Donate $20 to Haiti Relief, get $1481 worth of RPG ebooks

[Nate the great]

I just came across this on TeleRead, and thought it worth repeating.

Gamers, Let's band together and see how much we can raise to help the people of Haiti.

Donate $20 and get a coupon for over a thousand dollars in RPG titles. After you make the donation, you will receive the coupon code in your email. It will also be available in your order history.

A listing of the free products available with this coupon can be found on our Gamers Help Haiti page.

Add any of the products to your cart, and use the coupon on checkout. Any products that are part of the Haiti relief package will be discounted to $0.00.

Unfortunately the overwhelming generosity of the gaming community is hampering our ability to deliver the orders purchased with the bundle coupon to you. Your products will be safe in your order history, so if you could wait a day or two before downloading them, it would be much appreciated. Please contact us if you have any questions.

from:
http://rpg.drivethrustuff.com/produc...adlyfredly.com

Some of the ebooks have DRM, some do not.

[pshrynk]

I took a look and there are quite a few game manuals so you can start out with the rules. There are also a lot of modules. My favorite was the model builder stand alone which allows you to print off and build space ship models.

I sent my $20 in.

[DawnFalcon]

edit: Nm, missed it was a crosspost

[Conor]

And watch out for fake appeals. I've seen a number of emails asking for donations by Western Union or Moneygram.
Scammers have no compunction about exploiting a tragedy like this to line their own pockets.
http://www.scamwarners.com/forum/vie...php?f=2&t=5706

[Connallmac]

They are also providing coupons via e-mail to those who had donated already to make up the difference between a prior donation and $20 to allow you to access the special offer. If you have already donated some check your e-mail!

[easterncoyote]

If you want to make a donation to help the poor people of Haiti, then do so. There are many reputable, international aid agencies working there to choose from. To entice people, and connect this terrible tragedy with the offer of free books, or anything else is, I think, obscene. Here is a quote from the site Nate referenced, which speaks for itself:

"This is a chance to do some good for people in need—and even if you couldn’t care less about the plight of Haiti, the opportunity to get nearly $1500 worth of RPG e-books for $20 is worth seizing for its own sake."

[chorpler]

How is this obscene? The idea is to get people to donate who otherwise might not donate by offering them something. That quote is a perfect example -- they're trying to entice even selfish people to donate by giving away their product to those who donate. Awfully generous of them, and the characterization of it as "obscene" greatly confuses me.

[Robotech_Master]

And it's working, too. The person I originally found out about it from, an extreme conservative/libertarian type, actually says in the blog post where he writes about it, "Despite how I feel about giving money to the Haitians, I am never opposed to getting an extremely good deal on things that are wonderful to play with."

I don't see how the money of people who couldn't give a damn about the Haitians will somehow help them less than the money of people who are caring and concerned.

[Pardoz]

Originally Posted by easterncoyote

There are many reputable, international aid agencies working there to choose from.

Like MSF (aka Doctors Without Borders), which is where all the donations at DriveThruRPG are going?

[Riocaz]

And lets not forget that they are matching all donations made at the $5 and $10 level.

I've made a donation.

[pshrynk]

I had alread made a donation through the Mayo Foundation, so the bargain with the gaming stuff was just icing for me. The $20 goes to a very deserving and hard working relief organization. Not sure why it's obscene for me to give my $20 to someone and as a bonus, get some junk.

[discourse]

I've donated $20. Not really my kind of books but nice to see people get together for this important cause. I've already donated to the Red Cross before.

[Penforhire]

Yeah, how is this obscene? The publishers of those e-texts are the ones giving up income. It isn't a 1-for-1 loss since many of us would not buy all those texts but there has to be some lost income.

You might argue donations to charity should have zero benefit to the donor. That is an ethical decision for every individual to make. I don't feel that way since it stimulates donations. On a similar ethical level is the question of why you are donating to Haitian relief if you know of any hungry homeless people in your own country. Or, if you are American, what you did or did not do for Americans who lost everything due to Hurricane Katrina. I am angered when I see advertising for Hatian animal relief because I know for a fact our local animal shelters need donations (aside from the 'you'll help foreign animals ahead of domestic people?' issue).

[AnemicOak]

Guess I'm obscene since I gave them $20.


They've collected $63,950.00 so far.

[Robotech_Master]

I went ahead and ordered today myself, since they changed the way the giveaway works so that you don't have to click through 12 pages of stuff to put 174 items in your shopping cart.

Of course, I may not be able to download the stuff until Monday. Fingers crossed they let me tomorrow.