I think I'm over crunch

[hong]

Testify! I'm sick to death of "Feats, Prestige Classes, and Exciting New Rules for XYZ."

Back in the 2e days, we had Planescape and Ravenloft, each of which had dozens of amazing books, most crunch free and just simmering with incredible ideas (what people today call "fluffl" for some reason. :\ )

Too much staring into rose-coloured glasses will make you go crosseyed.

Complete Fighter's Handbook
Complete Wizard's Handbook
Complete Ranger's Handbook
Complete Paladin's Handbook
Complete Thief's Handbook
Complete Priest's Handbook
Complete Bard's Handbook
Complete Book of Elves
Complete Book of Dwarves
Complete Book of Gnomes and Halflings
Complete Book of Humanoids
Arms and Equipment Guide
Tome of Magic
Player's Option: Skills and Powers
Player's Option: Combat and Tactics

 

[pogre]

then I guess I'm done. Weird.

How about you?

Yep.

 

[Von Ether]

Depends on your crunch. I was never into feats and PrCs.

New rules for different types of magic (feats and skills, spell points, psionics, super powers, etc.) I have a weakness for. Mostly because I look at the d20 craze bassackwards compared to most gamers.

Them: Ohhhh, how much of this is "compatable" with the rules I love.
Me: ohhh, how much of this is different from the rules I "hate."

spell slots ... meh.

 

[Psion]

I haven't been overly swamped by combat options, feats or even spells yet, but I am swamped by PrCs and broken combat options, broken feats, and broken spells.

Now that'll get an "amen" from me!

 

[Eltern]

True dat! Just recently I've decided "You know what, I've got UA, and CW was decent, and spellcasters have all they could ever want, anyway. I'm going to run Scourge of the Slavelords, and I'm going to run it with some rules I got out of UA. And other than that...I'm good." When I realized that I did not have a bit of interest in any of the other books I had, or anything coming out, I gave Bill and Ted "Whoa ", and then began thinking up a bunch of "fluff" for my campaign. After all, what's running a published adventure, converted to 3e, if you don't change the plot all around?

Give me inspiring fluff, no more prestige classes/feats/spells/completely new rules sets (Relics? What the heck?)

Speaking of which, someone had a map for their campaign that was just a stolen geographic map of one of Hawaii's islands with the scale changed to make it continent sized. I really loved that map, could who ever it was give me a shout?

Eltern

 

[Melan]

Another convert to the anti-crunch crusade! Can I get an amen?!

A-MEN! As a DM, more crunchy-rulesy stuff is the last thing I need. Give me good adventures, maybe a town sourcebook or even a world setting. If it includes a few magic items or new monsters in context, so be it! Separate books full of them? Heavens, enough of that!

 

[Winterthorn]

Right On!

This is a shift for me. Traditionally I bought rulebooks for crunch & avoided fluff because I provide my own fluff in my homebrews, thank you very much. So if I don't need fluff and I'm sick of endless feats/spells/prestige classes/whatever, then I guess I'm done. Weird.

How about you?

Yes, I agree, and no, there's nothing weird about having a change of heart regarding one's likes and dislikes.

I actually made a point of avoiding many products because I was overwhelmed and annoyed by a flood of crunch content--there's WAY more out there than anyone of us, DM or Player, will ever use--while I was always disappointed by the low level of quality in the "fluff". (Gawd, I loathe those expressions, "crunch" & "fluff", sounds like a really odd cereal product, or a genuinely tacky cartoon duo...)

So, having been saturated with variant rules, I now browse my FLGS for quality background material that fits the themes I am interested in for the Kingdoms of Kalamar campaign I'm running. I think the smartest direction for publishers now is to focus upon developing "in-depth" theme material--a strategy I've seen some already pursue. I do NOT want anymore rules material, I want more background material. I want gory details that I can exploit on guilds, medieval politics and society, discussions on RL history and those elements that are transferable into the RPG experience...

More feats and prestige classes? More settings as an excuse to justify new rules? BLEECH!

More NPC biographies, more background on celestial/fiendish/planar politics, more details on how magic works in a particular setting, more concise material on medieval history that we can use in our games, more alternative mythologies to inspire our gaming experiences, etc., you get the idea, it's all YAAAY!

Ideas are the inspiration of imagination. One person's spark can ignite several people's fires. (Okay. I'd better stop; too tired to make anymore sense.)

That's my two farthings! Sweet dreams, nighty-night and all that rot

 

[rushlight]

I love it!

Let's start an anti-crunch revolution! I can't see why people snap up those books filled with endless PrCs and feats. Are they making that many characters? Do they need to make a new character every three months? How many feats can a guy have?

It seems like there is such a flood of useless junk in those books. The noise-to-signal ratio is most definatly out of whack.

 

[MerricB]

For a large part of the time, I use just the 3 core rule books and Dungeon Magazine for adventure ideas... crunch? What's that?

Personally, I think that "fluff" can be gained from any source, and normally the less D&D the better. My constant reading of fantasy novels and watching various fantasy-based TV shows, films (as well as sci-fi and just normal shows) also gives plenty of inspiration.

However, one thing I do like about the crunchy books is that ONE FEAT in a book has the potential to create a really interesting character. It's a different feat for each player (and with multiple characters, it could be different feats for each one).

How much inspiration does one person need, though? Personally, I think D&D is served well by the core books and the Complete series... but I'll get the other books for completeness and because occasionally they can surprise me (as I hope Frostburn will).

This abundance of crunch does stop me from getting many d20 System books... for the most part I doubt I'm interested in their fluff, and the crunch I don't need.

Cheers!

 

[Creamsteak]

Unearthed Arcanna is my favorite "crunch" book.