The Gaming Ideal

[Nightwasp]

1.) What is the best number of players at the table, whether as a DM or player yourself?
5 - 6 no more.

2.) How often should you be able to game in an ideal world?
Every other week, but not durring summer.

3.) How long should those sessions be?
4 - 6 hours

4.) The poll handled percentage of Crunch to Flavor, but what are some of the specifics behind your vote?
I run an FR Campaign so flavor is what I and my players want most. 70 / 30 on flavor over crunch.

5.) If you could choose the single best next book to become available to you, what would it be, what form would it be in (hardback, softback, PDF), and how much would that book cost (please be reasonable)?
A complete Realmslore encyclopedia of huge proportions, content and better art than in the 3E stuff. I would pay 80 - 120 $US for a collector's item like this.

 

[Ran]

1.) What is the best number of players at the table, whether as a DM or player yourself?
2.) How often should you be able to game in an ideal world?
3.) How long should those sessions be?
4.) The poll handled percentage of Crunch to Flavor, but what are some of the specifics behind your vote?
5.) If you could choose the single best next book to become available to you, what would it be, what form would it be in (hardback, softback, PDF), and how much would that book cost (please be reasonable)?

1) i would say four, but a variation from 3 to 5 is okay for me.

2) I can mostly play once a week during the yar and as much as 3 or our times a week on holydays, of course i have to start this marathon with almost everything prepared.

3) each session lasts at least 3 and a half hour, but sometimes as much as 6 hours.

4) I voted 60% flavor, 40% crunch, I prefer tough battles, those that make the players afraid of loosing, and alos like the flavor to be like another character on its own.

5) I prefer printed hardcover, but those covers for AD&D complete books were one of the best i have ever seen, they are truly durable, a dog tried eating one once, the cover suffered a lot, the book just got some marks... but i believe that book woul be a good compendium of options, core classes variations, feats that give flavor AND power, combat tatics, but my dream of a book would be a series with absolutely NO GAME MECHANICS that detail a culture in each book, with almost everything one wold like to know of it, from architecture to myths and folclore (folk-lore?)...

 

[Seonaid]

Re: Re: The Gaming Ideal

folclore (folk-lore?)...

Yup, folklore (or folk lore).

I will add to my previous answers that if there was a set of books similar to the WW (Vampire) clan books in style/tone, I would buy them, but I would really be only willing to pay $15 for the amount of material that WW gives. As for what kind of books, I'd buy them for anything I'm interested in, gaming-related or not. I would *not* buy it for DragonLance, but other than that, I'm pretty open. I would be buying it for Flavor, not Crunch. I read all of the Vampire clan books before I even thought about RP'ing at all (before I even really knew what it was all about), because they were fascinating and for the most part well-written.

 

[Ran]

Ops, sorry, i would pay about 15 or 17 dollars for it, not very extensive, though...

Thanks seonaid!

 

[Vexed]

1.) What is the best number of players at the table, whether as a DM or player yourself?

3-4 players

2.) How often should you be able to game in an ideal world?

Twice a week.

3.) How long should those sessions be?

4-6 hours

4.) The poll handled percentage of Crunch to Flavor, but what are some of the specifics behind your vote?

Im more in favor of flavor over crunch. (Not that Crunch is bad!) But i prefer more of a "Roll playing" game as opposed to a set of encounters = kill the monster, take the treasure. I don't like dungeon crawls. I want more character development, history of the region, etc. I want the players to care about their characters, and the character to care about the setting.

5.) If you could choose the single best next book to become available to you, what would it be, what form would it be in (hardback, Softbank, PDF), and how much would that book cost (please be reasonable)?

I prefer hardcover unless its a "Mega adventure"(then soft cover). Someone on this list earlier said "Unapproachable East is a perfect 50/50 in my opinion. Half the book is crunch, and the other half is fluff. Very well done as far as setting supplements go". I agree, this is an outstanding book. I would like to see the next hard cover book done on Cormyr, or Waterdeep. (If your are not a fan of the Realms, it was still written extremely well, use it in your home brew game). My group does not care for home brew, having an established setting give everyone familiarity with the world, and there is always new things the dm can add to the world if he wants to create something "new&original". Also, something similar for the Dragonlance setting, which my players seem to be very happy is back for 3rd ed, we just got the core book. Finally, on the (soft cover) any kind of adventure written by Monte Cook. (We buy pretty much everything from Malhavoc Press).
I would pay around $30-40 bucks for any of the following. ***Art is very important as well. Preferably something done by Larry Elmore, Sam wood, Jason Engle, or Tod Lockwood.

 

[Mucknuggle]

1.) What is the best number of players at the table, whether as a DM or player yourself?

6 players, 1 DM, I prefer playing to DMing.

2.) How often should you be able to game in an ideal world?

Once a week.

3.) How long should those sessions be?

From 1PM to 10/11 PM.

4.) The poll handled percentage of Crunch to Flavor, but what are some of the specifics behind your vote?

It really depends. If the book is for a specific setting then I like 60-70% crunch and the rest fluff, but if it's just a general supplement, 70% crunch, 30% "can fit into any setting" fluff.

5.) If you could choose the single best next book to become available to you, what would it be, what form would it be in (hardback, softback, PDF), and how much would that book cost (please be reasonable)?

It would be hardcover, full colour with lots of art and it would have a great system for roleplaying Final Fantasy style with pen and paper. The book would cost between $30-$45 Canadian (it's what my gaming store sells most of their hardcovers for). The cover would be done by Mr. Amano, as would much of the interior art. It would be taking d20 to a new level with a lot of changes to the system, like BESM d20 and Mutants and Masterminds have done.

 

[mkletch]

1.) What is the best number of players at the table, whether as a DM or player yourself?

2.) How often should you be able to game in an ideal world?

3.) How long should those sessions be?

4.) The poll handled percentage of Crunch to Flavor, but what are some of the specifics behind your vote?

5.) If you could choose the single best next book to become available to you, what would it be, what form would it be in (hardback, softback, PDF), and how much would that book cost (please be reasonable)?

FWIW, here are my answers.

1. The best number of players at the table, including a single DM, is six. More than one DM and more than 5 players is too complex. The logistics of the session take a major dip after the 5th player, no matter how well the group hones their time and rolling and speaking on their turn.

2. Once per week at least. More than that, and the game is a distraction. Poker is OK every two weeks or once per month, but you don't have to carry over emotion, information and gameplay momentum for a simple game like that. Roleplaying needs some dedication. If you can;t provide it, then you're better off playing CRPGs or MMORPGs.

3. A gaming session should be 6-8 hours at a stretch. Less is workable, but the amount of time spent setting up and cleaning up is non-trivial for a 4-hour session. Longer than 8 only works if everyone agrees beforehand that the session will be 10+ hours.

4. 60/40 crunch vs. flavor. Too much crunch, and it is a DM's nightmare, unlikely to be well balanced with other sources, and a boon to only those that have it to read fully. Too little crunch, and you have a lot of flavor, which is unlikely to simply drop into the average DMs campaign. 50-50 (+/- 10) means that the book will be useful to DMs, players, owners of the book, and casual skimmers/borrowers. If a book is useful to more people, more people will buy it. Sure, you can't please everyone, but there's no sense shooting for an extreme and alienating a massive segment of the market because of over-/under-crunchiness.

5. Almost forgot to answer this. Hardcover, about 175-200 pages, $30-$35. Cool color art, but not so much that it gets in the way or breaks up the book too much, and with a centrist style (i.e. nothing too trendy, extreme, over stylized or bland - no watercolors).

-Fletch!

 

[dhamon66]

Hmmm...

1. - Best number of players? Probably about 4 or 5. Any more and there ends up being too much OOC conversations going on.

2. - Once a week. Guess I live in that ideal world.

3. - At once a week, the sessions should run between 4 and 6 hours.

4. - There's plenty of "crunch" in the core books; always nice to add a crunchy bit or two in a new book, but it's the flavor that will help me flesh out a campaign.

5. - Love the HC books; they hold up to wear so well. $25 is reasonable.

 

[Rashak Mani]

1.) 5 players MAX ideal. 6 ok. 7+ too many to be fun.

2.) Once a weekend. Thou I wouldnt mind twice.

3.) 6 hours seems good.

4.) I understood as how much books handle rules vs background... so I put 70%. When I played Earthdawn the books could have 50-60% flavor and were great. D&D books thou handle the flavor part very poorly.... with silly "ideas" and stupid suggestions sometimes. Very little inspirational.

5.) hhmm... there are already so many books. Still I loved Unearthed Arcana and the 2nd Ed. books with the variety of goodies. I like a assortment of optional rules and ideas. Hardback.

 

[AlynnalizzaL]

1.) What is the best number of players at the table, whether as a DM or player yourself?

4 or 5, when I am DM. The other DM in my group is slightly challenged with more than 3.

2.) How often should you be able to game in an ideal world?

Every 2 or 3 weeks.

3.) How long should those sessions be?

6-10 hours. (Though 1-2 hours is catching up time).

4.) The poll handled percentage of Crunch to Flavor, but what are some of the specifics behind your vote?

Some of the players are very quick on their tongue, and this gets them in some interesting situations. I tend to like to go off on any of the good tangents that they present, meanwhile trying to stay the course of the main plot.

5.) If you could choose the single best next book to become available to you, what would it be, what form would it be in (hardback, softback, PDF), and how much would that book cost (please be reasonable)?

The book I'm involved with! , Otherwise situational books about specific ideas (Forestry, Sailing, City life). Softback books are my preferred choice, with PDF a close second.