D&D 3E/3.5 Sounds too good to be true

[haakon1]

A player in my 3.5e campaign is becoming a 3.5e DM himself.

He told me he’s getting “free” 3e splatbooks, like the Mininatures book, from two websites. I assume this is NOT some real, legitimate release by WotC? Or did they eventually free release several 3e era books? Since I don’t see “Miniatures“ for sale, at least under that name, on DriveThruRPG, maybe it’s legit??

 

[jeffh]

There's not enough detail here to be sure but my first thought is that perhaps he fell for one of the scams that advertise regularly on Facebook.

 

[rgard]

A player in my 3.5e campaign is becoming a 3.5e DM himself.

He told me he’s getting “free” 3e splatbooks, like the Mininatures book, from two websites. I assume this is NOT some real, legitimate release by WotC? Or did they eventually free release several 3e era books? Since I don’t see “Miniatures“ for sale, at least under that name, on DriveThruRPG, maybe it’s legit??

I'd ask him to identify the websites.

 

[aco175]

I mean, I likely could find pirated, scanned copies online that are free. I could also just go to my FLGS and get 3e stuff for $5.00 a book since it is 20 years old.

 

[haakon1]

There's not enough detail here to be sure but my first thought is that perhaps he fell for one of the scams that advertise regularly on Facebook.

He did say he found it through a Facebook group.

 

[haakon1]

I'd ask him to identify the websites.

He said Scribd and Archive.

 

[jeffh]

He said Scribd and Archive.

Ah. That makes sense. Scribd has legit e-book and audiobook sections, but anything D&D-related I've seen there is user-uploaded with no indication that it's in any way approved by WotC. So, almost certainly pirated. I'm less familiar with that side of archive.org (I mostly just use the Wayback Machine, if anything) but would be very surprised if the situation there were any different. So, yes, these things exist, but they're almost certainly not legal.

 

[haakon1]

Ah. That makes sense. Scribd has legit e-book and audiobook sections, but anything D&D-related I've seen there is user-uploaded with no indication that it's in any way approved by WotC. So, almost certainly pirated. I'm less familiar with that side of archive.org (I mostly just use the Wayback Machine, if anything) but would be very surprised if the situation there were any different. So, yes, these things exist, but they're almost certainly not legal.

I know Internet Archive of all Dungeon issues is legit (related to a lawsuit, I have heard). But I don’t think “Archive” is the same thing.

 

[Joshua Randall]

Scribd is gonna be pirated material 90% of the time when it relates to nerd culture.

Internet Archive is in a pretty murky area.

Make your own decisions.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Scribd is gonna be pirated material 90% of the time when it relates to nerd culture.

It's astonishing how even the smallest print run, most niche stuff shows up there. People, the writer probably could name most of their customers -- give them a break and don't upload it to a pirate site.