The further you get away from the handful of popular RPGs and into the realm of boutique games, the greater the ratio of buyers who will never actually play the game at the table, and for whom the book is essentially just reading material. I expect publishers are well aware of this. These games tend to be even worse than D&D at presenting the system in a concise and easily referenced manner.
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I want smaller, leaner core books.
- Thread starter Reynard
- Start date
TheSword
Legend
Does that change the validity of the question.
Well, for myself I am not demanding that. I want the new Twilight 2000 or the Shadow of the Demon lord or whatever to be a slim, efficient, useful book so that I can grab a copy and read it and digest it and play the damn thing.
Aldarc
Legend
It's more an issue of getting to the point of your question rather than fishing for answers first.
Alexander Moonbeam
Explorer
I don't mind RPG books being long. I enjoy reading them.
But, I do prefer them to be small, because I'm very likely to need to carry them around with me. Not every GM has their game sessions in their own home. The "pocket editions" of The Dark Eye and Pathfinder are examples of complex, long rulebooks that nevertheless can go in your purse. D&D, in contrast, wants me to lug around three separate, foot-long hardcover books - four, if I'm running an adventure path. No, thank you.
But, I do prefer them to be small, because I'm very likely to need to carry them around with me. Not every GM has their game sessions in their own home. The "pocket editions" of The Dark Eye and Pathfinder are examples of complex, long rulebooks that nevertheless can go in your purse. D&D, in contrast, wants me to lug around three separate, foot-long hardcover books - four, if I'm running an adventure path. No, thank you.
"Most people who I have taught," is a strong selection bias on evidence. I don't see a whole lot of evidence that the horde of new young gamers in the D&D space these days are working off that apprenticeship model. If you don't have someone teaching you, reading the book is called for.
Which is why I didn't include direct reading entertainment as one of the major purposes for which the books are designed - it would seem to me that the basic design goals are reference, teaching, and marketing.
MNblockhead
A Title Much Cooler Than Anything on the Old Site
I love having a lot of content, but I like it well organized. I like clearly written, concise, illustrated rules in their place. Put the lore and setting stuff in another place. Keep your stories on another place. Monsters, magic items, another. I'm trying to learn MAGE the Ascension 20th Anniversary edition now and I just can't stand the mixing of pages and pages and pages of mediocre fiction and lore with the rules. Even with a bookmarked and searchable PDF it is just a chore to work with.
D&D Beyond is nice because I can easily reference just what I want...most of the time. But the organization and presentation of the rules is still frustrating and often difficult to look up, even in D&D Beyond.
Fandom's on-line version of Cortex Prime is my current gold standard. All the crunch I want, if I want it, well organized, searchable, cross referenced, good use of graphic illustration that makes the rules easier to quickly read and understand, yet still have beautiful art that doesn't get in the way.
It is modular in that you can start with very pared down and simple rules that can be picked up in a few minutes of reading. But you can make a very crunch system that still seems to have all the pieces work well together, still be easy to learn, and are easy to reference.
D&D Beyond is nice because I can easily reference just what I want...most of the time. But the organization and presentation of the rules is still frustrating and often difficult to look up, even in D&D Beyond.
Fandom's on-line version of Cortex Prime is my current gold standard. All the crunch I want, if I want it, well organized, searchable, cross referenced, good use of graphic illustration that makes the rules easier to quickly read and understand, yet still have beautiful art that doesn't get in the way.
It is modular in that you can start with very pared down and simple rules that can be picked up in a few minutes of reading. But you can make a very crunch system that still seems to have all the pieces work well together, still be easy to learn, and are easy to reference.
I find the text in the Pathfinder pocket editions to be way too small to read. But I do like softcover digest books. People hate on 4E, but I found the Essentials books to be the most practical and user-friendly D&D books I've used. The layout, font size, format - they were some of the only RPG books I've read that were clearly designed by professionals.
Exactly. I'm not advocating all colour and descriptive text be removed from RPG books. Just that the mechanical content be presented discretely and concisely. Jumbling it all together might be traditional, because the roots of the hobby go back to shoe salesmen writing game books. But it's simply terrible instructional design.
I like to think there is room for both. But I love Easter eggs.
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