Buy the books, they're great quality. I have every one, and they're beautiful.
If you want to conserve cash, let me make this recommendation: Buy the PHB, then subscribe to DDI. In using the Compendium, you'll have unlimited legal access to all the material in all the books. The monthly subscription price is considerably less than it would cost to buy all those books.
For things like Open Grave, this might be a good option. It's absolutely a good option for PHB2. As for Draconomicon and Manual of the Planes, those are probably worth the buy for the fluff.
That said, I'm really kicking myself over the promise I made to my mother that I'd never buy D&D books again. All the books look so cool, and I want them all, but my mother wants me to limit my D&D habit.
Frankly, if you're a cheapskate, why the heck are you playing D&D in the first place? Sure it's cheaper than something like Warhammer (at least the minis are optional) but you still need the books to play.
Frankly, D&D's still just about the cheapest thing you can do. On the casual end or the completionist/hardcore end. On the casual end, you can get the core rulebooks together, a battlemat, and dice (the essentials) for less than 100 bucks. 150 if you wanna go DM screen, some tokens, printing costs of sheets, going the extra mile. And then you and your 4-6 other friends can play FOREVER. With very little to no further contributions, you can get by. Pick up Monster Manual 2? Forget it, you've got enough monsters for 3-4 campaigns right there, not to mention what you can create with templates, etc.
On the hardcore/completionist side? With Insider and a supplement every month, with the occasional tiles? I pay less than $40 a month ordering from Amazon, always, and I have more material than I'll ever need. Other hobbies, you're not so lucky if you consider that gamers need their machines and minis-wargamers... well, christ, I won't even go there. I did all that for about 5 years, and it's the closest I'll ever get to feeling like a meth addict (living life on $40 increments, hands stuck with glue all of the time...).
That said, I'm really kicking myself over the promise I made to my mother that I'd never buy D&D books again. All the books look so cool, and I want them all, but my mother wants me to limit my D&D habit.
That's really a damn shame. My mother was like this when I was in middle school, until she watched what was going on at the table. By the time I was later on in high school, she considered it one of the most important things I did week-by-week. It's an important thing for young people to do, as an exercise of critical thinking, cooperation, recreation, and above all, creativity.
Rats--Gotta buy the dang 40$ things. Goodbye 200$+, Man their expensive.
Do you live in the United States? If so, purchase them from Amazon.com. The three core books will cost you $66.12, total, and shipping is free. That's a pretty far cry from $200.
Additionally: downloading the Wizards of the Coast products, for free, from websites not under WotC's control, is illegal. However, there is plenty of content - including quickstart rules and Keep on the Shadowfell - available free and legal from this page and the excerpts pages. So if you haven't had a chance to play 4E, or are trying to get someone into the game, this is an excellent promotional tool. There are also free 4E GSL (third-party) products scattered about the internet, but not as prolific as d20 supplements were.
That said, I'm really kicking myself over the promise I made to my mother that I'd never buy D&D books again. All the books look so cool, and I want them all, but my mother wants me to limit my D&D habit.
My mother was always a proponent of me playing D&D. When I started playing 20 years ago at the age of 9 (wow, I feel old), one of my friends introduced me to it, and my mother actually fought off disparagement of the game ("Isn't it rated "R?"). She made characters with me, even though I don't think we ever actually played a game. Perhaps this goes along with the fact that she is the one who piqued my interest in The Hobbit and such. Lucky me! She never thought of it as detrimental or wrong, but rather as creative and fun!
I have had a love/hate relationship with the game since AD&D. It's fun, but not my favorite game and I play because my friends do.
Back on subject of my post, if WOTC wants any of my money, I want PDFs. No lame excuses. It works for another game I play. They offer the PDFs first and most buy the PDF AND the deadtree versions
It's also a weird strat they're using. D&D insider is online only because magazine sales are so poor showing that on one level Wizards are aware that digital distribution is the future.
I don't figure it.
The short answer is: Yes, it's illegal.
With the sidenote that's mostly from an US perspective. In the Netherlands, downloading music, films and books is just fine.
That said, I'm amazed this thread doesn't contain the word stea-
No, I'm not going to say it. :D I'm just happily surprised by it.
This is a very illegal thing to do, as it pirating music, movies, all that. Wizards has been coming down hard on people who have been uploading these kinds of files, and has recently opened 8 lawsuits.
Buy the books, they're great quality. I have every one, and they're beautiful.
Where can I read more about these lawsuits?