Player's Guides - why?

[Olive]

Why? Because "Gazetteer" says "dont buy me because I will immediately be superceded by a more detailed hardback setting book." Think about it--every "Gaz" (Greyhawk, Scarred Lands, etc) was basically rendered mostly useless when the setting book came out.

And which Greyhawk setting book might that be then?

 

[Joseph Elric Smith]

And which Greyhawk setting book might that be then?

Yes I too must of missed the hard back Grayhawk setting book.
Ken

 

[cyphertube]

Last one I saw said AD&D 2nd Edition compatible! They sell them in little mini-paperbacks now, too.

I personally enjoy the Greyhawk Gazeteer. It gave me more deities to choose from than you'll find in the PHB or any other WotC product. Very nice for those who play Living Greyhawk.

The big difference between a gazeteer and a player's guide should be the level of complexity involved. A gazeteer should be able to more/less add flavour, get the reader up to speed, and ready to jump into a campaign. A player's guide should explain complex rules, etc. Basically, if your campaign seriously veers off the standard D&D norms, you'll need a guide to explain it.

Yes I too must of missed the hard back Grayhawk setting book.
Ken

 

[Henry]

And which Greyhawk setting book might that be then?

He's talking about the Living Greyhawk Guide, that came out right after the Greyhawk Gazetteer. It wasn't hardcover, but it DID supercede the Gazetteer. Same deal with Scarred Lands, only that WAS hardcover.

But Clark's got the conventional wisdom: if you can do ANYTHING to get the player market tapped into your purchases, you can double your sales at the very least, I would imagine. Even if this means players pestering the DM to say, "Can I use this cool little crunchy bit? Can I? Can I? Can I? Huh? Huh? Huh?"

 

[Ranger REG]

I apologize. My bad. I personally tend to have two distinct definitions between a player's handbook (contains the standard rules for playing, including character creation) and a player's guide (a companion supplement, offering new content for players to use or common knowledge for players of a certain setting).

 

[Frilf]

I'm not sure I'm any more enlightened about this than when the thread was started. Could be because I have an Int of 6, though