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Message: <blockquote data-quote="JeffB" data-source="post: 259877" data-attributes="member: 518">I suppose I’m the opposite of the buying public. …I am a DM 100%of the time, and I don’t like a majority of crunch stuff in my RPG products. I’m not asking for Metaplots, Poor Novels,  and hold me by the hand adventure hooks, but If I’m buying a CAMPAIGN SETTING supplement, damn If I want it full of rules…I want a finely crafted and interesting setting that allows me room  to be creative …I  pretty much ignore the first 100 pages of the 3E FRCS as it is…Genesai, Drow, and tiefling PC’s……blech.. On the other hand, I spend more than the average gamer does per month or year on RPG products: probably in the $100 plus range per month.So WOTC could make a mint on me if they could get their heads straight.I’ve bought every FR item except the DM screen. IMO, they are all very good and  a better value  than the core products I’ve owned and/or read; even the “crunchy” MAGofFaerun. LoD was good, but even as a “fluff” book it ‘s boring to read and rather uninspiring. Lot’s of good information, but presented in a very lackluster way. On the other hand I think Silver Marches compares quite favorably with the FRCS. IMO, The Savage Frontier (FR5) was one of, if not THE best FR books ever, and I would go so far to say one of the best D&D books ever. The Silver Marches is a worthy successor to FR5,AFAIC (much better than The North Boxed set). I picked it up on Friday and read it all weekend..Mild rantPersonally, I don’t think that D&D is any better hands now than when it was in the mid-90’s with TSR. It’s just now that Hasbro wants huge sales numbers of few products, whereas TSR wanted huge numbers of more varied products. There’s been a marked change in the products and attitude of WOTC since it was sold to Hasbro. Some of the best 2E stuff was put out late in it’s life by WOTC. I find only a few things here and there in the 3E line that are as worthy; mainly the FRCS, and the MotP.  And I don’t find this “pro-crunch” stance any kind of revelation; as a DM I’ve always felt that the vast majority of 2E AND 3E products (and 3rd party D20 materials) are geared towards players…more feats, skill applications, spells, PrClasses, blah, blah, blah…Dragon Magazine is just a monthly book of crunch and advertisements for more crunch (personally I hope the new company guts it, and brings it back to the great magazine it was 20 years ago)…Hell, just look at the blurbs on the back of every D20 or WOTC book’…there’s a little sentence about the gist of the book and then something in HUGE PRINT  like 60 new feats including “Expeditious Nose Pick”, and “Improved Butt Wipe!100 new Prclasses including the dread Hunter of the Snot, The Really Common Commoner, and the Kings Underwear Drawer Raider”…40 New spells…ranging from “Mordenkainen’s Toothbrush” and “ Detect Fruit”, to the utterly deadly “ Inflict Splinters On Big Toes”New Weapons like the “Keen, Holy, Ghost Touch, Flaming, Brownie Bane, Dire Nunchuks  of Infinite Iron Rations”, and the “Gnome, Clip-Fed, Watercooled, Silenced, Selective Fire, 3-9X Scope equipped Repeating Hand-Ballista for your younger Cousin who believes the  WWF and the A Team are realistic”So many people complain about all this stuff that went on in 2E, and yet welcome it in 3E. Not me..I didn’t  like it in 2E and I don’t like it now. Show me a BOOK OF TOOLS (not a book of completed “projects” which is what most companies produce) and I’ll buy it, but I don’t want cookie-cutter rulebooks. I’d rather have the fluff to give me the ideas, and create the crunch as needed rather than an overpriced book of crunch that I would use only a very small percentage of. I think it’s a sad, sad thing if people who like the Realms are shafted because it’s turned into something that non-realms fans want it o become. It’s already happened to Greyhawk.  Putting out a core book with the FR crunch stuff added into it’s content is fine by me, but don’t turn the Realms into core crunch books with just a FR logo. WOTC doesn’t get much money from me as it is…FR is the only line of stuff I buy from them now. I’ve given up on Dragon and Dungeon, Given up on SWD20, Given up on true GH products, , given up on the poor excuses for modules and splatbooks…I’ve passed on everything core since about the time the Psi-Handbook was released barring RttToEE, and MotP.WOTC needs to look to KenzerCo and SSS to see how to do D&D campaign settings right…There’s plenty of crunch and plenty of fluff to appease either type of fan in Kalamar and Scarred Lands. As well they should look at the old ME campaign stuff from ICE, FASA’s Earthdawn, and Chaosium/Issaries Glorantha. Glorantha and ED came back from the dead and ME is about to be reincarnated as well. There’s a reason they have had such lasting appeal; They provided a good balance between rules and interesting setting. Settings that go one way or the other are doomed to failure: GH being the perfect example.. It’s released..people love it, but want more info..crunch and fluff…the fluff is put in Dragon mag..then Gary leaves, and the setting withers…it’s treated poorly, and what comes out is mostly crunch with little fluff (the bean counters trying to have their way)…it dies…the fans go crazy…it’s revived…this time (FTA) it’s mostly fluff…fans either hate or love it…several fluff supplements come out, and it dies again…the fans go crazy again....third times the charm..good amount of fluff and crunch…a GH revival or sorts comes about…then 3E turns it around to generic crunch, with virtually no fluff…and it’s almost dead again…the only thing sustaining it is LGH… which basically is playing in crunchy tournaments….that will die soon too….Now look at FR….1E era…Good amount of Fluff and Crunch…even fans who later hated FR remember fondly the 1E FR products…2E FR…mostly fluff…novels, supplements that read like novels…the crunch is munch…the setting withers among it’s fans…3E,,,starts out fantastic…most fans like the amount of fluff AND crunch..then the first book is crunch…the second fluff..the third moostly crunch..and now  w/ The SM… mostly fluff….and now WOTC wants ALL crunch….WOTC needs to use it “hyper-balanced” outlook on 3e RULES for ALL D&D products…balanced between crunch and fluff…too much of one side splits the fan base…If they don’t figure that out, (and they haven’t ..look at the sale of Dragon and Dungeon magazines…) D&D will wither and be sold off  again…(which honestly is probably the best thing that could happen now)End mild rant…Sigh…Didn’t mean to get so ranty…I’m just so disappointed with WOTC as a GAMING company anymore, that I had to vent…</blockquote>

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