The Gaming Ideal

[Faraer]

d4:

A settingless core book could be fine, except that every ruleset implies things about the world it describes by how the mechanics work and what they cover. D&D has wavered between describing a pretty specific world with set metaphysics and trying to cater to heroic fantasy in general. You'd have to be very careful that the rules worked with your world.

We basically agree about sourcebooks, right? It's rules-heavy supplements (outside obvious stuff like mass battle rules) that I don't see the appeal of.

 

[KnowTheToe]

1. 3-5 players + GM (absolutely no more)

2. Once a week, twice a week if we live in never never land and never have to work.

3. 5-6 hour sessions are perfect, they allow enough time for socializing but you usually leave wanting more.

4. 30% Crunch, 70% Fluff. I love reading about diiferent worlds, groups, organizations etc. I love the flavor content of the game, I usually don't like the rules as there are enough rules for me in the core rule books. But a few new monsters, spells and magic items are always fun. I also don't want to have to flip through 20 books looking for a rule that I thought or a player thought they saw.

5. I want two books, one on time management, paperback, about 350 pages. I watch almost no TV and still never have enough time in the day. $15

Second I would like a book or part of a book to really covers the structure of creating campaigns and adventures and different angles of approaching it. With all the rules of D&D I get flustered. With other, less rule intensive, games I could wing entire sessions even some campaigns, but I get bogged down with D&D. Hard cover 180 pg $29.95

 

[DaveMage]

it's not d20, but Evernight for Savage Worlds is a complete campaign in one book, that should take the PCs from the equivalent of 1st level to about 15th-20th. (SW doesn't use levels per se, but that's about the power level the PCs will end up at.)

I'd really like to see it done for a D&D game. The adventure path modules kind of do it, but that's 8-9 different products.

To me it seems a natural thing, and I know the companies that are out there are capable, but no one has stepped up to actually do it.

 

[Arnwyn]

The following questions should help any publisher who reads the responses direct some of their production closer toward "The Gaming Ideal"

Well, at least for those publishers that consider their main market to be ENWorlders who visit enough and care about answering these types of polls, if nothing else...

1.) What is the best number of players at the table, whether as a DM or player yourself?
2.) How often should you be able to game in an ideal world?
3.) How long should those sessions be?
4.) The poll handled percentage of Crunch to Flavor, but what are some of the specifics behind your vote?
5.) If you could choose the single best next book to become available to you, what would it be, what form would it be in (hardback, softback, PDF), and how much would that book cost (please be reasonable)?

1) My preference is 6 players, 1 DM.
2) Once every 2 weeks.
3) About 8-9 hours, with "table talk" included.
4) I voted 20% "crunch" (blech to that term) and 80% "flavour" (blech to that term as well). I am sick to death of rules, and can only take so much. We pretty much passed that point a year or two ago, IMO. Further, there is no point to all these rules if there is no "location" to use them in.
5) It would be a 256 page hardcover with a tiny font that covers in exhausting detail all the southern lands in the Forgotten Realms that have been untouched by previously published products (including Nimbral, Lantan, Lapaliiya, Tashalar, Thindol, etc).

 

[randomling]

Hi, Mark. Let's see what I can do on this one, then.

1.) What is the best number of players at the table, whether as a DM or player yourself?

I'm usually a player. Best number I think is 4 players and a DM: enough people to make things interesting, but not so many that I feel intimidated.

2.) How often should you be able to game in an ideal world?

Once a week.

3.) How long should those sessions be?

I'd love to get the chance to play all-day sessions. Say, eight hours? (With appropriate breaks for food and refreshment of brain.)

4.) The poll handled percentage of Crunch to Flavor, but what are some of the specifics behind your vote?

I voted 40% crunch, 60% flavour. That actually seems like rather a lot of crunch to me. But that represents that I like a lot of fun toys to play with! However, they must have a good amount of flavour to them as I'm not a big fan of new rules "just because".

5.) If you could choose the single best next book to become available to you, what would it be, what form would it be in (hardback, softback, PDF), and how much would that book cost (please be reasonable)?

Hmmm. As a worldbuilder who's having problems, I would like a comprehensive guide to creating both settings and adventures. Ideally it would contain lots of advice on different methodologies and different points of view. I'd be prepared to pay about £25-£30 for a harback with this kind of content.

Thanks very much for your time and indulgence...

Welcome!!

 

[geezerjoe]

1.) What is the best number of players at the table, whether as a DM or player yourself?

I'd suggest 5 +/- 1 (not including DM). I like that value despite my role.

2.) How often should you be able to game in an ideal world?

I really like once a week with the occasional break ... from the game and sometimes from the group

3.) How long should those sessions be?

I prefer 4 to 6 hour sessions, but longer sessions require planned breaks and a "get your crap in order BEFORE the game" mentality by the group. Often with longer sessions it seems like the players feel that they can do their homework at the beginning of the session! Come on! Dude, do that at home ... you're screwing up my game time!

4.) The poll handled percentage of Crunch to Flavor, but what are some of the specifics behind your vote?

I can enjoy 100% of each but I like a reason for the Crunchy bits. As a DM though I've found that my group in the past couple years couldn't give a rat's hinney about story ... that really leads to burn out for me.

5.) If you could choose the single best next book to become available to you, what would it be, what form would it be in (hardback, softback, PDF), and how much would that book cost (please be reasonable)?

I LOVE 2 different types of books ... books that give a genuinly different way to play a character (not just PrC's but approaches too) and tools for the DM. I can't wait to be able to afford Arcana Unearthed but I was very disapointed with the Psionic's Handbook ... something SO different from magic shouldn't (IMHO) feel just like magic with "a twist". My current "most wanted" book would be a book of maps, 50 - 200 maps of all types. I'd pay upto $10 for a pdf, but not much more for a hardbound or softbound. In printed format, I'd rather have poster maps or printed 8 1/2 x 11's with 3 hole punches. I'd pay upto $30 for something like that depending upon the number and types of maps included.

Thanks very much for your time and indulgence...

You're welcome

l8r)

Joe2Old

 

[geezerjoe]

Re: Re: The Gaming Ideal

Hmmm. As a worldbuilder who's having problems, I would like a comprehensive guide to creating both settings and adventures. Ideally it would contain lots of advice on different methodologies and different points of view. I'd be prepared to pay about £25-£30 for a harback with this kind of content.

Check out Rolemaster's Game Master Law book. The section on world creation has helped me out in the past very often. I've recently gone back to it when I wanted to figure out where it is logical to place mountains on the map I'm currently drawing of a game world.

Hope that helps a little for ya

l8r)

J2O

 

[Desdichado]

1.) What is the best number of players at the table, whether as a DM or player yourself? I prefer groups that aren't too large -- I'd say three to five players plus a DM.

2.) How often should you be able to game in an ideal world? Twice a week, maybe. Of course that's an ideal world, in the real world but ideal circumstances, once a week.

3.) How long should those sessions be? Four to five hours. Occasionally longer.

4.) The poll handled percentage of Crunch to Flavor, but what are some of the specifics behind your vote? It's a timing thing. I've got tons of rules; more than I could ever hope to use. Now I want ideas, and things that can tie the rules together. I want ideas, not rules. Earlier on I was more interested in rules, but that was before I had a stack three feet tall of d20 material. Very little of it has any flavor, unfortunately, and the materials that do tend to be my favorites.

5.) If you could choose the single best next book to become available to you, what would it be, what form would it be in (hardback, softback, PDF), and how much would that book cost (please be reasonable)? I haven't the foggiest idea, to be perfectly honest. The kind of gaming material I'm looking for now is the kind of stuff that I have no idea I need until it's announced and then I say "I've gotta have that!" Sorcery & Steam by FFG, for instance, is one book this year that did that. I will say, however, that I don't particularly like PDFs unless they're short. If they're long, printing them off becomes prohibitively expensive, and I start to wonder why I didn't just get it as a book, which would be much more convenient. I don't really like reading lots of text on the monitor. Frankly, I'm kinda fond of my hardbacks, and the rate things come out that I realy think I need, I haven't found the cost to be any real barrier.

 

[BiggusGeekus]

Re: Re: Re: The Gaming Ideal

i know you specifically avoided naming the setting, but i've got to ask: which one is it?

... well ... as long as it's probably going to see a change in 3.5 ...

The FRCS. The entry for Cormyr and Sembia is an example. Cormyr looks like it was written with an eye to "The Cold Lands". Sembia is one of the "Old Empires". They don't seem to interact at all, yet they border each other. One country has a healthy elven population and the other a 3% halfling one, yet they don't seem to move around much (remember the FR is magic strong and travel friendly for a medieval world).

Like I said earlier, I'm being fussy but this is the kind of thing I want to see in a book. If two countries neighbor each other I want to see some spillover. But that doesn't happen much in the FRCS because all the "sections" are very self-contained.

Incidentally, I don't want to blast the setting. This kind of patchwork can be good. I've always said the FRCS is great for a first setting because the patchwork nature means the DM can drop in anything, anywhere. Ever read unofficial FR conversions for Return to the Temple of Elemental Evil? They're 2 or 3 paragraphs long ... for a module that spans about 10 levels! That's how adaptable the FR is. But I personally like to see a shade more virsimilitude.

Just my two cents.

 

[Faraer]

The sections of the Geography chapter were, yes, split between Robert Heinsoo, Sean Reynolds, and Skip Williams. (Of course they were generally working from Ed Greenwood's original material; the Chondath section, for example, is a condensed version of a longer file available on the web.) The Cormyr and Cold Lands parts are by Sean; but Sembia is by Rob and Old Empires by Sean. These are accidents of development, not actual features of the setting; the interactions of Cormyr and Sembia are adequately documented elsewhere.

I find non-Realms adventures quite hard to add to the Realms; but TSR treated it as such a dumping ground that the very distinctive (and verisimilitudinous) Realmsian essence got obscured.