Earlier today I was browsing through shelves at a toy store to look for a last gift for one of my daughters. That’s when I hear an excited voice ask one of the store employees ‘do you have dungeons and dragons?’. I listen in and learn that they do not have any DnD material at all and also can’t order it. I walk a bit closer and see 3 12 year old ish boys and a girl with disappointed faces. The employee also can’t help them where to find dungeons and dragons products.
Now I live in Germany where you can’t find dnd boxes at the likes of Target like in the US for example. In fact I know of 2 stores in the whole city which carry DnD books and material.
I step in and ask if I may help out with the question. I tell them that there are 2 stores which carry the books, dice and more on the other side of the city. They said that’s far away but they’ll try to go there in Saturday.
We get talking and they tell me about how they are looking to start a dnd club at school and also play at home. They got a set of dice and saved around 70 euros for a book and maybe some more dice and such. I tell them that’ll buy them the players handbook which is a good starting point and maybe some extra dice.
They ask me if I played as a kid and I said yes, in fact I still do and I’ll be playing tonight. That’s when I made a weird decision in my head. I had all my stuff already with me so I don’t have to go back home between work and game night. I opened my backpack and gave them my copies of the PHB and Monster Manual. They were super excited and actually insisted to pay me but I’d have felt bad taking money from them.
I didn’t want to post this as virtue signaling stuff or anything. It was just kind of a crazy decision I made that I think was kinda cool. They just reminded me so much of me when I started out. We were lucky to get our first dnd books gifted by an older brother of one of our group’s members. So I wanted to pay it forward. Now I just have to figure out how to run tonight’s game without my books.
There will be tales of the mysterious stranger who gifted the party arcane knowledge before vanishing in the blink of an eye…
As the young adventurers rushed to their guild, ready to share the treasure they were handed by the kind traveller, they could hear seven canaries singing happily.
I stick one of the canaries up my butthole.
A floating frog adorned in royal garb appears in front of the canary and calls him “Lemmywinks”
Who am I? Just a friend. The way back has been closed by the great and noble Sphincter.
“Say what?”
It transforms back into the Ancient Brass Dragon that it is, and rips you in half from the inside. Roll 20× d10 for damage
DM you’ve misinterpreted how gaping my butthole already is… This isn’t some so tight it sounds like whales singing shit.
Besides, my butthole is where the entrance to my bag of holding is.
It’s more massive than any standard or even epic bag of holding could possibly carry, either you just temporarily banished it to a random spot on the Astral Plane, or it dumped back into your puny colon, which again is far too small to contain an Ancient Brass Wyrm.
Also in doing so, you just irritated the rest of the canaries, (all metallic ancient Wyrms) and the old man.
Roll initiative, and I certainly hope you can survive 6 breath weapons, I wanna see what Bahamut does to your impertinent person.
What is with Lemmy and the seven canaries guy? Like I know who he is but wow is lemmy obsessed with him
It’s an avatar of Bahamut (the god of good dragons) and 7 metallic (good) dragons in disguise. You don’t wanna piss off the old man or the birds. I normally have them as ravens, but canaries works.
Due to how the gods of dragons work, Bahamut doesn’t have a lot on his plate, so he will wander the planes and see who is a murderhobo, that needs dealt with, and who is an adventurer that he will give a favor or token to
If you’re the DM, you can just fall back on Rule Zero - the rules are what you say they are :)
You’ve done a really nice thing - I’m sure these kids will never forget it. I sometimes forget how much harder it was just to acquire stuff as kids.
I miss Rule Zero being summarized in the flyleaves of "rule"books. 😅
If more people in the world were like you, it would probably be a better place. You have no idea what positive impact this will have on these kids but I promise you that they will remember you.
If it has anything close to the impact dnd had on me it’d be amazing.
As another commenter said, I really hope that you feature as the avatar of Bahamut in their campaign.
Academically, how does this genuinely lovely act of kindness & compassion differ in essence to, say, sharing PDFs of the same already-purchased book with strangers simply wanting to play the game?
edit: please, be civil and don’t dogpile, this is simply to spark a deeper understanding of intentional labeling and how we, as a society, often take that for granted (ie. assume it’s in good faith).
I’m confused where this question comes from and why you asked it, but will provide my own opinion on it.
In the OP’s case, the book he had already purchased is a physical copy; by giving it to the kids, he transferred complete ownership and now has to purchase another book in order to have the same product for himself, providing the company with more money. With PDFs, you can just email the file and then both you and the person you gave it to have copies of the book, effectively getting 2 books for books for the price of 1.
Legally, this is piracy/theft. Morally, both are totally acceptable in my opinion. Of course, if you like something, you should support the creators whenever possible.
In essence, it doesn’t. In a practical sense, however, one is taking something that’s been paid for and passing it on while the other is stealing. You can try to justify it morally all you want but those kids clearly didn’t have any qualms with giving WotC their money so you stealing on their behalf is simply an excuse.
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Yeah, but as a creator, I have to be principled. If you want more things that you like, you have to pay for them. I don’t like the system and I fight to change it at every turn but it’s the system we have.
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Odd… I thought the whole question was meant to start a discussion but it seems like no one is willing to discuss it…
Thank you. Seconded.
Your insinuation of guilt to support your argument is not helpful.
I’m not insinuating guilt, I’m outright stating it. Someone created those books. Whether it was one person in their basement or a company like WotC, you’re depriving the creators of income that they would have otherwise gotten when the normal social contract is observed. If you want more of a creator’s work, you need to pay them.
In your initial reply, you asked how it differs academically. It doesn’t. Sharing is sharing, from a purely academic perspective. From a non-academic perspective, which would include economic, financial, and contractual perspectives as well, it matters very much to the people creating the things being shared.
I gather that you’ve a personal investment to the point of blinding bias, but your self-righteous ire is misplaced and unappreciated. Thanks for letting me know I don’t have to spend time watching you put in that work, though. I hope you find ways to be a better person.
I’m confused. Explain to me how it’s self-righteous to expect people to pay for things that people create as opposed to stealing them? The only “personal investment” that I have is that I create things for a living and need to get paid for those creations in order to survive and support my family… If only one person bought it and then freely shared it with everyone else, I wouldn’t be able to pay my bills.
This is the sort of thing that keeps your hobby alive with the next generation. Very cool
unfortunately they were sold to half price books for beer and gas money
That sounds good, someone else can pick them up cheaper used, there is gas to help get around, and there is also beer. You said it like a bad thing, but I don’t see how it is.
we need more content like this, that gives me the warm fluffy feelings
That was the main reason I posted this. I thought I would enjoy seeing this on here.
I have a bookshelf full of DnD and other roleplaying books. Whenever someone is over if they get particularly excited about something I always try and give it to them (unless that book holds particular sentimental value to me). Or like one time when I was moving one of the movers was talking about studying for a programming interview so I gave them a book specifically to help with that. For most my life I had very little income and I’m finally in a place where my needs are met and I’m not struggling constantly. The times people gave me things when I showed interest were really impactful and I just want to do that for others now. You’re doing great things they’re going to remember this
I find giving someone something that I enjoy is even better when you KNOW that they will use and enjoy it too.
I gave away a PS4 to someone at the office. I got the PS5 and wanted someone to enjoy the PS4 as much as I did. It made me happy to hear the games he was able to play now–and he did tell me about them.
The joy of giving is not a myth.
Heck, I bought BG3 for an old D&D buddy of mine who didn’t have much monies and have gotten nonstop enjoyment watching their complete addiction.
It might be the best gift I’ve ever given.
Yes Baldur’s Gate 3 is an awesome game. I have 200 hours in it and I am only 1/3 of the way through it. Great D&D game!
BG3 is helping me keep my sanity through this semester of college. I’m mentally at my limits, stressed, and overwhelmed, but on the weekends I load it up and play until it doesnt matter anymore. I’m just about finished my second play through and debating whether or not I want to start a third or take a break. I also listen to the soundtrack while I’m studying, it’s become one of my absolute favorite soundtracks.
Plot twist: they were 3.5 books
The best edition. There, I said it.
Agreed. However, I’ve come to learn that it’s far from an unpopular opinion.
I’m not giving those away. Too many memories.
You’re a good person Mr. Fry
I don’t even play D&D, but I want to thank you for what you did.
Be careful. I believe that is Comic Book Guy’s origin story.
they will never forget that day…that would be a treasured memory for them for the rest of their lives
You could “acquire” a pdf version of the books.
I’m moving to Pathfinder 2e anyways after this campaign ends. I do still own another copy of the PHB which my daughter uses for her games. So I’ll have to break the news to her that we have to share that one now. And one of my players agreed to lend me his monster manual for now.
I didn’t want to post this as virtue signaling stuff or anything. It was just kind of a crazy decision I made that I think was kinda cool. They just reminded me so much of me when I started out. We were lucky to get our first dnd books gifted by an older brother of one of our group’s members. So I wanted to pay it forward. Now I just have to figure out how to run tonight’s game without my books.
Truly, thanks for being nice to others. We need more of that in the World, especially these days.
Paying it forward, nice.
I’m sure they’ll remember this day in decades.
