Big book or multiple smaller?

[AOieiosle]

Zweihander RPG core rulebook is 600 pages and sells for $65 list price but around $30 on Amazon. I browsed through it and it was impressive in size but not unwieldy.

They did put out a condensed Players Handbook which just has the player-facing material; you can pick it up for like $25. It was a response to people complaining about hefting around a 600pg book.

 

[Cadence]

I greatly prefer the single volume format of PF rulebook to the classic D&D PHB/DMG approach. That was only 576 pages it looks like though...

 

[Maxperson]

Personally I just like things to be separated. I want player stuff in a book, DM stuff in another book, and monster stuff in a third. I don't care about the size of the actual books.

 

[Campbell]

This depends somewhat on page width, but speaking generally while I tend to prefer a single volume anything bigger than the Pathfinder Second Edition Core Rulebook becomes too unwieldy for me. Exalted Third Edition's Core Rulebook is way too big to comfortably use at the table despite having a similar page count as PF2.

 

[Aldarc]

If my choice is either "one big book" or "mutliple smaller books" for the core rules of a game, then either way that's a potential red flag for me as a customer, so I would probably go with "neither."

 

[Morrus]

If my choice is either "one big book" or "mutliple smaller books" for the core rules of a game, then either way that's a potential red flag for me as a customer, so I would probably go with "neither."

Good chat!

 

[Aldarc]

Good chat!

Well done. This honestly gave made me laugh. But respectfully that is my honest reaction to the prompt.

It's similar to what @Umbran says above. An 800 page book and/or two 400 page books can both be physically and cognitively overwhelming, especially for a TTRPG. There are a lot of high quality TTRPGs that are in their entirety less than 300 pages for the core rules, and some have page counts considerably less than that. I'm not the biggest fan of high crunch games, so anything in the range of 600+ pages is preemptively setting off warning bells.

Gun to my head, and following your assumption that I want the respective hypothetical content, I would probably prefer two separate books but with a higher price point. That's obviously me paying higher for easier consumption of the materials and less potential issues with the binding.

 

[MGibster]

An 800 page book is really unwieldy, both physically and cognitively, and books that large are more prone to binding issues...

I'm going to have to side with Dr. Umbran here. I would prefer a smaller book because 800 pages is exceedingly large and unwieldy. But it's not a deal breaker for me. If it's a game I have interest in and think I'll be able to play I will purchase the 800 page book.

 

[el-remmen]

Would you prefer, if you had to choose one of them, and weren't able to choose "neither":

One 800-page book for $60
Two 400-page books for $50 each ($100 total).

#2 - just convenience - plus I think GM vs Player info should always be split in different books.

 

[J.Quondam]

#2 - just convenience - plus I think GM vs Player info should always be split in different books.

Yeah, to be completely thorough, the specifics of the content really do matter before I'd decide once and for all.

• If it's a rule set, then are we talking a split between DMG and PHB? Or Rules and MM? Or base/martial rules and spellcasting rules? Or basic rules and advanced rules?
• If a bestiary, are we talking about a split between A-M and N-Z? or low-level and higher level? Or surface world and underworld?
• If it's a setting book, are we talking about GM-facing and player's guide? Or early and late chronology of the world? Or this continent and that continent?
• If an adventure, is it lower levels and higher levels? Or this side and that side of a hexmap? Or the dungeoncrawl and everything else?

If the product is "all one thing" (eg, DMG and PHB) I'd probably be more inclined to get it all in one book, just for cost reasons.
But if one part is a supplement (eg, "advanced rules") or a piece I likely won't use (eg, epic-level stuff), I'd like having the two books option, so I can get one part now, and get the rest later if money, interest, and/or gaming group permits.