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Message: <blockquote data-quote="takyris" data-source="post: 2331800" data-attributes="member: 5171">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."</blockquote>

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