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<blockquote data-quote="Jer" data-source="post: 8900528" data-attributes="member: 19857"><p>Because you're asking them to do homework. Homework in order to play a game. A game where they really just want to show up and play a character in a world you're spinning for them. Some of them possibly just want to show up and beat up monsters if your playing group is anything like mine. If they wanted to do homework they'd be GMs <img src="data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7" class="smilie smilie--sprite smilie--sprite1" alt=":)" title="Smile :)" loading="lazy" data-shortname=":)" /></p><p></p><p>No other game asks for this. Even complicated ones. If I invite a bunch of folks over to play Arkham Horror I don't need them to read an essay on the city of Arkham before they start playing. Even the rulebook isn't necessary for all players to read as long as one or two of us are willing to teach the game and the others are willing to learn.</p><p></p><p>A better question might be to ask why some APs need to have a book of homework for the players in the first place. Why can't it be reduced down to a dozen bullet points that they can skim when they make up characters in the first session? Especially for a game like Pathfinder or D&D where the basics of the setting are "hey this is generic fantasy and I know you really just want to roll up a wizard and cast some pew-pew spells at the bad guys." It would be much better to hand them a page that is "here's ten bullet points about wizards relevant to this AP so you can have some ideas of what kind of pew-pew wizard backgrounds might be a good idea for this story".</p><p></p><p>(It's a sore point for me - I think too many APs are just really poorly designed in this way. Especially from Paizo - or at least how Paizo was designing them when I stopped buying them. Pages of background material that should be worked into the play of the game itself or even dispensed with entirely to free up page space.)</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Jer, post: 8900528, member: 19857"] Because you're asking them to do homework. Homework in order to play a game. A game where they really just want to show up and play a character in a world you're spinning for them. Some of them possibly just want to show up and beat up monsters if your playing group is anything like mine. If they wanted to do homework they'd be GMs :) No other game asks for this. Even complicated ones. If I invite a bunch of folks over to play Arkham Horror I don't need them to read an essay on the city of Arkham before they start playing. Even the rulebook isn't necessary for all players to read as long as one or two of us are willing to teach the game and the others are willing to learn. A better question might be to ask why some APs need to have a book of homework for the players in the first place. Why can't it be reduced down to a dozen bullet points that they can skim when they make up characters in the first session? Especially for a game like Pathfinder or D&D where the basics of the setting are "hey this is generic fantasy and I know you really just want to roll up a wizard and cast some pew-pew spells at the bad guys." It would be much better to hand them a page that is "here's ten bullet points about wizards relevant to this AP so you can have some ideas of what kind of pew-pew wizard backgrounds might be a good idea for this story". (It's a sore point for me - I think too many APs are just really poorly designed in this way. Especially from Paizo - or at least how Paizo was designing them when I stopped buying them. Pages of background material that should be worked into the play of the game itself or even dispensed with entirely to free up page space.) [/QUOTE]
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