Do you like it when an writer tells you in their book their ideas are cool?

[takyris]

It irks me. It's the equivalent of the band that comes on stage and starts raising their hands to get applause before they do any songs.

I'm fine with "I had to do a book on bucklers because I really really like them myself, and I think that they don't get bucklers get enough respect, and there are a lot of underdeveloped ideas for bucklers out there, and this is the kind of thing I really like," which is, although gushy, simply a personal statement from the author about why he likes the stuff.

What I don't like is self-praise in the foreward. The only time it's worked for me is in the M&M corebook, because I could tell that when they said "Best superhero RPG ever made!!!" they were doing it with a smile and a wink. Any time I read self-praise in an intro, my expectations have just been raised, and not in a good way. Something that would have impressed me greatly will now just make me think, "Ah, maybe there's something to that hot air he was spouting before," and something that would have been nice but not great drops to "Not as good as this guy thinks it is."

I feel the same way about intros in fiction. Tell me that it was hard and you are thankful to your editor and friends. Don't tell me that the mythical themes you're working with are deep and powerful, and that poetry or music has a magic of its own that you've captured here to share with us, because then, every time one of your lame-ass poems shows up, I'm going to be looking at it with my lips pursed thinking, "Really? This is the deep mythic thing we're supposed to be impressed by? I'd think that a stunning portrayal of beauty and truth would have, you know, meter... and less emphasis on visual rhymes. And would show more skill than the average depressed-and-lovesick high-school student shows in that garbage he writes in yearbook of the girl he has a crush on."

 

[Thornir Alekeg]

To me it depends upon whether the attitude it is portraying is the author's enthusiasm for his concept and work, or whether the author is trying to tell me that I must be an idiot if I don't see it the same way.

 

[Celebrim]

The absolutely worst example of this is the forward L Ron Hubbard wrote for his own 'Battlefield Earth'. There is no real need to read the book because LRH was never that great of a writer, but the forward is actually so pompous that it attains a certain amount of unwitting humor. In addition, you get alot of insight into the sort of mind it takes for someone to set out to create there own religion.

 

[MulhorandSage]

I don't mind an author geeking out or being self-serving in an intro. However, when I read an intro and if the author writes: "I wrote this book because every other attempt to write it sucks", the book had better be damn good...

 

[Crothian]

I don't mind an author geeking out or being self-serving in an intro. However, when I read an intro and if the author writes: "I wrote this book because every other attempt to write it sucks", the book had better be damn good...

I don't think I've seen that one yet

 

[philreed]

I'm fine with "I had to do a book on bucklers because I really really like them myself, and I think that they don't get bucklers get enough respect, and there are a lot of underdeveloped ideas for bucklers out there, and this is the kind of thing I really like," which is, although gushy, simply a personal statement from the author about why he likes the stuff.

Hey, have you been reading the intros to my PDFs?

 

[Viktyr Gehrig]

I love to read why authors made design decisions. Heck, I could read the rationale for design decisions for hours on end and consider myself totally enthralled.

However, when instead of rationale I find self-congratulation... blech.

I'm the same way. An author explaining his design decisions makes it easier for me to analyze his work and decide how to use it or adapt it. An author telling me his rules are better smells like desperate.

I do it sometimes, too, though. I'm working on fixing that tendency.

To me it depends upon whether the attitude it is portraying is the author's enthusiasm for his concept and work, or whether the author is trying to tell me that I must be an idiot if I don't see it the same way.

I have yet to encounter the product so good that I will tolerate the latter. There's an entire company I've seen so much of this attitude from, I won't buy anything they publish.

On the other hand, I love the former; it's hard for me to imagine being excited about reading a product that the authors weren't excited about writing.

 

[eyebeams]

I'm not sure if I should find it amusing or odd that people think this happens often enough to have formed an opinion about it.

If it did happen often enough to comment on, you would think that someone would refer to several instances where it's actually happened.

The closest I've seen to it has been Lancea Santum for Vampire: The Requiem, and it isn't about why the sect is cool as much as why Vampire *characters* would think it's cool.

 

[LeapingShark]

The honest author's intro:

"The idea for this book was really stupid. I dreaded the thought of writing this book, but I really needed the money so I reluctantly accepted the assignment. What you now hold in your hands, is a total piece of garbage, it is something I am very ashamed of writing. Most of this information in the book is unoriginal, unbalanced, or completely useless for your campaign. I really could care less what you think about the book, because I've already cashed my commission check and I'm now doing something more interesting."

P.S. I thought this post would be a really cool idea, so I posted it. This post is funnier than all previous humor-related posts in this thread, and I worked very hard to create it. I hope you enjoyed reading this fabulously funny post, as much as I enjoyed writing it.

 

[Berandor]

To me, there's a difference between insight and posturing. If an author offers me insight, I'll be grateful. That's what Mike Mearls did throughout the "Book of Iron Might", and I loved the designer approach to it. If it's just posturing, I'd rather skip it, for the reasons takyris stated.

And Leaping Shark takes the prize for funniest post, btw.