Pet Peeve with digital RPG purchases (ttrpg.network)

submitted 1 day ago by juergen_hubert@ttrpg.network to c/rpg@ttrpg.network

12 comments fedilink hide all child comments

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.

top 12 comments

sorted by: hot top controversial new old

[-] myrrh@ttrpg.network 1 points 19 hours ago

...i share your peeve, but regarding step three: OS/X lets me rename and move files without closing them first, which is very handy for sorting + managing large libraries...

[-] kryptonianCodeMonkey@lemmy.world 6 points 1 day 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.

[-] Jer@chirp.enworld.org 7 points 1 day 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 1 day 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.

[-] RogerBW@discordian.social 4 points 1 day ago

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

[-] GoblinQuester@dice.camp 3 points 1 day ago

@juergen_hubert I'm completely with you on that!

[-] Solumbran@lemmy.world 3 points 1 day 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 1 day ago

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

[-] Solumbran@lemmy.world 3 points 1 day 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 1 day ago

It's not like you pay them...

Oh wait.

[-] juergen_hubert@ttrpg.network 2 points 1 day 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.

[-] Grimpen@lemmy.ca 2 points 1 day 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.

this post was submitted on 02 Apr 2026

47 points (98.0% liked)

rpg

4740 readers

5 users here now

This community is for meaningful discussions of tabletop/pen & paper RPGs

Rules (wip):

Do not distribute pirate content
Do not incite arguments/flamewars/gatekeeping.
Do not submit video game content unless the game is based on a tabletop RPG property and is newsworthy.
Image and video links MUST be TTRPG related and should be shared as self posts/text with context or discussion unless they fall under our specific case rules.
Do not submit posts looking for players, groups or games.
Do not advertise for livestreams
Limit Self-promotions. Active members may promote their own content once per week. Crowdfunding posts are limited to one announcement and one reminder across all users.
Comment respectfully. Refrain from personal attacks and discriminatory (racist, homophobic, transphobic, etc.) comments. Comments deemed abusive may be removed by moderators.
No Zak S content.
Off-Topic: Book trade, Boardgames, wargames, video games are generally off-topic.
No AI-generated content. Discussion of AI generation pertaining to RPGs is explicitly allowed.

founded 2 years ago

MODERATORS

sirblastalot@ttrpg.network

TripHammer@ttrpg.network

Primarch@ttrpg.network

BrentTaylor@ttrpg.network

Avogadro@ttrpg.network