PDFs: Should they include flavor material or just plain rules?

[Y.O.Morales]

Last night I was reviewing again the contents of the Encyclopedia of Monsters Vol. 1 and a thought crossed my mind, since this book has 96+ pages with half of its content being 'flavor material'.

Knowing that most PDFs buyers prefer small e-books that are printer-friendly, I was thinking if PDF publishers should give flavor material the same priority as in print books. A publisher may want to balance the book by putting an amount of flavor material proportional to the game mechanics, but this will increase the page count and make the product bigger, slower to download, and more messy when printing it. And because many customers only find the game mechanics useful, then sacrificing some portion of the flavor material may contribute to a smaller file.

So I would like to know the opinion of PDF buyers. What do they prefer, flavor material well balanced with game mechanics or just plain rules?

 

[Crothian]

I like flavopr material, it makes the rules readible.

 

[jmucchiello]

I cannot say that I spend any time whatsoever thinking about my percentage of crunch vs flavor when I am writing my materials. So I'm not sure what to say about your question. When I was writing sample NPCs to demonstrate the material in the book, I included history/background info about them. There was no set amount of history or background for each one, in fact, since it was a PDF, I wrote as much as felt like it was enough for them.

Also, some of the best selling PDFs are mostly flavor, such as Dark Quest Games' City Guides. One of them is 9th all time at RPGNow.

I think customers prefer well-written material over material that's been excised of its flavor.

Joe Mucchiello
Throwing Dice Games
http://www.throwingdice.com

 

[RangerWickett]

If a pdf file has no flavor text or fluff, it reads like a fan-made html file you could just get for free online. It is often the flavor text -- the advice for using it your own setting, examples of use, adventure seeds, and overall well-written prose -- that makes a pdf worthy of being an actual product for sale. If you just want to put out the rules, put them up for free. Especially if you're using the OGL, people can just put your rules up online anyway, so you should definitely have something to make the book readable.

We play these games because they're full of good and interesting stories. Full of flavor, variety, and spice. A book is merely a soulless, necrotic limb of our hobby if it has no flavor in it.

 

[HellHound]

Our award-nominated PDF was recognized for EXACTLY that. A perfect mix of "crunch" and "flavor". Without the flavor, it's just a chunk of rules and ideas without something that holds it together.

According to each of the judges from the ENnies that I've talked to, I managed to get the right amount of each into Thee Compleat Librum ov Gar'Udok's Necromantic Artes, with the flavor being rich enough that it floated the whole book and gave everything in it the "feel" of the dark necromancer the book was written about.

 

[Y.O.Morales]

I agree. Flavor material should be of high importance in any product, for it also helps the players/DMs to visualize and use the material in their own games. And if the 'fluff' is good enough then the customers will not complaint about how big is the PDF file (unless it is oversized).

I clearly remember Sean K complaining some time ago (the ol' fairy tale) about the fact that WoTC wanted more and more crunch in their products.

 

[Crothian]

Well, we are a different type of gamer then on the Wizard's boards. If you ask the question there I'd expect you to get people who want more rules and less descriptive text.

 

[Y.O.Morales]

Been there, done that.

That's why I came with my doubts.

 

[Crothian]

Been there, done that.

That's why I came with my doubts.

So, what were your findings over there

 

[Fast Learner]

I read the title of the thread and said to myself, "Huh? What kind of insane question is that? Of course there should be flavor material, and plenty of it!"

Rules-only would be excrutiatingly dull and of no interest to me at all.