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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Bacon Bits" data-source="post: 8199074" data-attributes="member: 6777737">I'm talking about the systems people actually seem to be playing. The ones showing up on icv2 and roll20 lists and that my FLGS was telling me sold well (when they were open). D&D, Pathfinder, Call of Cthulu, Savage Worlds, Starfinder, Warhammer, One Ring, Cyberpunk Red, Stars Without Number, Blades in the Dark, etc. All these games have big, beefy rulebooks.Even Dungeon World, a famously rules-light game, has a rulebook that is several hundred pages. Yes, it's in a format that lends itself to a longer book with a ton of whitespace and larger print, but even if you condensed it down it'd still be a couple hundred pages. Mouse Guard, another game I think most people would consider rules-light, has a core rulebook with 320 pages, too.The existence of MicroLite20 doesn't mean that switching systems is easy. Just like the existence of Fiasco doesn't mean you should expect to play any TTRPG game with zero preparation. People still seem to mostly be interested in RPG games with significant heft to them to simulate a real world. Just like we see boardgames on kickstarter including dozens of bits and bobs and tokens and cards, RPG books generally show up with a hefty hardcover. That's the kind of bespoke RPG product people are willing to fund, regardless of whether or not that's what they end up playing. The same people who funded TSR's products in the mid to late 90s are the same ones funding kickstarters. On the flip side, established RPGs are also already this type of game, too.People aren't playing Cthulu Dark. It's a game with exactly one mechanic. That's barely enough to be a one-shot. They're playing Call of Cthulu, which is a couple hundred pages. We know that because that's what's been in the top 5 of the sales charts and in the top 5 of the roll20 campaigns for the past couple of years. Unless they were in the KS, people aren't playing Prince Valiant, either. You can't get that anymore, including the 2018 edition; it's not on DriveThruRPG or Chaosium's site. They're playing Pendragon because that's what Chaosium is still selling, which clocks in at at 220 pages.Yes, obviously. And where do we learn these new and unfamiliar processes of play? By reading the often quite thick rulebooks.</blockquote>

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