity from that service. I dutifully passed the inquiry along to my contact there who laughed out loud and assured me there had been no mistake and that artist was definitely NEVER going to be played on that service again so they had better make that settlement payout last.
Ooh, I can play this game.

I am going to be very vague, but one of our fomer suppliers is owned by someone who is extremely aggressive and narcisistic (I've literally heard him yelling at his own customer service staff while I was on the phone to them, "Who is that?!? You've been on the phone too long!!!! HANG UP NOW!!!!!"

Anyway, they sued us over some bullshit, and I'm pretty sure they were responsible for our office being raided by police and securities staff (we were cleared of all wrongdoing).

Then one day, a year or two after we stopped doing business with them, I take a call, and it's some poor girl in sales going, "I see that you no longer trade with us, can I ask why?" I put her through to my boss to have that conversation. By all reports she was thoroughly embarrassed.
 
They ran a completely unhinged, insane blog full of paranoid rambling. Kinda like Pundy but from the other side of the political spectrum.
I like completely unhinged. It's refreshing to know just how far off the rails the experience is going to be up front vs half hinged where you keep wondering "is this a joke?" Or "is this person serious?". With crazy I just don't want to be in a guessing position.
 
I like completely unhinged. It's refreshing to know just how far off the rails the experience is going to be up front vs half hinged where you keep wondering "is this a joke?" Or "is this person serious?". With crazy I just don't want to be in a guessing position.

I disagree. Given that diatribes are rarely entertaining in and of themselves, playing that guessing game of whether or not someone is serious or, even better, having them veer off into looney land in the last third of it can be an experience in and of itself.
 
I disagree. Given that diatribes are rarely entertaining in and of themselves, playing that guessing game of whether or not someone is serious or, even better, having them veer off into looney land in the last third of it can be an experience in and of itself.

If you haven't yet, you might really enjoy reading the comicbook Cerebus...
 
Now that you mention it I can't recall a single Kickstarter RPG where I got the final PDF via something other than DriveThru.

SJG, Pinnacle Entertainment Group, and Pelgrane Press have all used their own web stores for Kickstarter PDF distribution in the past. Pinnacle usually thief stuff available on their own site first and then later through DriveThru. I've backed Kickstarters by some smaller publishers who simply used Backerkit to distribute their PDFs. Massif Press used itch.io as the distribution mechanism for their LANCER Kickstarter, if I recall correctly.

DriveThru's certainly the most common choice, but it's not universal.
 
SJG, Pinnacle Entertainment Group, and Pelgrane Press have all used their own web stores for Kickstarter PDF distribution in the past. Pinnacle usually thief stuff available on their own site first and then later through DriveThru. I've backed Kickstarters by some smaller publishers who simply used Backerkit to distribute their PDFs. Massif Press used itch.io as the distribution mechanism for their LANCER Kickstarter, if I recall correctly.

DriveThru's certainly the most common choice, but it's not universal.
Thanks for typing this up... I was too lazy to do it :smile:
 
To me, it's this bit that is clearly BS, as it is not at all enforced in any kind of manner whatsoever:
"Neither your Work, description, nor any promotional material, including blog posts or press releases, may contain racist, homophobic, discriminatory, or other repugnant views; overt political agendas or views; depictions or descriptions of criminal violence against children; rape or other acts of criminal perversion; or other obscene material without the express written permission of OneBookShelf."

And this isn't just about edgelords either. Here are just a few books which depict criminal violence against children.

132808.jpg


This Lamentations product has violence against children on the front cover. Sure, this is LotFP so shock value is intended here.

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On the other hand this in my opinion fairly vanilla D&D supplement has descriptions of evil cultists of Asmodeus throwing their own children into fires to prove their devotion to Hell.

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Sure, this one isn't actually available on DriveThru, but if it was it would certainly not get taken down over the description of Hag procreation (they first eat infants, then later give birth to a new hag child). I also don't consider it to be particularly edgy content.

So why even have a rule about not allowing depictions or descriptions of violence against children if you're going to constantly allow depictions and descriptions of violence against children?
 
So why even have a rule about not allowing depictions or descriptions of violence against children if you're going to constantly allow depictions and descriptions of violence against children?
I believe it is to remain compliant with local laws in some countries where DriveThru operates. Situations like that tend to lead to lackluster enforcement unless someone calls them out on it. Complaints like your will probably lead to stricter enforcement in the future.
 
I believe it is to remain compliant with local laws in some countries where DriveThru operates. Situations like that tend to lead to lackluster enforcement unless someone calls them out on it. Complaints like your will probably lead to stricter enforcement in the future.
Maybe. I mean folklore has quite a bit of violence against children and, as far as I know, no one is calling to ban the Brothers Grimm fairy tales.
 
Maybe. I mean folklore has quite a bit of violence against children and, as far as I know, no one is calling to ban the Brothers Grimm fairy tales.
They have, over the years.

Perhaps not right at the moment, though.

I suspect that Disney-fication of them has led to less calls to ban, since those have overtaken the much darker originals.
 
Maybe. I mean folklore has quite a bit of violence against children and, as far as I know, no one is calling to ban the Brothers Grimm fairy tales.
Either way, I don't particularly like seeing posts at the Pub along the lines of "Why haven't these games been banned yet?" regardless of the rhetorical point they are making. There are enough other forums for that.
 
Either way, I don't particularly like seeing posts at the Pub along the lines of "Why haven't these games been banned yet?" regardless of the rhetorical point they are making. There are enough other forums for that.
Yeah I'm not actually advocating for it to be enforced. I can see why they'd want/need it. I can see how it's not actually applied and why. I suppose if I had any feelings on the matter it would be "Wouldn't it be nice if we didn't need to have unenforced rules just to do business.?"

Along those lines would be "Wouldn't it be nice if we had people educated/intelligent enough that we didn't need any more stickers on a ladder beyond it's weight limit."
 
I believe it is to remain compliant with local laws in some countries where DriveThru operates. Situations like that tend to lead to lackluster enforcement unless someone calls them out on it. Complaints like your will probably lead to stricter enforcement in the future.
Maybe that would actually accelerate the creation of a more viable alternative though.
 
And to think, it all began with a short scenario set in my eldritch, gonzo, science-fantasy, post-apocalyptic Cha'alt campaign setting... The Good Syma'arian.

Enter the competition or, at least, the beginning of the end for RPG retail monopoly:

 
"No outright porn".

STOP CENSORING MY GAME ABOUT GELATINOUS CUBE SEX.

(Also, why do they need outside arbitrators if there's no content restrictions apart from porn and American law?)
 
I wish I had your optimism.
I men if they got rid of all D&D stuff because WotC technically put descriptions of violence against children in their stuff, there goes the entirety of DMsGuild. That's an enormous amount of their stuff (otherwise it wouldn't be it's own section). And WotC are big enough that they actually could set up their own store front and have it work. That would probably not be a storefront for anything other than WotC stuff and community content for D&D, but it would seriously damage DriveThru and present an opportunity as people would see that they could not get everything on Drive Thru.
 
"No outright porn".

STOP CENSORING MY GAME ABOUT GELATINOUS CUBE SEX.

(Also, why do they need outside arbitrators if there's no content restrictions apart from porn and American law?)
I mean that already puts them below Drive Thru, which does have outright porn.
 
I men if they got rid of all D&D stuff because WotC technically put descriptions of violence against children in their stuff, there goes the entirety of DMsGuild. That's an enormous amount of their stuff (otherwise it wouldn't be it's own section). And WotC are big enough that they actually could set up their own store front and have it work. That would probably not be a storefront for anything other than WotC stuff and community content for D&D, but it would seriously damage DriveThru and present an opportunity as people would see that they could not get everything on Drive Thru.
It'd damage Drivethru but I'm not sure it would benefit anyone else tbh. Assuming (and I think you're right) they wouldn't host anything but D&D content, you'd remove the possibility of D&D players seeing other games at all.

Realistically, any serious challenge to Drivethru is going to need one of two things. It's going to need to have the clout to get exclusives from the big guys. Or it's going to need to undercut Drivethru from a price perspective.

I suspect this site doesn't have the former. And while the latter is possible it's going to be difficult when they're also promising creators a larger cut.

(From a customer perspective, Drivethru library is a pretty big draw for me, especially when I can get my Bundle of Holding games on there. But if I was offered a better deal on a game I wanted I'd buy it from the cheaper site).
 
Is it coated with a substance that reacts with most lube to create a highly caustic acid or base? Got to stay authentic.
Let's just say that you're gonna want to be wearing latex... er, armor, because organic materials won't offer any protection at all...
 
My understanding was that French porn dispensed with the inane dialogue during the sex scenes, but American studios she worked with weren’t happy with just moans and grunts.
Having watch 80s-90s porn I can imagine how annoying that would be to act in. Just crap dialogue.
 
Having watch 80s-90s porn I can imagine how annoying that would be to act in. Just crap dialogue.
Yeah, but at least they were trying. I'd rather have porns like this-
1657556322312.png

Than the current crop of "This Ain't The Guardians Of The Galaxy" stuff we're seeing now. Just seems lazy somehow.
 

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