Can anybody tell me where the 3.0/3.5 Ravenloft books went ?

[Jander Sunstar]

I have a question,

Today, with some money to spare, I decided to go on drivethruRPG to buy some Ravenloft 3.0/3.5 pdfs. from the white wolf sword and sorcery section only to find that they are nowhere to be found. Can anybody tell me why ? And will they ever come back on drivethruRPG ? If anybody can give me an answer I would be grateful...

[alhoon]

I know WWolf doesn't have the license for Ravenloft any more. Perhaps they don't have the right to sell their books for it either?

[Gonzoron of the FoS]

I don't think they were ever available online, other than the draft of VRG to the Mists, which was only released online. The era of 3e Ravenloft was just on the cusp of the boom in e-books and digital distribution, and hadn't embraced it yet. And as alhoon says, now that the channel is there, there may be rights issues regarding who has reprint rights: WW or WotC. Sadly, hardcopy is the only legal way to get them.

[Jander Sunstar]

I don't think they were ever available online

They were at one time. I saw them on drivethruRPG two or three years ago. And I always thought they would be around in the future. But, as Christopher Walken gave that memorable line in B. Monkey: "Go for it, or forever wish that you had..." I'm now wishing for it.....

[Chaderick]

They were definitely available, but when Wizards took back the license for Ravenloft, they all went away. I can't remember if there was a going-away sale or not, but I know that they had a specific date, after which no books of pdfs would be sold. I didn't the money to fill out my collection at the time, and now there are some gaps in my collection.

However, Wizards has begun releasing the Margaret Weis Productions books for Dragonlance. I have begun to harbor some minor hope that, when they feel the time is right, they will also release the Arthause Ravenloft books. Both were created under license during the 3.x era, so I'm hopeful that someday the opportunity will exist to buy those last few books...

[alhoon]

I'm not so hopeful... WotC probably doesn't have the right for those books. They're resaling Ravenloft stuff though from 2e, which is good and nice.

[The Lesser Evil]

I'm not so hopeful... WotC probably doesn't have the right for those books. They're resaling Ravenloft stuff though from 2e, which is good and nice.

I'm not sure we have any evidence to support that assumption. The only information that we have to go on either way is to compare it to is the Sovereign Press deal that now lets WotC sell the books electronically. From the Dragons of Autumn description page:

Because this book was published under license, years later, it's now available for republication by Wizards.

Source: http://www.dndclassics.com/product/1263 ... 4708_44702

[Jester of the FoS]

The books were likely the victim of WotC yanking all the D&D PDFs a few years back. We might see them again, or we might not.

I'm not so hopeful... WotC probably doesn't have the right for those books. They're resaling Ravenloft stuff though from 2e, which is good and nice.

They're selling the MWP Dragonlance books, which were released under a licence similar to the Dragonlance books.

[Gonzoron of the FoS]

I stand corrected. I guess back then I wasn't at all interested in digital copies, so I wasn't paying close attention.

The licensing should be cut and dried, and the DL books are a nice precedent that might indicate they'd be released eventually, but it might be one of those cases where the legal reps from each side made different assumptions and now might see room to haggle. The law is always murkier than than it should be. Just because MWP played nice doesn't mean WW will. But this is all just guesswork. We'll just have to wait and see, I suppose..