Do you read RPG books all the way through?

[Voadam]

I recently finished reading the 4e DMG all the way through straight and got to wondering if other people ever read their RPG books that way as well.

RPG books in general are a combination of reference rule book and inspiration text. Unlike a novel you can skip around and go only to parts that catch your interest and have that make sense and get value out of it from doing so. As a reference book you can look up the parts applicable to what you are doing and go from there.

I've played whole games where I didn't own the rulebooks and relied mostly upon those who did to explain the game with just a quick flip through some character creation parts to make my character and scanning the artwork to enjoy the ambience of the setting. Star Frontiers, Shadowrun, Warhammer FRP come to mind.

The 1e DMG had Gygax's quirky organization which led me to read discrete sections back in the day though looking back I can't say for certain I read every page. I'm pretty sure I did for the red book/purple box basic game but that was a short game book and it was so long ago I couldn't really say definitively that I did.

I've run modules such as the 1e Temple of Elemental Evil without reading the whole thing. I'd read enough to handle what the party was going to be doing immediately for a night or the foreseeable future while just having skimmed the rest. My party left the area after the moathouse so my knowledge of the rest is sketchy to this day, perfect for the game I'm currently playing that is set there.

I think it was in the 2e era when I started reading some straight through consciously instead of just skipping to what caught my interest at the moment. I get more RPG books than I expect I will ever fully read but I do put RPGs on my reading list now and read them straight through.

In 3e I read the PH all the way through but not the DMG or MM, I used those often as reference books and for occasional inspiration flipthroughs but never cover to cover straight. Other books in my collection have been a mix of reading straight through and reference resources.

Do you read any RPG books all the way through cover to cover? If so which ones?

[Thanee]

Originally Posted by Voadam

Do you read any RPG books all the way through cover to cover? If so which ones?

Nope. Not even adventures.

I skip around all the time, when I "read" those books. Highly erratic.

I would even guess, that there are some parts in most if not all RPG books I own that I havn't ever read at all.

Bye
Thanee

[el-remmen]

Never.

While there are game books I have read every single page of more than once (like the afore-mentioned 1E DMG and some 1E and 2E monster books), never in order or in a number of continuous sittings.

[Crothian]

Yes, I'm pretty much expected to because of the work I do.

As for which ones: basically all of them.

[Fallen Seraph]

Nope, I jump around a lot. The RPG book I probably have read the fullest would be the Promethean: The Created Corebook.

[Obryn]

Pretty much never.

I read in "threads." I start from the beginning-ish, try to get a feel for the basic themes of the game, look for stuff that interests me, and then pursue those topics wherever else they are in the book. Then I refer back to previous parts all over the place. I basically read them in a series of questions and answers.

I think it's safe to say I've never read every single word in any RPG book I've ever owned.

-O

[neuronphaser]

Originally Posted by Voadam

Do you read any RPG books all the way through cover to cover? If so which ones?

I have at times (mostly adventures, sometimes campaign settings and fluffy books), but that's almost never the case nowadays. I have a better eye for what I care about, so I skip the useless bits.

I never read core rulesbooks cover to cover. I like rules and study them a lot, but I try to get a "feel" long before I dive into the details.

[Triskaidekafile]

Not anymore - once upon a time I felt it was somehow bad GMing to not have read all of my books cover to cover.
Really the only ones I read all the way through are those that are, well, interesting enough to do so (And RPG books very very seldom fall into that category for me. Though the 1e DMG was among them. :P) and, sometimes, if I'm running a pre-published adventure, though even that's more to see what needs to be changed to mesh it with my homebrew.

[Byronic]

I'll read WoD ones from front to back multiple times. I'd read quite a bit of the DnD books, but not every page. I simply don't find the latter very interesting. They are hopelessly deficient when it comes to fluff.

[Tequila Sunrise]

After owning a book for a full year, I may have read every single word, but I never read RPGs like I read novels. In the Borders or B&N I'll skim a chapter or two that is most interesting to me, then at home I'll skip around the pages over the next few weeks. Within a month, I'll have usually covered 90% of a book, but I often don't get further than that.

TS

[Voadam]

I'll start a list here of ones I know I have.

WotC/TSR:

Spoiler:

4e:
DMG

3.5:
Tome of Magic

3.0:
Player's Handbook
Lord of the Iron Fortress (48)
Book of Challenges
Return to the Temple of Elemental Evil
Something's Cooking (5)

2e:
Demihuman Deities
Faiths & Avatars
Powers & Pantheons
Prayers from the Faithful
Priest's Spell Compendium Volume I-III
Van Richten's Guide to Werebeasts (96)
Wizard's Spell Compendium Volume I-IV

1e:
1980 Greyhawk Campaign Setting Folio
Under Illefarn

OD&D:
Dungeons and Dragons (Holmes edition)
The Strategic Review Vol. 1 No. 1
The Strategic Review Vol. 1 No. 2

Statless:
A Practical Guide to Monsters
The Grand History of the Realms

Others:

Spoiler:

93 Game Studios:

d20 Modern:
Blood of Dionysus


Arthaus:

3.5:
Manual of Monsters

3.0:
Ravenloft Campaign Setting
Denizens of Darkness


Atlas Games:

3.0:
Penumbra Fantasy Bestiary


Avalanche Press:

3.0:
Doom of Odin
Nile Empire: War in Heliopolis
Ragnarok!
The Little People
Twilight of Atlantis

Bastion Press:

3.5
Alchemy & Herbalists 3.5
Arms & Armor 3.5
Complete Minions
Doomstriders
Into the Black
Into the Blue
Oathbound Arena
Oathbound Mysteries of Arena
Oathbound Wrack and Ruin
Out for Blood
Torn Asunder
Wildwood

3.0
Druids and Druidism
Greek Gods
Egyptian Gods
Into the Green
Minions Rebirth
Norse Gods
Spells and Magic


Chainmail Bikini Games:

3.0:
Beyond Monks
Call to Duty


Different Worlds Publications:

3.5:
The Eight Kings
Valus


Dragonsfoot:

1e:
Manual of Professions A Dungeoneer's Guide to Aeronautics


E.N. Publishing:

3.5:
E.N. Critters 4 Along the Banks of the River Vaal

3.0:
Librum Equitis Compiled


Expeditious Retreat Press:

3.5:
The Star of Olindor

Osric:
Old School Gazette 1
Old School Gazette 10


Fantasy Flight Games:

3.0:
Mythic Races


Games Workshop:

Blood Bowl:
Human Playbook

Green Ronin:

Statless:
Pirate's Guide to Freeport (256)

3.5:
Book of Fiends
SpirosBlaak

3.0:
Jade Dragons and Hungry Ghosts
The Witch's Handbook

IDA:

3.0
Lunar Knights


Kenzer and Co.:

3.0:
Harvest of Darkness
Midnight's Terror

Hackmaster:
B1 Quest for the Unknown


Khan's Press:

3.5:
Soul Harvest


Living Imagination:

3.0:
Broadsides!
Twin Crowns Campaign Setting


Malhavoc Press:

3.5:
Complete Book of Eldritch Might

3.0:
Demon God's Fane

Arcana Evolved:
Way of the Sword


Mayfair Games:
1e:
Raiders of Ironrock


Mongoose Publishing:

3.5:
Slayer's Guide to Demons

3.0:
Encyclopedia Divine: Fey Magic
Quintessential Wizard
Slayer's Guide to Trolls


Mystic Eye Games:

3.0:
Mystic Warriors


Paizo:

3.5:
Osirion Land of Pharohs (32)


Privateer Press:

3.5:
Monsternomicon 3.5


Ronin Arts:

3.5:
Core Class Variants (before it was revised)


S.T. Cooley Publishing:

3.0:
Enchiridion of Mystic Music


Sean K. Reynolds Games:

3.5:
Hungry Little Monsters


Silverthorne Games:

3.0:
Book of Templates


Sorcerer's Apprentice Magazine:

1e?:
Little Shop of Poisons and Potions


Steve Jackson Games:

GURPS 3e:
GURPS Basic Set (256)


Sword Sorcery Studios:

3.0:
Burok Torn
Relics and Rituals
Scarred Lands Gazeteer: Ghelspad


Tabletop Adventures:

3.5
Bits of Magica: Rings and Jewels
Bits of the Wilderness: Into the Mountains


Throwing Dice Games:

3.0
Joe's Book of Enchantment

[senna]

Originally Posted by Byronic

I'll read WoD ones from front to back multiple times.

Man, thats though. The oWOD books are some of the most repetitive rpg books i ever see, the changeling book for example has the houses information in three formats in three diferent parts of the book. The begining fluf is top notch, but the way information is formated is a nightmare to me, i tried several times reading their books cover to cover and this feature aways made me fail.

[Morrus]

No. They're not a good read. They're reference books, and I use them as such.

[Lacyon]

Originally Posted by Morrus

No. They're not a good read. They're reference books, and I use them as such.

Mostly like that.

(I ended up voting yes, because the poll asks if you ever do, and sometimes I'm bored)

[delericho]

Yes.

[Betote]

Mostly setting, adventures and supplemental rules, in that order of preference. What I almost never read are "lists": I won't read a Feats or Spells chapter, but I love reading the "DM wisdom" section that every core books seems to have

[Shemeska]

Yes, but only for books that are packed with well written, evocative flavor text, rather than reading like a text book. This pretty much negates any chance of my reading most 3.x WotC books except for the gems like Fiendish Codex I or Lords of Madness, and 4e books seem to have less flavor text from all I've seen.

However I've read cover to cover almost every Shadowrun, WoD, and Golarion/Pathfinder book I own. Awesome games/settings and fun to read as well.

[Dragonbait]

Usually no, but..

Originally Posted by Shemeska

...only for books that are packed with well written, evocative flavor text, rather than reading like a text book. This pretty much negates any chance of my reading most 3.x WotC books except for the gems like Fiendish Codex I or Lords of Madness, and 4e books seem to have less flavor text from all I've seen.

I've read through Planescape, Ravenloft, Cadwallon, Warhammer FRP, and other game books but I rarely seem to delve into D&D's fluff even though that's what I normally GM. Shemeska named a few WoTC books I have read through.

On the flip side, if they are incredibly packed with info, I don't read them. The Forgotten Realms 3E setting book is an example of this. I'll read about the day to day lives, some of the lands I'm GMing in, and so on but never the entire book.

[justanobody]

I am a chapter bouncer.

I don't recall ever really reading Time and Movement in my AD&D PHB. I know it is there, but can't recall actually reading it.

[Agamon]

I voted no, because not usually, though I have read number of them straight through. I don't read spells, powers or monsters though, those are usually skipped until I need to read them.