Gripe about the WotC splatbooks

[Utrecht]

The other day I was researching some information for my campagin and finally decided that I needed to vent over the formatting of the Splat book.

Why in <insert appropriate diety> green earth is there no consistancy in the Chapter structure between books.

I mean how hard would it be to have (or something similar)

Chapter 1 Intro
Chapter 2 New Feats
Chapter 3 Prestiege Classes
Chapter 4 New Equipment
etc.



But no..... this had to be differnt in each of the books.........


Grumble, grumble - it makes researching so much more difficult.

 

[Dark Psion]

When the best description for your product IS "Splatbook" what do you expect.

 

[Altalazar]

Actually, Class Books would be a quite adequate (and more understandable) name for those class guidebooks.

But I agree, I think it is insane that they don't have some sort of standard format, at least for the first portion of the books.

I have had the problem of having to search through several of the books for feats, etc and I always get lost because of the non-standard format. They really ought to have mirrored the PHB in order for the standard stuff, then any remaining chapters could be set up as what makes best sense for the individual book.

 

[Darkness]

What, that's your only gripe about the splatbooks?

 

[Henry]

Other than that, the Class Books (I am tiring of the word "Splat" Book) are pretty well designed. I was apprehensive about them at first when I saw Sword and Fist (Which I like to call "Sword and Fits" ) but the other books have been laid out remarkably well.

The one that caused me the most problem was Sword and Fist, because it has an Errata guide that was almost as long as a chapter in the book itself!!!

My favorites are, in this order:

1. Tome and Blood (soft spot in my heart for wizards!)
2. Defenders of the Faith (the most error-free of the four!)
3. Song and Silence (actually a tie with DotF in my mind)
4. Sword and Fist (could have been great, but sheer number of errors marred it)
   [/list=1]
   
   I will be curious to see next month whether Master of the Wild is more the caliber of Defenders of the Faith or more like Sword and Fist. Either way, I know I'm going to enjoy reading it, because members of my gaming group pre-bought it for me as a Christmas Present (as well as Call of Cthulhu d20)!!!
   
   It's a good feeling, getting free gamer crack.

 

[mhensley]

When the best description for your product IS "Splatbook" what do you expect.

Does anyone know why these books are called "splatbooks"? What is the origin and reasoning behind this? Just curious...

 

[The Traveler]

Does anyone know why these books are called "splatbooks"? What is the origin and reasoning behind this? Just curious...

Because they're called different things based on what system they're in, IE classbooks, clanbooks, tribebooks, guildbooks etc. That led to them being referred to as *books, as * is a logical wildcard. * is referred to by printers as a "splat", hence "splatbooks"

 

[Old Fezziwig]

[Edit — The Traveler has a better answer, so...I'll direct you upwards to that post, rather than what was mine. ]

Best,
tKL, the disappearing lion

 

[Rook]

Ummm, Defenders of the Faith is the most error-free? I suspect that's because you've looked at it the least closely.

There's the Armor of Speed problem, The Hospitaler and Master of Shrouds don't make sense as written and a few other issues I can't recall. Did Tome and Blood or Song and Silence have issues as great or greater than Defenders? If so, I need to look at them more closely.

 

[Henry]

Ummm, Defenders of the Faith is the most error-free? I suspect that's because you've looked at it the least closely.

There's the Armor of Speed problem, The Hospitaler and Master of Shrouds don't make sense as written and a few other issues I can't recall. Did Tome and Blood or Song and Silence have issues as great or greater than Defenders? If so, I need to look at them more closely.

Among other things, Tome and Blood was missing HALF a Prestige class. They had to re-release the thing as a web enhancement.

The hospitaler had a couple of requirements issues, and I haven't seen errata for the Armor of Speed yet. Note I didn't say "error-free", only "most error-free." The only reason you heven't seen much for Song and Silence is that it's only been out for a month and a half. However, I could be changing my mind on that one if it still proves to be as clean as it appears.