General RPG DiscussionDiscussion of all RPGs and non-system-specific topics. DM/GM/player issues, settings, etc. Rules discussion belongs in one the forums below.
Which hardcover book is least chockful of goodness?
I say "chockful of goodness" because I want to combine a bunch of things: overall utility, useful crunch, enjoyable fluff, inspiring ideas, etc. Which book do you find to be the least of all of the above, in toto?
Mine: Martial Power. The FR Players Guide is close, but I don't actually own it--for that very reason. Martial Power just seems...well, boring for one. But mainly it feels like it could have been filled in elsewhere--say, put magic items back where they belong in the DMG and expand the PHB to 400 pages.
In terms of general usefulness I'd have to go with the FRCG. If you're not playing in that campaign setting, and I'm not, then there's not much reason to pick that one up.
That said I disagree with you about Martial Power. You say there's nothing in there that couldn't be put in the PHB but if that's true what about Arcane Power or Divine Power? Would all that go in the PHB as well? If so then the book would be 700 pages long. Not everything can fit in one book.
I think the stuff in Martial Power is actually very useful, for my campaign anyway. I have a Battlerager in the game I DM and I play a Beastmaster Ranger in another game. For me it's been an incredibly useful book that is chockful of neat stuff.
I don't own everything on the list, but of the ones I have, I've been least impressed with Draconomicon. The encounters and new monsters are useful, but the rest of the book gets a definitive "meh" from me.
I voted MotP. It didn't have the crunch in it I thought it should (Githyankis and Githzeri full race writeups) and I found the fluff for each plane kind of strange...listing various places in the planes instead of a long description of the entire plane itself.
To be fair, however, I did browse through it at Borders, not read it from cover to cover.
I don't own any of them, or have any friends who do, so my experience is purely from browsing at the local B&N, and online reviews. Based on what I've seen, the FRCG gets me vote by a wide margin (admittedly, it might have been received better if no previous edition of the game existed by which to compare it to, as it greatly suffers by comparison).
__________________ "I can just see the 4e adventure anthology "Tale from the Limited Staircase"." - Ken Marable
That said I disagree with you about Martial Power. You say there's nothing in there that couldn't be put in the PHB but if that's true what about Arcane Power or Divine Power? Would all that go in the PHB as well? If so then the book would be 700 pages long. Not everything can fit in one book.
I think the stuff in Martial Power is actually very useful, for my campaign anyway. I have a Battlerager in the game I DM and I play a Beastmaster Ranger in another game. For me it's been an incredibly useful book that is chockful of neat stuff.
As I said, I'm not just talking about utility, which Martial Power certainly has. For me an RPG book has to have a satisfying combination of crunch and fluff, to varying degrees depending upon the subject matter. For me, Martial Power is, well, rather boring...almost entirely crunch, very little fluff.
I hear you about FRCG. Unfortunately it is easy to compare it (poorly) to the 3E version, which is one of the most chockful RPGs every printed.
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