Well I have a friend that is a huge piracy advocate. Its almost disgusting to talk to him about it since he is fully against any form of copy protection since it hinders his use as a consumer, and that includes his ability to pirate said material.

As someone looking to get published that is a very annoying attitude to see.

Companies that don't take any small measure of protection really open themselves up to losing more than the normal share to piracy.

However it is a double edged sword you don't want to restrict the product so much that its difficult to use.

Our office sends out a monthly digital database product. No protection, I've said since the begining there should be some measure of copy protection, if nothing else to prevent the disc from being copied. It was disregarded until they notice a few places in the same area cancel subsription. Later it was found out only one was buying the CD now and making copies for the other places to save money. Only then did copy protection get a serious look here.

Digital books is a tricky area since just viewing the item on your computer screen isn't always the prefered method of use. Some like to print it out to read. Others like to print only certain pages, some want to make a copy for back up purposes or one for their desktop and one for their traveling laptop.  All would say are fair use of the product.

sounds like you are going in the right direction.

Steampunk with steam limbs has never been a favorite trend of mine with the genre but it does have its place. Would be curious to see how this plays out in your game.

What I really enjoy about PDFs of main rulebooks is the versatility it can offer if you can take advantage of it.

For instance I can print out a few pages as relevant handouts, reduced the need to refer to the entire book when I need a dozen pages. This can also limit the need for book sharing at the table during critical moment. (I still like to see my players with their own books though so they can actually read material in their leisure).

Some PDFs if done from a digital working copy can be searchable or made searchable to cut down on needless hunting for a rule or instance of a passage. Bookmarks can also help speed up reference. Not all PDF products offer this, since its what I work with on a daily basis its easy enough for me to add.

Nicest thing about seeing PDFs offered by WotC is finally having a decent digital reference rather than hoping to find/buy one and it be an utter disapointment.

As much as I like the digital revolution sweeping the gaming industry I still love the smell and sound of cracking open a new book, and that can't ever be replicated for me with PDF.

I'd go away from a sanity system tied to limb replacement unless folks are going to go into the realm of actual augmentation, then that can be used to balance cost but I've never been a huge fan of it.

"steamware" should have some huge social stigma with it unless its commonplace to see folks with modifications. I'd say the other major drawback would be the unpredictability of the devices of the day or with that setting. Most of that is custom and prototype work so it has bugs or require constant adjustment to keep it working. Alot of that can be played in downtime but something can be used to handle critical failures.

Just thinking off the cuff while on lunch.

I know if I could see a "Pulpcraft" book I'd love to see it covered to handle Victorian, then later decade books to incorporate the events of The Great War and World War II.

Could you imagine having the Fantastical devices of Jules Vern and HG Wells thrown into the mix of those wars and the ambitions of the nations with them? Would provide some real good material to work with now wouldn't it?

well I've asked several small companies that do both PDF and Print versions of their products and most have gravitated to the following:

While piracy does occur the percentage is small enough that if further measure was taken to digitally secure the product it would impede the use of the PDF and make it inconvienent to use. Rather than turn more people away with a difficult to use product than prevent pirates (which most are clever enough to circumvent most measures) they opt for the method used now.

Some have thought about ways to tie digital downloads with a serial code but then you have to have unique ones otherwise someone can easily post the download code and not only do you lose out on the money for the PDF but also the bandwidth used to download. Unique codes like MMOs use can be done but is very costly and not really feasable for most RPG companies.

Providing them on CD bundled with the book is also a distribution and logistics nightmare and why companies don't opt for it.

WotC is big enough that the code solution works for them and the amount of piracy is going to be so small that they will gain more praise for including the PDF option with their books that it will really offset the costs. Its an impressive incentive to buy the books and will work well for them I just hope it doesn't create an expecation among RPG consumers for other companies to follow suit because it would be very difficult to do.

If I recall it was talking about the new website and the subject of number of posts came up and yeah they figured you were taking over the place in their absence.

Heh this year as about like last year about 4-5 games, few seminars, chatting with developers and writters, dealers room purchases, and some good food. In the case of the Rock Bottom gathering much of that was combined.

yeah I know I was slacking this year

ah okay didn't get all of the story, I was in the midst of games when the announcement was made.

Hey I just noticed in one of those Sage Advice Q&A sections they are saying the Player's Handbook will be out in May 2008. The buzz at Gencon was August 2008

Yeah, I was the guy on the left front asking all the questions. Including the one Pat wanted to skip past.

That the one about the pulp setting?

nope that was me on the right of the room, stage left or your left. I asked about the pulp stuff.

Not to derail this conversation further but are you guys in a booth of your own, sharing space with AEG or pretty much will be in the seminar? I know how costly the booths can get and if the print product doesn't come out by then may seem like wasted effort.

Not wasted effort but a little outside the scope of where we are just now, so no booth this year. We'll be doing the seminar and a slew of events, though. For details, see the Events page.

Well okay bad choice of words I was rushed in the post. It is good to see a crafty presence at the Con and now that I know more about Spycraft I'm going to make sure I hit some of the events. I was uninspired by the first version but 2.0 really blew me away so take that for what its worth. I hope the print issues can be resolved in time but won't be disappointed if I don't see the book there.

Not to derail this conversation further but are you guys in a booth of your own, sharing space with AEG or pretty much will be in the seminar? I know how costly the booths can get and if the print product doesn't come out by then may seem like wasted effort.

At any rate would love to chat regardless. I plan to be doing at least one game up at the Hyatt for my Savage Worlds setting, its Victorian Sci-fi.

Okay now to add to the current conversation, seems like folks generally like a mix of the three mentioned types. I know the few times we've done it here dystopian gets too bleak and we've found that we like the action movie/series approach to cyberpunk. That meaning the adventures are episodic. You envision an adventure and if its going to be long or epic its a movie told in a few sessions, usually a big finish. If its many small subplots or a rotating focus of players as the main character of the session then its more like a series and the whole season leads to a big finale.

Alex are you going to be at GenCon this year? I'd love to talk about cyberpunk stuff and find out more about Shatterpunk, well that is willing to be leaked out at any rate.

I discovered Spycraft 2.0 last year when some guys at the Hyatt were playing it in the open tables. When I looked at the book it just screamed to me to play cyberpunk style.

I use a mix of the three in my cyberpunk setting.

Obviously society will continue to move and try to strive for better. How they reach that goal will change but you will still always have the privlaged, the working class, and the poor, with many shades in between.  Obviously the upper crust is living the good life from the fruits of others labor. The middle class is in the grind to live out their life with the unfortunate below them which can lead to crime and depravity (as you commonly see in many dystopian views) and the upper class as those in power with teflon, untouchable and out of sight unless they have to directly deal with them.

Then you have those that are the poor and the forgotten of society, they fell out of the machine and live on the fringes, perhaps doing whatever it takes to get their next meal, or drug hit, or whatever is the object of desire to temporarily remove them from their current situation.