D&D 5E Are Hardcover Books the Best Format for Settings?

[Mercule]

I can get you 250 issues of the Dragon Magazine.

But... I don't even own a computer with a CD/DVD drive. It's all ports and downloads.

 

[Jer]

Are settings well served by a big hardcover book?
Is that the best way of presenting the information?

...

Flipping through a book in the middle of a game session is slow for rules, which are typically under logical headings and often have their own dedicated paragraph or bullet point. But it's so much worse when looking through a page for world information, rumors, the head of a city, etc. Important lore can be buried in a page.

...

For example, let's go with Lord Neverember from the Forgotten Realms. He's an important figure to both Neverwinter and Waterdeep. So a book on the Realms should mention him in both places, since details on that character might be needed for games that take place around either city. But printing that information twice comes at the cost of other information, so you prioritize and put it in one location, requiring people looking at the other entry to flip pages. More of the book needs to be consumed for usability.

...

I'd argue digital tools (a wiki, Epic Words, or something like Lone Wolf's Realm Works) is likely a far superior way of conveying that information than a book. An app would also be interesting, functioning like an offline wiki or digital encyclopedia. But that's a very specialized product...

Now, maybe I use setting material differently from most folks but I very rarely use them at the table. Rules references are either player cookies (so it's their responsibility to know how it works and have the notes on it) or things that I'll either have notes on if they're important or handwave at the table rather than slowing the game down to look them up if I can't remember them. Generally I haven't found this to be a problem - setting rules that are not player bennies either fall into the "trivial novelty" category -which can be ignored if you forget about them - or the "big picture theme of the setting" category - which I'll have notes on at the table to make sure I remember them.

And once I'm at the table my only references are my adventure notes and a book O' monsters (if the PCs do something unexpected that I didn't have a plan for in my notes) and the rulebook (just in case). That's about it. I might use the setting book to look up stats for a villain if for some reason I didn't put it into my notes (like because I wasn't expecting the PCs to get there yet, or because they do something unexpected and I need to improvise). I keep a sheet of "setting notes" for things that we establish during play about the setting and if those end up contradicting some off-hand paragraph in the campaign setting that wasn't in my notes well that's fine - either we'll fix it later when the PCs found out they were lied to about something or we don't and the book is actually wrong. And generally we take the approach that the book is wrong unless I think there's story to be mined out of the PCs being lied to.

Where I use the setting books is for research and prep. I mine them for ideas, monsters and challenges when I'm building adventures, and we as a group mine them for ideas when we're building the initial campaign parameters (where are characters from, what are their motivations, etc.). For my purposes books are great - I'd prefer that they have a poster map (for collaboration - it's easier to lay a big map out on the table and ask the players where they want to go next than any other way that I've tried to use so far), and I'd prefer to have a separate player book and GM guide to be honest but those are quibbles for the most part. The only electronic bits that I think would be helpful is if all of the NPC/monster stats were easily available in an electronic format for cutting and pasting into my notes - NPC stats tend to be extensive and annoying to type by hand (though we've been playing more 13th age than D&D lately, and this really isn't a concern with 13th age).

 

[Creamsteak]

Box sets with some nice fold out maps and an adventure in addition to the setting hardcover would be even better than just the book I guess. Maybe throw in some counters for all the monsters in the adventure for sport or a DM screen with pertinent information to the setting or something if you want to get extra fancy.

 

[Parmandur]

I'd personally prefer a box set, maybe much more deluxe than previous iterations (include a ton of miniatures like those D&D Adventures board games, etc.).

 

[Ralif Redhammer]

I will never not enjoy a good setting boxed set. But I totally get that they're financially impractical to make.

For a setting-canon light product, I love the old Greyhawk Folio, too.

Whatever the format, I think a good fold-out map is a must.

I love books in general and have a soft spot for my big hardcover campaign setting books. And a softer spot for big boxed sets.

 

[Patrick McGill]

I used the 3rd edition Forgotten Realms hardcover so much the cover fell off. My memories of that book and the campaigns I ran with it are very fond, so I'm not sure I can agree.

You just have to do the hardcover correctly, and people have to remember that a setting book unlike an AP isn't a "run straight out of the book" situation. You have to read it, ingest it, and use it as a tool box.

 

[Croesus]

Hardcover setting books can work, but only with an extensive index. I've run LMoP and PotA, both of which are part setting and part adventure. I've lost track of the number of times a name comes up during a session and I can't quickly find the info in the book. I'd happily give up four to six pages of material to have a truly exhaustive index.

As others have said, hardcovers are what we're getting now, so the companies putting them out need to make them useful. That must include an excellent index.

 

[delericho]

I used the 3rd edition Forgotten Realms hardcover so much the cover fell off. My memories of that book and the campaigns I ran with it are very fond, so I'm not sure I can agree.

The 3e FRCS is an extraordinary book, probably the best setting book I've ever seen.

 

[bleezy]

I like the two book format. Player's Guide to ______ and DM's guide to ______.

 

[LordEntrails]

The only thing printed books excel at are telling linear stories. Campaign settings are not linear stories, they are reference sources. The only reasons to use a book for a campaign setting is because doing so is a known effort and that's what many customers think they should be.

A digital product, either online or offline is much superior in every other way.

But, until content developers understand what it takes to make a digital campaign setting (and I don't mean a pdf!) and until customers are comfortable with buying a digital product, books will still be the main format for presenting rpg products.