Super Sized Roleplaying... more for our money?

[twofalls]

I've bought into it, they sold me on the glitz and the uniqueness, and I plunked my money down for word count in these game books. When the WLD came out I just had to have it, nothing like it had ever been created before. The Ruins of Undermountain couldn't compare to it, this book had it all fleshed out form levels one through twenty! Then Piazo published Shackled City, an entire campaign in one book, WOW, I just had to have it, full color and all spelled out in four hundred pages of fun! Then Ptolus came out... man, over 600 pages of city (this is a beautiful product btw) I just have to have that too, so now I do. The World's Largest City is out now too... bigger is better right? After all I enjoy my big coke, and the extra big package of fries that I get for my extra $1.69 at the McDonalds window... why not in my rpg products?

I noticed in the 2007 lineup from WotC that there are two projects (four books total) that are following the high page count concept down the mega module path. I look at my shelf, bulging with D20 products... my D20 book collection Dwarfs my OD&D and 1st/2nd D&D collection easily 10 to 1. I have literally hundreds of new shiny hardback D20 books (well some aren't so shiny anymore after use) and I think about the time when I was 10 years old back in 1979 and started playing the game. I had one book, the AD&D PHB and later the MM and DMG... I played endless games with just those three books. No mega this or super that.

I look back at my high page count megabooks and I ask myself, gee how much play have I managed to squeeze out of these books? I ran the first section of the WLD… 1/10th of the module(?) and now it is collecting dust. I read the first few entries of Shackled City… Ptolus I am actually getting some use out of… but so far all I have used is a few buildings in Delvers Square for a new game. Do I need WLC… I mean really? Bardsgate sits unused on my shelf, Waterdeep, a handful of well designed and never used Scarred Lands cities…

I'm not saying these new products are a bad thing, it just makes me wonder at my sense of - WoW I just have to have that! - and ask, why? I will probably still buy the Forgotten Realms books, I keep collecting the materials to my favorite all time setting... but I have little excuse for the mega city/dungeon/adventure products that are coming out from other sources other than to say, I bought into it. I allowed myself to become dazzled by super sized rpging. I wonder how many extra calories they are?

 

[Wik]

My favourite campaign ever was in grade six. I ran it using the 2e PHB, the DMG, the 1e Monster Manual (and MM 2), and the 1e Book of Lairs II. That was the whole campaign - everything else was developed by yours truly.

In my current campaign, The following books have been used (not counting monsters that are reprinted in the adventure path from books I don't own)

Core Books - PHB, MM, DMG
Player's Handbook 2
Complete Warrior
Complete Divine
Stormwrack
Races of Stone
Races of the Wild
Draconomicon
Dragon Compendium
Dungeon's Savage Tide campaign arc (so far on episode three)

Now, we have four players. They're all using those books - plus there's the stuff I use that has been added to the campaign.

Yeah, there's a lot more information involved in D&D these days, and I've found myself looking at the D&D books I've purchased and found myself wondering "was that really worth the fifty bucks?".

One of these days (maybe soon), I'll just play a campaign using the core books, and nothing more. At the very least, it'll be easier to bring my books to the game.

 

[Voadam]

I'm considering getting the 540 page Helios Rising d20 Sci-Fi setting book, and solely for the enjoyment of reading it and bits to raid to add to my D&D game.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Honestly, Ptolus is right at the edge of being too much book. I would have been quite happy if it had been broken into a Ptolus Handbook (including world info, the Players Guide, spells, races, gods, etc.), a City book and a Campaign book (including the adventures and so on).

I can't picture myself buying another jumbo volume. Ptolus has actually kept me from buying the World of Warcraft RPG, in fact. (I own the Warcraft RPG, though.)

 

[Cam Banks]

I wrote a 362 page campaign module this year for Dragonlance. Wasn't supposed to be that big when we started, but hey.

Cheers,
Cam

 

[Voadam]

I think the biggest module I own is the 2e Dragonlance anniversary book. For 3e Probably Return to the Temple of Elemental Evil or Banewarrens, I'd have to check the page lengths.

Biggest RPG book? Probably Penumbra Fantasy Bestiary at 360+ pages IIRC. I think its bigger than the FRCS.

edit, nope Everquest RPG PH is 396 and Tome of Horrors Revised comes in at 450 pages. Oathbound CS was a good contender at 352 and Deeds Not Words at 376.

 

[CaptainChaos]

I know that there's no way my group is going to invest the time to play through one of those mega-adventures. At the rate we play it'd take us years to finish one and none of them are compelling enough for us to make that committment. I'm more interested in the shorter Dungeon adventures for things like GR's Bleeding Edge line.

 

[buzz]

Honestly, Ptolus is right at the edge of being too much book. I would have been quite happy if it had been broken into a Ptolus Handbook (including world info, the Players Guide, spells, races, gods, etc.), a City book and a Campaign book (including the adventures and so on).

If you're going to buy all of those books, how is it any different to buy all the same content in a single book?

Anyway... I can see some hesitation at the mega-adventures. Heck, my group played through the first chapter of the not-all-that-big-anymore CotSQ, and it probably took 6-7 sessions. Assuming at least that many sessions for the other chapters, and that we play biweekly, that's easily a year's worth of D&D for us. We're doing AoW now, which is comparable to Shackled City, and it'll take us about 2-3 years, assuming we actually finish it.

But when we're talking setting material, a la Ptolus, I don't see a big problem with mega-books. I mean, given the typical RPG business model, that much content and more is going to be churned out anyway... why not get it all in one book, up front?

 

[Chupacabra]

I too am blessed (cursed?) with a ton of nice shiny books most of which I will not be able to employ in actual gaming. They are still fun to read and ponder and especially plagirize (sp?) from, but thats about it. Probably 90% of the current campaings that I run or play in utilize material from the 3 core books and thats about it. A feat here or a PrC there from another book, but we keep it pretty basic and thats fine. When I DM I just need the 3 cores and a few pdf print-out pages or xerox pages from some non-core stuff and I'm ready to rock. All of that fits in a messenger bag. I don't have to haul a box around on game nights, thankfully.

Maybe one day this group (or another) will go whole-hog and we'll have all of the FR sourcebooks spread out everywhere at the gaming table. But not now....

....although I still keep buying and collecting as if we are.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

If you're going to buy all of those books, how is it any different to buy all the same content in a single book?

Less risk of Carpal Tunnel Syndrome.

It's seriously a hassle to read in all of the places I normally read a D&D book -- in the bathtub, hanging half off a sofa, etc.