RE: Crunchiness
- Thread starter Suzerain
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BiggusGeekus
That's Latin for "cool"
CRUNCHY:
"Orcs have 4 hit points"
NON-CRUNCHY:
"Orcs like to tango."
"Orcs have 4 hit points"
NON-CRUNCHY:
"Orcs like to tango."
Jack Haggerty
First Post
From Webster's
Since I normally do not chew or "press" any of my Roleplaying books, I'm not overly concerned with how crunchy they are.
Rules content, practical examples of the same; well written "flavor" text and well drawn illustrations; plot hooks, campaign suggestions, NPC and creature stats; new equipment both magical and mundane; new feats, skills, prestige classes; and other useful game-play devices presented in a concise, informative and easily referenced manner are what I'm looking for in a good RPG book.
Since I normally do not chew or "press" any of my Roleplaying books, I'm not overly concerned with how crunchy they are.
Rules content, practical examples of the same; well written "flavor" text and well drawn illustrations; plot hooks, campaign suggestions, NPC and creature stats; new equipment both magical and mundane; new feats, skills, prestige classes; and other useful game-play devices presented in a concise, informative and easily referenced manner are what I'm looking for in a good RPG book.
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The It's Man
Explorer
As long as you won't take the bones out of the frog, it's crunchy enough for me.
333 Dave
First Post
I'm 98% sure crunchy = feats/prestige classes/spells/magic items/ basicly anything that is rules oriented. Flavor text isn't crunchy, but hard fast rules are very crunchy. Crunchy isn't necisssarily good, but good crunchyness is better than good flavor text to someone who ignores flavor text and makes it up themselves. And bad crunchyness usually beats bad flavortext anyway....
Maerdwyn
First Post
For me, crunchiness is measured by how much of a product I can use on an on-going basis in my campaign.
For an aventure, that means it contains NPC's that don't get killed or maybe a prestige class(not quite soggy), a well thought-out village or even just a nice working temple or guild (firm), or new mechanics like Mike Mearls' "Alert Factor" in To Stand on Hallowed Ground (crunchy
).
Crunchiness is only as important as Tastiness, however. Even a very crunchy product is somewhat useless to me if its crunchy bits are so completely steeped in the flavor of a published setting that it that they overpowers "delicate seasoning" of my homebrew campaign world.
For an aventure, that means it contains NPC's that don't get killed or maybe a prestige class(not quite soggy), a well thought-out village or even just a nice working temple or guild (firm), or new mechanics like Mike Mearls' "Alert Factor" in To Stand on Hallowed Ground (crunchy
). Crunchiness is only as important as Tastiness, however. Even a very crunchy product is somewhat useless to me if its crunchy bits are so completely steeped in the flavor of a published setting that it that they overpowers "delicate seasoning" of my homebrew campaign world.
Jack Haggerty
First Post
No... I just hate the term "crunchy" used in this manner.
But, if you are asking for what is the typical mix of "rules" goodies and "story" goodies an average gamer wants in a sourcebook, then take a look at the SW:RPG Alien Anthology and Starship of the Galaxy. In my opinion, at least, they had precisely the right mix of goodies I was looking for.
There were stats for creatures/aliens/starships, and the stats blocks were compact and informative. this allowed them fit a lot of info into a small page count. For each entry there was a brief background entry. Enough to give you a feel for the creature or ship, but not so much as to take up valuable space on the page or make them completely useless when being inserted into a home-brew campaign. Both books included new prestige classes and feats, and alternate ways to use skills. Both had basic rules for creating new creatures/starship for scratch or templates/rules for modifying the ones listed in the book (these alone made the two books worth buying). The background entries were interesting to read and the art was pleasing to look at (especially in the Alien Anthology).
Many books even include a short adventure module.
But, if you are asking for what is the typical mix of "rules" goodies and "story" goodies an average gamer wants in a sourcebook, then take a look at the SW:RPG Alien Anthology and Starship of the Galaxy. In my opinion, at least, they had precisely the right mix of goodies I was looking for.
There were stats for creatures/aliens/starships, and the stats blocks were compact and informative. this allowed them fit a lot of info into a small page count. For each entry there was a brief background entry. Enough to give you a feel for the creature or ship, but not so much as to take up valuable space on the page or make them completely useless when being inserted into a home-brew campaign. Both books included new prestige classes and feats, and alternate ways to use skills. Both had basic rules for creating new creatures/starship for scratch or templates/rules for modifying the ones listed in the book (these alone made the two books worth buying). The background entries were interesting to read and the art was pleasing to look at (especially in the Alien Anthology).
Many books even include a short adventure module.
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