Just something importent to me, that I want to be seen.

[gariig]

Fluff and Crunch have been in the topics lately so I will quickly address them myself. A balance of Crunch and Fluff is very difficult to maintain, some books need more crunch then others. A CORE book or something meant to hit home for any audience(I.E. Challenges, Strongholds, MoTP, The Class books, Core Books, etc) need mostly crunch(80% maybe as a rough estimate) because the Fluff should give you enough idea of what the Crunch should be doing and get you along your merry way.

Now on the other side of the coin, books like FRCS, Magic of Faerun, Kalamar Campaign Setting, Ghelsped CS, etc. need far more fluff then a more "Core" book. These books are meant to describe stories to the reader. You are picking them up to see what a few guys who are intimately familiar with their land wants to do with it and you use their Fluff to make new Fluff of your own.

An example of too much Crunch and not enough Fluff is Faiths and Pantheons, essentially all the deities of the Realms in a book. Now I wanted more on how different gods interact with each other, their elite champions(ala Prestige classes), and some smaller deities. I got some of that, but I really wanted more on how they interacted with each other and possibly some history on how the pantheon is the way it is(Times of Trouble info would have been nice as a bunch of gods died and lost portfolios). Instead, I got stat blocks of the GODS, I find that totally useless...unless you want PCs fighting the gods. Now, the stat blocks are Crunchy but are an example of bad Crunch.

So, I guess overall, to please everyone is impossible

Gariig

 

[Mythtify]

Crunch,fluff, fluff crunch....aghhhhhhh.

Sorry, had to get that off my chest.
I enjoy the books that have a large amount of background and story for the same reasons that I like a good novel. I enjoy reading about fantasty worlds and people.

I bought Lords of Darkness, and enjoyed it a lot.
I didn't buy faiths and pantheons, cause I don't think the gods should be stat-ed. I feel that Gods should be detailed, with info on how they do what they are supposed to do. Though, I am a firm believer in that if you Stat it, they will kill it. I am skipping Dieties and Demigods as well.

The class books are okay. I have found info in them that I can use. Though thier quality in terms of art and layout and such thing are fairly low. I have been buying them slowly; when I either of lots of extra chash; or when they show up in the used section.

I think that the biggest problem with WoTC right now that RPGS are, and have always been, a nich market. Sales of anything WoTC does will never approach the sales of something like Monopoly. Hasbro wants to see WoTC products sell like there toys and such. It is never going to happen. As faithfull and devoted as RPGers are, there arent that many of us. Not when you compare our numbers to the numbers of people that own Monopoly, or Barbi, or UNO.

Hasbro dosn't want to put the time and money into what they see as having a very small profit margin. The guys at WoTC are fighting very hard to put stuff out. With big brother not allowing a lot of time or money to go into production and development, there are going to be mistakes in the products that come out. Lets hope for a miracle. Lets hope that Hasbro decides to sell WoTC to people that understand the RPG market. Its a hobby market, and not a mass market.

Heck, let Hasbro keep WoTC for the thinks they think have mass market appeal, such as the endless series of CGGs, and sell off the RPGS. I would be happy with that.