Question for players: how much reading is okay before a campaign?

[RangerWickett]

Your DM has a cool idea for a new campaign. He's either written some setting material himself, or purchased a setting that he thinks will rock. He's told you the basic gist of the game, but he'd like each of the players to read some material before making characters. How much would you be willing to read, if you're the player, not the DM?

A page? (Like in Dark Sun, where there's the "10 Things you Need to Know about Dark Sun" list.)

Five pages? (As above, plus an overview of the city you're starting in.)

Twenty pages? (As above, plus the details of the region you're starting in.)

Fifty pages? (The whole setting, its history, and the details of the various regions that will be important in your coming adventures.)

How does your answer change if there's also new rules material offering you different options for your character? Like, if you played Dark Sun, did you only read the Character Themes, feats, and powers, or did you also check out the setting details?

 

[Thasmodious]

One of my players, my brother, would respond "one page, double spaced". He says he won't read anything longer, but he will. He'll just grumble about it.

 

[Ed_Laprade]

As much as I can. Because I hate finding out there was an option I'd want to take after play has started! This can include where the character came from.

 

[NMatuzic]

Me personally? I'd read 50+, but I think I'm an abberation. When getting into a new campaign, I LOVE to immerse myself in the setting, learning and reading as much as I can. That way I can create a character that is connected to the world in many ways, rather than creating a character and then making it fit.

For example, recently I signed up for a Star Wars campaign. I ended up watching all 6 movies again, and spent lots of spare time on Wookiepedia, just reading and learning. My reward was that my co-players felt that I had the most Star Wars-ey feeling character out of the lot! I was really stoked by that.

Now, whatever setting you might be running, I doubt you'll have the sheer amount of background stuff that the SW universe has, but I'd pretty much read it all. But I don't think you can generalise, because everyone will be different.

I'm about to run a campaign in my own setting, and one of the things I wondered was how much information to provide the players. I found some good suggestions online, but the best one I found was to create it in tiers - provide the players with a bare minimum to read (about a page or two, and if they can't be bothered reading that much, then I'd question their commitment). The next step is to flesh it out a bit and create something that elaborates on things somewhat. Then after that, if they still want more information, provide them the full, in depth analysis.

All of this stuff I've talked about is my attitude towards setting and stuff. When it comes to game rules (like stuff for my character or what not), I'll read them if it's a new system I've not played before, but I'd just skim it if I've played it a bajillion times.

Hope my answer helps!

 

[Tequila Sunrise]

Five-ish pages. More if the DM's a decent writer, and doesn't just prattle on about his pet NPCs and favorite races.

 

[jdrakeh]

One page, front and back. If you can't hook me with that, you never will.

 

[kitsune9]

I'd be willing to read pretty much whatever so long it will end up being fairly relevant to the campaign. However, giving out a lot of information before the campaign starts and that information not coming into play until several levels down the road is kind of a waste. The players won't remember all of this stuff so I think probably a few pages at the most should be the level to get the players started and then add onto it by giving out handouts.

In my campaign that took place 12 years after the prior one ended. I ended up writing about 12 pages (single spaced). Looking back at it, I think it may have been a bit too long, but my players did humor me and read it.

The next campaign is going to be a short one, so my next primer guide will be a "10 things list" and about five major rumors / mysteries. Probably three pages at the most of material.

However, if I was run a 1st-20+'s campaign, then my next primer would probably be five pages at the most to get started. I'd make it address the following:

1. The region that the PC's are in and it's general overview of who rules and government
2. A 10 things list of what the PC's know for common knowledge
3. A section of rumors / mysteries / and known things going on.

Then that would be it. As the PC's explore the region, get involved with the NPCs, etc., it's handout time to give the PC's more information.

The biggest thing to avoid is information overload, because then the players are just going to rebel or become apathetic to the information.

 

[lin_fusan]

As I get older, the more that I believe that as much of the game's "text" should be revealed in-game. If you must have a document for a player to read, have it be either mechanics or options they can take, but be prepared for a player who doesn't know (or didn't care to know) anything about your world.

The first half of the session should be enough for them to understand what your campaign's going to be thematically about.

 

[Saeviomagy]

I don't really think that most games actually need much beyond a very sketchy world description. There's the occasional one where they might (if you want to leap in at level 1 with complex politics for example) but most campaigns take the form of a multi-character heroes journey (ie - an unskilled whelpling takes his first steps in the world and rapidly rises to become a worldly hero). It's an effective narrative form precisely because it avoids an information dump at the start.

Now there IS a place in a heroes journey for the educated, worldly but not-yet heroic character, so it's nice to have a document that a player can read if they want to take this route, but it's not necessary at all: you could easily just give the player the info as they need it.

 

[Haltherrion]

I'll read any amount of stuff but I expect my players to read no more than a page or so. If they read more than that, I'm surprised and tickled pink.

Had a player read my entire 50-ish wiki page setting and was very please. It also fit that he wanted to play a bard. Now if he'd only let me know before game day whether he was attending, I'd be super happy.

But seriously, while I'd like them to read a lot, I really don't expect it. A friend did do a Ptolus setting last go around and I didn't think that amount of reading was unreasonable but shorter is better.

There's really little reason to throw too much text at the players unless you are a frustrated write