Pet Peeve with digital RPG purchases (ttrpg.network)

submitted 7 hours ago by juergen_hubert@ttrpg.network to c/rpg@ttrpg.network

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I buy a lot of digital RPG books - the shelf space in my apartment is ultimately limited, while the space on my hard drive is far less constrained (despite current storage prices). Furthermore, while the reading experience is still slightly better for physical books, I have a color e-ink reader which comes close enough for my purposes.

However, I do have a pet peeve with some RPG publishers: They refuse to give the files proper file names. Paizo is the worst offender among them, though not the only one.

I mean, I don't mind if the file name includes the product code. It's fine if a "PZO13008E" somewhere in there.

But please, for all that is unholy, make the file name "PZO13008E Hellfire Dispatches" instead of just leaving it at that! When I am making large purchases of multiple books - which I do frequently - I have to go on a renaming orgy:

Open the file
Check what product this file represents
Close the file
Rename the file

If the file name included the actual product title, I could skip steps 1-3.

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[-] kryptonianCodeMonkey@lemmy.world 3 points 2 hours ago

I haven't downloaded any Paizo books, but PDFs often have Metadata stored. Do those files have the full title in the Metadata?

If so, I would just write a script that you could run to look at each pdf in your rpg directory, pull the title from the Metadata for that title, and rename the file with that. The script would be pretty basic. Once written, you could download all the books you like and run that script periodically or with each download in milliseconds. Far less tedious.

[-] RogerBW@discordian.social 3 points 5 hours ago

@juergen_hubert Podcasts too. "GLX2897903.mp3", yeah, that's really helpful, thanks. (And usually no ID3 metadata either.)

[-] Grimpen@lemmy.ca 2 points 5 hours ago

I have lots of shelf space, but it's full. Plus shipping is painful, so similar boat.

The filenames aren't too big a deal, since I use directories, sub-directories, and sub-sub-directories. Still, meaningful filenames aways help.

[-] Jer@chirp.enworld.org 6 points 7 hours ago

@juergen_hubert oh agreed! Paizo is one of the worst offenders but there are too many times I'll download a file that just has a product number for a filename and its aggravating when filing it on my tablet

[-] blind_mapmaker@eldritch.cafe 5 points 6 hours ago

@juergen_hubert Yeah, seems weird that most of the self-publishers on DTRPG and itch.io can do this and the big name ones can't.

Honourable mention: except for some old issues of Space Gamer and such Steve Jackson Games has had excellent file names on their own digital outlet for... close to 20 (?) years now.

[-] GoblinQuester@dice.camp 3 points 7 hours ago

@juergen_hubert I'm completely with you on that!

[-] Solumbran@lemmy.world 3 points 7 hours ago

I guess you could have a script that takes the filename, and if it starts with pzo search for it on the paizo website and scrape the actual title :p

[-] juergen_hubert@ttrpg.network 5 points 6 hours ago

Yeah, but why should I be the one to do it, and not the company?

[-] Solumbran@lemmy.world 3 points 3 hours ago

Because capitalism made it that consumers are just money cattle, and deserve no respect.

So you prepare the revolution, and in the meanwhile you manage :p

[-] snooggums@piefed.world 3 points 5 hours ago

It's not like you pay them...

Oh wait.

[-] juergen_hubert@ttrpg.network 1 points 2 hours ago

I mean, I realize that the margins in the TTRPG industry are razor-thin.

Still, this doesn't sound like something that should require a lot of effort.

this post was submitted on 02 Apr 2026

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