The Top 10 Most Pirated Tabletop RPGs on BitTorrent
Just as a quick FYI before I begin - Bittorrent networking is the most popular form of modern P2P (peer-to-peer) file sharing. Since 2006, bittorrent sharing has been the primary means for users to trade software, music, movies, and digital books online. Torrents are very unpopular with the MPAA, the RIAA, and other copyright authorities, but are much beloved by millions of college and university students around the planet.
Bittorrents (also known as “torrents”) work by downloading small bits of files from many different web sources at the same time. Torrent downloading is extremely easy to use, and outside of a few torrent search providers, torrents themselves are free of user fees.
The data for this download chart was taken by looking at the seven largest public and semi-public torrent sites and searching for the most downloaded tabletop RPGs, and is for informational and educational reference only. All the games in the list are in .pdf format unless stated otherwise. This is in no case a scientific list, and I have purposely elected to leave off the total numbers of downloads as to not use this article as “well, 6 thousand people have done it, so it must be OK”:
- The Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Core Rulebook is heads and tales above every other spot on this list.
- Coming in at second place is a gigantic torrent of the complete collection AD&D first edition books.
- Once again, Pathfinder is on the list with the Pathfinder RPG GameMastery Guide.
- Surprisingly, Vampire: The Masquerade (yes, the OWoD edition) takes fourth.
- Again, Paizo does it. The Pathfinder RPG Advanced Player’s Guide is in fifth place.
- The complete Star Wars Saga Edition RPG torrent comes in at sixth place.
- Seventh place belongs to a complete torrent of Black Library and FFG’s Warhammer 40K RPGs.
- A complete collection of the D&D 3.5 edition books comes in at eighth place.
- Ninth place belongs to a torrent shared by the Pathfinder Society Scenarios #3-07 – #3-10.
- And finally – last place belongs to a complete Call of Cthulhu torrent.
I’ve read that in 2010 and 2011, the rise of illegal downloading for RPGs skyrocketed – perhaps a signal that customers want something that is not available through other channels (in the case of out of print games). Some claim that it is more about availability than the fact that it’s free.
Whatever the case, I think that #s 2, 4 and 8 speak volumes about how popular these now OOP games are today – and also shows (or rather, doesn’t show) some current versions of games aren’t even on the radar of the pirates.
Anyway, it was an interesting experiment.
>”heads and tales”
I see what you did there.
Not really surprising, but I hope some of those people ACTUALLY spending a few bucks supporting the companies that they are taking product from.
I’d like to think that is probably the case. I know a lot of people do have the “try it before you buy it” mentality. Or maybe I am just being naive…
… why are people pirating the Pathfinder Core Rulebook? Isn’t it all like on the Pathfinder SRD anyway?
My guess is that people are looking for the art and fluff, as well.
And, some people live in other countries, where it’s a pain in the butt to get anything legit.
IMHO
Is that the case now with the development of many companies printing digitally now? I know I used to get torrent scans back in the day before pdf production was being done, especially for OOP books or those rare ones that were hard to find at the FLGS.
Now I find myself just buying digitally directly. It’s so much more affordable now. Is that not the case in all countries? I just assume, perhaps wrongly so, that if I can order a pdf from Paizo or whoever, then anyone else can. lol