Is Helios Rising the Largest Sci-Fi Setting Book Ever?

[trancejeremy]

So CM is basically just so people can call each other by the F-word? Charming!


Anyway, I can see how some might think this thread is tacky, but I personally suspect it's more out of excitement out of having finished writing such a large product than "guerilla" marketing.

 

[Morrus]

OK, guys, this was moved to the right forum - let's not raise that issue again. If you want to discuss the product itself, carry on.

 

[francisca]

The aggressive CM recruiting with hostile undertones really has to stop.

OH YEAH!?! WHY DON'T YOU COME OVER TO CM AND SAY THAT?

 

[Wulf Ratbane]

I had no idea there was a no pimping rule at ENWorld.

Seriously.

 

[Vigilance]

Well, I'd like to humbly point folks looking for a sci-fi setting to information about the Twisted Earth

Darwin's World 2nd edition: 348 pages
Broken and the Lost: 200 pages
Metropolis Rho: 277 pages
Lost Paradise: 136 pages
Last God: 188 pages
New World Order: 136 pages
Metal Gods 59 pages
Foundationists 139 pages
Against the Wastelords 62 pages

Total pages: 1,545

Chuck

PS I only counted books over 50 pages- short adventures, dispatch articles and mini-books would probably add another 200 pages to the above list.

 

[Justin D. Jacobson]

Well, I'd like to humbly point folks looking for a sci-fi setting to information about the Twisted Earth

Darwin's World 2nd edition: 348 pages
Broken and the Lost: 200 pages
Metropolis Rho: 277 pages
Lost Paradise: 136 pages
Last God: 188 pages
New World Order: 136 pages
Metal Gods 59 pages
Foundationists 139 pages
Against the Wastelords 62 pages

Total pages: 1,545

Chuck

PS I only counted books over 50 pages- short adventures, dispatch articles and mini-books would probably add another 200 pages to the above list.

Though I didn't clarify in the OP, I was specifically referring to a single "book" as opposed to the largest setting generally. My guess is that Traveller would blow everything else out of the water by that measure (though I can't think of a single gargantuan book they've done).

 

[Justin D. Jacobson]

I had no idea there was a no pimping rule at ENWorld.

Seriously.

There isn't. You're free to "pimp" in the Press Release forum. This post was originally in the General RPG forum because I did not believe it qualified as "pimping". The mods did, and the thread's been moved.

On the plus side, I reckon that gives me free reign to mention that, aside from apparently being the largest, Helios Rising is a great book. We've already gotten a couple of detailed 5-star reviews: HERE and HERE. The fact that HR is apparently the largest is an interesting factoid--nothing more.

 

[Teflon Billy]

It looked like pimping to me :\

 

[Justin D. Jacobson]

It looked like pimping to me :\

Here's where I stand on this issue: "Pimping" implies motive/intention. I can state categorically that my intention was not to promote or advertise the book. As I mentioned in the original RPGnet thread, someone asked me if HR was the largest, and I didn't know the answer. My intention for the thread was to answer that question. It's a legitimate question from an RPG-history perspective.

Now, I understand that the mods cannot endeavor to determine a poster's intent, so they rely on their interpretation. Eridanis believed the thread was more apt in this forum and moved it here. While I disagree with the conclusion, I respect it. He was doing his job and did so respectfully and succinctly, without any ado. I even recognize that asking the question inherently involves mention of the book and provides a basis for making that determination. Others have reached the same conclusion as you. It seems clear to me now that my interpretation of my initial post is colored by the context of why I wrote it, while readers of that post come into it without that context and reach a different conclusion. That's fine. The thread's been moved. It's moot now. What I can't understand is the commotion it caused. Honestly, it's not the first thread on EN World ever to get moved.

Now back to our regularly scheduled programming.

 

[Jonny Nexus]

I'm curious.

I was always taught that good writing involves using the fewest words possible. If I could describe something in 100 words, but there's another way I could describe it in 50 words that describes it just as well, then I should pick the 50 word option.

So we writers spend our childhood trying to make our "stories" as long as possible, and our adulthood trying to make them as short as possible.

And yet you firstly appear to be marketting your book on the basis of how long it is, and secondly wrote an opening section to this post:

So I tried this thread over at RPGnet, and the mods shut it down as "guerilla marketing", which it clearly is not. I'm not asking anyone to buy Helios Rising; I will not be telling you how great I think HR is; I will not be linking to a sales page. Hell, I won't even mention HR again after this post unless someone asks a specific question about it. What I want to know is this:

Is Helios Rising the largest science-fiction setting book ever published?

...which could have been much more efficiently written as:

What is the largest science-fiction setting book ever published?

How can I put this..? Assuming that you genuinely weren't attempting to market your product in your post* but were instead simply asking a question, well I'm starting to wonder about how good the quality of the writing might be in your product.

Put simply: is it 540 pages of waffle that could have been more efficiently written in, say, 300 pages?

*I'm giving you the benefit of the doubt here, partly because I'm making a point based on what you are claiming, and partly because if I don't you might accuse me of making a personal attack by calling you a liar. (Although to be fair, it's only a personal attack if you genuinely aren't lying - if you are, then it's merely an observation).