Sell Me on OSE

[kenada]

I understand if you have only ever googled things its a confusing concept I will grant you. But I like to lookup things efficiently in an alphabetical index, not read the entire contents trying to guess which section it would be under.

No need to be rude just because the reason I speculated is not to your liking. In practice, I find it easy to look up things in the table of contents since it’s grouped by topic and comprehensive. However, I can understand preferring to have those topics also organized alphabetically, and OSE does come up short in that regard.

Either way, there is no good reason not to have an index, just because some people don't want to use it.

I wouldn’t sacrifice content just to make room for an index, which is what Gavin would have to do to add a general index to OSE. The alternative is adding another signature to the books, which would require 4 to 16 more pages of content depending on the size of signature being used.

 

[thirdkingdom]

One of the things I find difficult to use about the books (don't get me wrong, I love OSE) is that because there are so many different versions there's no easy way to reference a rule in 3rd-party books. Do I use Advanced or Basic, Referee's or Player's? I end up just referring to the chapter or sub-chapter for the rule I want to reference, which I find to be less than ideal.

 

[Retreater]

One of the things I find difficult to use about the books (don't get me wrong, I love OSE) is that because there are so many different versions there's no easy way to reference a rule in 3rd-party books. Do I use Advanced or Basic, Referee's or Player's? I end up just referring to the chapter or sub-chapter for the rule I want to reference, which I find to be less than ideal.

Even my friend who is a huge fan of OSE got confused and accidentally backed the recent Kickstarter, thinking it was something new, when it's essentially a new box to hold your books.
I've already bought too much of the stuff, and the line is getting bloated (for me) after just a few years. It's confusing to new players, redundant to veterans, a headache for store owners to stock.
I think it would be preferable if Necrotic Gnome would create a compiled version, clearly label it "standard" and use that going forward.

 

[Aldarc]

Even my friend who is a huge fan of OSE got confused and accidentally backed the recent Kickstarter, thinking it was something new, when it's essentially a new box to hold your books.
I've already bought too much of the stuff, and the line is getting bloated (for me) after just a few years. It's confusing to new players, redundant to veterans, a headache for store owners to stock.
I think it would be preferable if Necrotic Gnome would create a compiled version, clearly label it "standard" and use that going forward.

Good value or not, there was also a fairly large price tag on the box sets. So it felt a little less "new player" or "starter set" friendly than I would have liked. I will likely wait and see how my enthusiasm fairs once the Dolmenwood Kickstarter arrives, likely in Q1 2023.

 

[kenada]

Technically, the most recent Kickstarter was new stuff. They reorganized the books again, so this box set is different from the last one. Not that I expect that to be reassuring. I agree having all the different books is needlessly confusing.

 

[Reynard]

I am baffled someone went through the effort of defending the lack of an index.

I would argue in a game like OSE that is built on a game many of it's players already "know" and has many similar games adjacent to it, that an index is even more important. You are much more likely to need to spot check a specific rule during play in a game like that, and that's what an index is for.

 

[kenada]

The original question was, “How is this possible?” I speculated about how it could possible. The negative responses my post engendered are what is baffling.

I would argue in a game like OSE that is built on a game many of it's players already "know" and has many similar games adjacent to it, that an index is even more important. You are much more likely to need to spot check a specific rule during play in a game like that, and that's what an index is for.

Is this a problem you find happens in practice? Like I said, I don’t find it to be, but that’s my experience, and I can understand why one would want an alphabetical index of all topics regardless.

Edit: rework for clarity and more constructive framing

 

[kenada]

The boxed set Kickstarter has started delivering PDFs. The new covers are really nice. Carcass Crawler #3 has a nice discussion on creating monsters. The Tomb of Aum-Pharath in Carcass Crawler #2 looks like a nice, small dungeon. I like the inclusion of a secret entrance.

 

[Yora]

There is another repackaging of the content?

How many are there now?

 

[Nikosandros]

There is another repackaging of the content?

How many are there now?

Just two currently: boxed sets or tomes. This KS was to reprint the boxed sets.