One prominent designer (who asked to remain anonymous) told me in 2020: "I launched a Kickstarter for a 40-page zine. We raised $4,000. Two days after backers got their PDFs, it was on The Trove. My post-campaign sales were $200. That book took me a year to write. The Trove stole my rent money."
Conversely, creators argue that piracy devalues their work. Smaller indie developers often use The Trove Rpg Archive
Furthermore, The Trove actively undermined the Open Gaming License (OGL) ecosystem. While games like Pathfinder allowed free distribution of their rules , The Trove hosted the flavor text , art , and layout —the actual copyrighted expression. One prominent designer (who asked to remain anonymous)