Player's Guides - why?

[malladin]

Oh yeah, just remembered. I had pretty much everything for 1st edition Dark Sun (before they ruined it by taking away the ability to play defilers and templars - there's nothing like a bit of intra-party politics and divided loyalties to make Dark Sun dark).

Cheerio,

Ben

 

[Orcus]

Even I'm wary of a player's guide offering new stuff to the players that the GM doesn't know about it, unless it is also included in the GM's book (with said nasty secrets to counter the new stuff, if need be).

Otherwise, it is unfortunate that the GM is pressured to have all three products.

I think you guys must play D&D much differently from me. I have never had a situation where there is "new stuff to the players that the GM doesn't know about." The players use what is sanctioned. They cant go cooking up rules or using stuff I dont OK.

And I dont know about you, but players dont really buy setting books, the DMs do.

I just called it the "Players Guide" because it has character creation rules in it. Plus Monte suggested the name and I liked it. I used "Players Guide" to get players to even pick it up, becasue normally players wont touch setting books. DMs buy that stuff. And this is CLEARLY a setting book, but with info from a PCs standpoint.

Dont confuse the PG to the Wilderlands, which is a setting book, with say the "Players Guide to Barbarians" or something like that.

Clark

 

[Cergorach]

Players don't buy setting books? Mine do. Ever since there was 3E we played in 'The North' of FR, when the FR campaign book came out everyone jumped on the book. When the Silver Marches came out everyone wanted it with a passion. A year+ ago we started a new campaign in Thay, when Unapproachable East came out everyone wanted it.

Maybe it's not completely fair to compare a WotC book with a NG book, but i do think that there will be an awfull lot of players interested in the PGttW. $23.95 (with possible dicsounts) is a very small price to pay for a lot of us to get to know the setting a little better. And let's not forget RPGers are suckers for maps ;-)

 

[Buttercup]

Players don't buy setting books? Mine do.

Wow. Of my seven players, only three have even the PHB (and one is my husband). The rest just downloaded the SRD. It isn't that they can't afford it, and it isn't that they don't like spending money on their hobbies. Heck, they all have multiple sets of dice, custom dice bags, fancy leather or cloth bound players journals, etc. But no PHB

Certainly none of them would ever buy a setting book. One of them might conceivably buy a players guide to X class if he got really obsessed with his current PC.

I'm hoping that Santa is bringing me Wilderlands. If he doesn't, I'll order it online myself in the afternoon of December 25th. But should I decide to run a campaign in that setting, the only way I could ever make sure my players had copies would be to buy them myself and distribute them.

 

[Cergorach]

Stange... I wonder if there's a cultural/social difference. What would influence these decissions? Age, education, location, salery?

 

[MEG Hal]

We have Fall of Man coming out in 2004 (Feb/March) and it will be a 256 page hardcover so we are coming up with a player's guide that will be between $16-$20 to be released about 2 months later with all the information players will need to play in this OGL game/setting without having to buy the hardcover book, we hope this helps the players and GM's with enjoying the system.

*This is our plan as of now...ask again in Jan/Feb and see if all is on track for the PG

 

[Joseph Elric Smith]

Wow. Of my seven players, only three have even the PHB (and one is my husband). The rest just downloaded the SRD. It isn't that they can't afford it, and it isn't that they don't like spending money on their hobbies. Heck, they all have multiple sets of dice, custom dice bags, fancy leather or cloth bound players journals, etc. But no PHB

Certainly none of them would ever buy a setting book. One of them might conceivably buy a players guide to X class if he got really obsessed with his current PC.

I'm hoping that Santa is bringing me Wilderlands. If he doesn't, I'll order it online myself in the afternoon of December 25th. But should I decide to run a campaign in that setting, the only way I could ever make sure my players had copies would be to buy them myself and distribute them.

In my group while all the players have the PHB, none except a couple who actually DM have the dm's guild and when it comes to world settings none of them buy them, except if they run and me. I buy all sorts of stuff whether I will ever use it or not. in fact I've often loaned out my campaign books to people to try to get them to run .
Just liek when we started a shadow run campaign,I immediately went out and purchased the book, though I was the only one besides the game master who had one, or in our EQ campaign where it is just me and the wife and the gm who have any of the books.

Ken

 

[jmucchiello]

Stange... I wonder if there's a cultural/social difference. What would influence these decissions? Age, education, location, salery?

I would assume (and admit I could be way offbase) that people who don't buy gaming books are also the type that don't buy books in general. Some people don't like to read or don't like to spend money on one-shot purchases (reading a book) and that carries over into their gaming hobby. I doubt that age, education, location and/or salery really correlate. You probably get a better hit on whether the person purchases a daily newspaper or not.

 

[DaveMage]

The only setting book my players bought was the Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting - and even then, only 2 of 4 bought it.

Only 3 of 4 bought/own the Player's Handbook.

 

[Ranger REG]

The same here, but only because we run different FR campaigns, in different regions. That way, I'm given the chance to be a player, while another is a DM.

My perspective of a player's guide with a companion DM's guide, is to give the player's the bare information they should know (with emphasis that the DM have final ruling -- memorialized in print for those underhanded rules lawyers), and the DM have what the players know ...and MORE (DM's tools, secrets, tips, etc.).