Splat Books

sircaren · Apr 19, 2002

Ok, so I've figured out what they are. The question is, where did the term splat books come from?

Eryx · Apr 19, 2002

sircaren said:
Ok, so I've figured out what they are. The question is, where did the term splat books come from?

Don't know, but I hate the term Splat Book.
They have always been called Class Books by my group.

Crothian · Apr 19, 2002

Well, first there where many books from multiple companies called something book (clanbook, worldbook, sourcebook, classbook, etc.). Then somewhere, not sure, thhey starting using *book as a way to through all these types into one general catagory. The * is called a Splat by a certain group of people so they are called splat books.

I'm sure someone knows the story much better, but that should get you the basic idea.

Limper · Apr 19, 2002

Splat book, short hand for (*) and (*) the naming convention used until MotW.

sircaren · Apr 19, 2002

LOL, ok what's MotW?

Sorry for my ignorance, relative newbie to the boards here.

Eryx · Apr 19, 2002

MotW is Masters of the Wild, the ranger/druid/barbarian Class Book.

I'm A Banana · Apr 19, 2002

Ur...

The sound they make when you slam them down on the table...softcovers SPLAT nicely.

Or....

The fact that the information within seems to have originated from a burst and spread, like a splat. For instance, sword and fist took the idea of Fighters and Monks, and blew it up -- SPLAT!

At least, that's always been my association.

Of course, when you're doing a splatbook, it must be crunchy....cruchy splats that are not shafted.

Heh. I love gamer-lingo.

Impeesa · Apr 19, 2002

Limper said:
Splat book, short hand for (*) and (*) the naming convention used until MotW.

Unless you count Defenders of the Faith.

AFAIK, Crothian's right. I think it was in reference to White Wolf in particular, but maybe not.

--Impeesa--

Holy Bovine · Apr 19, 2002

The '*' is called a 'splat' by publishers and those in the publishing industry. It was just picked by gamers as a derogatory term for anything they don't like.

And I hate the term too.

Ulrick · Apr 19, 2002

Huh, I learn something new everyday.

I thought splatbook meant that a gaming company publishes a bunch of non-core book supplements and hope they make a "splat" with the gamers. The stuff in the book isn't "A" material but some segment of the gaming population my like it.

Sort of a long the lines of "throw stuff at it until something sticks."

Ulrick