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.
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.
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?
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.
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.
@dpkonofa i wont get deeper on it, as i dont want to diverge from the original altruistic topic. But let’s say we disagree.
Have a nice day!
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
Be careful. I believe that is Comic Book Guy’s origin story.
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.
they will never forget that day…that would be a treasured memory for them for the rest of their lives
You’re a good person Mr. Fry
I don’t even play D&D, but I want to thank you for what you did.
Paying it forward, nice.
I’m sure they’ll remember this day in decades.A similar thing happened to me as a kid!
One of my favorite substitute teachers saw me trying to play a homebrew RPG with typical d6’s - all because I couldn’t afford the actual D&D books. After a few times, he came with his old 1st edition AD&D stuff and gave it all to me.
Now, sure, it was the early aughts and folks were playing 3.0/3.5 and he gave me 1st edition books, but still!
He also gave me all of his dice. Every single one. I still have (most) of them.
I’ve already had a couple of chances to pay it forward a few times myself!
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.
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.
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
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”
Congratulations on your excellent virtue, you have more signal than kraftwerk
Well, good luck on your game! I hope you memorized enough. Also, that was very kind and generous of you. Those kids are gonna have a blast.
