Fiction, rules, or setting first in a core book?

[jdrakeh]

Perhaps I'm not your target audience, then. Most S&S fiction bores me to tears.

I'd say that this is a definite possibility

 

[Staffan]

I think the way the Eberron corebook handled things is excellent. First, you have a brief look at the highlights of the setting - basically, why should you choose this setting instead of any other? Then you have crunchy bits, though interspersed with setting material. After that, you get a more in-depth look at the setting, country by country.

 

[jeffh]

Setting first, rules second (but longer, typically), fiction nowhere to be seen.

(I voted "other" due to that last, very strong preference.)

 

[Starglim]

Since some people have asked about the fiction and suggested that it be not too long or poorly written, as well as tied into the setting... you be the judge:



That's the only fiction in the game (in 2-column format it comes out to be just under 2 pages in length). It was written to serve as a brief look at the setting and convey the intended tone of the game. I'm not claiming to be Leiber, so it may suck hard - but I like and that's all that really matters... still, it couldn't hurt to get [more] feedback

Thanks for posting this, it gives me a much better idea of what you had in mind.

Look, it's not a badly written piece, for my taste. The setup is quite witty. But as part of a game book it's dead space.

As another poster mentioned, there's a desert, there's a guy who uses a bronze sword, there are giants who eat people (and note that I've just mentioned about twice as much setting information as previous posters seem to have got out of the story). It's very hard to tell the importance or universality of these details. Using unreliable perceptions of the characters is a fine fictional device but it makes the story even less useful as an indication of the setting as a whole.

There's no reason you couldn't include it for the pleasure of reading, but this piece of fiction is not useful as an introduction to the setting. As such, I would place it probably at the end of the first chapter, after introducing all the major elements of the setting in the main text.

 

[painandgreed]

There's the rub - I never sell (or promote) anything that I write on the grounds that it's unique. Being unique doesn't ever really factor into things that I write, so much as being functional does. Bronze has some very specific design goals - one of which is not to provide a completely pre-defined world that characters merely wander through.

Then I would think of either getting rid of or changing the format of the fiction. Fiction at the beginning of a gaming product is like the cover letter on the resume. It is the chance to brag about the product. It should answer the questions "What is the game about?" and "Why should I play it?" When people ask about the game, it should be the piece you can give them to read. For a generic setting that it sounds like you're trying for, I'd not put any opening fiction but if you wanted to keep it, perhaps break it up into separate side bars followed by examples of how the system works in each example (perhaps with art). I don't think fiction for fiction's sake really needs to go into a game book. Any fiction should serve a purpose and usually that purpose is to explain the setting or explain the system.

 

[jdrakeh]

For a generic setting that it sounds like you're trying for

Well, that's not what I'm trying for (as indicated elsewhere in this thread), but thanks for suggestions.

I don't think fiction for fiction's sake really needs to go into a game book.

Also as noted earlier, it isn't there merely to be there - but again, thanks for your suggestion.

 

[jdrakeh]

It's very hard to tell the importance or universality of these details. Using unreliable perceptions of the characters is a fine fictional device but it makes the story even less useful as an indication of the setting as a whole.

All good points. I guess that the fiction better represents actual play as opposed to setting - it is, in point of fact, a recounting of the first playtest session of Bronze as it exists in its current form (with some minor embellishment).

As such, I would place it probably at the end of the first chapter, after introducing all the major elements of the setting in the main text.

Noted.

 

[Psion]

Normally, I'd have voted no fiction.

However, I recently had a look at Demon: The Fallen and the fiction at the start of that was amazing.

Yes, there is that, and I know how you feel.

Typcially, game "fiction" (what I really call "fluff"; I don't call setting material fluff) is not well written, and those who use it use it too much. There was a time when I would have been happy to not see any fiction in a game book.

I've seen a few examples that do work for me. But typically, I find that putting fiction snippets in a game book DOES NOT work for me, and I would just as soon you skip in than include it and do a poor job.

 

[EdL]

Other. A few pages of setting, then the rules with more setting interspersed. Note that if you can't get me hooked on the setting with a few pages you'll probably lose me if I have to slog through more of it! NO fiction, or see below.

One thing that I always appreciate, but which hardly anyone does, is to have a character or three being put together in sidebars as the rules unfold. (I started GMing with Runequest precisely because of this! Rurik's Saga was fiction and applied rules in one and worked very well. IMHO.)

 

[Corinth]

Rules only. Setting gets its own book. Fiction gets curbstomped into a messy paste.