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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Pedantic" data-source="post: 9429310" data-attributes="member: 6690965">I think the disconnect you're running into here is that Sanderson's appeal is primarily about setting. You're getting details about magic systems and political conflicts and social setups because that is the selling point. His characters, like his prose, tend to be serviceable rather than compelling, and his plots can be pretty contrived in service of letting him show off details or reveal secrets. I wouldn't call any of it bad, but the word I'd use is "sufficient."In his writing podcast, he's talked before about how the primary draw of fantasy is setting, and that's clearly something embraced in his work. You're not hearing what the books are about, because that isn't what's interesting or important about them, what's interesting is the cool worlds and places and situations and magical interactions he's dreamed up.If I'm being pretentious, I'd say Sanderson's found an audience in people who view genre literature as fundamentally being for escaping to other realities, not people who are invested in stories or storytelling.I can immediately see why that's a compelling case to many people for a TTRPG. His books are essentially written a lot like metaplot in a campaign setting already.</blockquote>