The older i get the less I need.

[Thomas Shey]

I will opt for a hard copy every time over a pdf at the table, but if I can get both I will. Pdfs are nice if Im watching TV or just doing two things at once, but I cant read them for long. Though being able to increase the font size helps

I find there's some benefit to having a corebook in hardcopy when I'm running, but over time its seemed pretty pointless for add-ons of one sort of another.

 

[Staffan]

Well, I have a hard and fast rule that I won't run a game unless I have a hard copy next to me.

Since I usually play away from home, hardcopy is often not practical – particularly with games that get lots of "necessary" expansions and sourcebooks. Much easier to just bring one laptop than 5-10 books.

I usually do like to have a hardcopy of the core rules, though – if nothing else so I can hand it to someone to look things up while I do something else.

 

[R_J_K75]

I find there's some benefit to having a corebook in hardcopy when I'm running, but over time its seemed pretty pointless for add-ons of one sort of another.

In theory a tablet or small laptop at the table with a pdf or a program like D&DB but just cant get used to it to use it seemlessly, So Im still print out and books when actually playing

 

[Staffan]

Though the presence of its idiosyncratic (but fairly interesting) aliens makes its setting-neutrality somewhat questionable. Like the D&D magic system, they're mostly too specific to be considered really generic.

The idea was that the aliens would be adapted to the setting. For instance, the core book aliens were pretty much used as-is in Star Drive, but in Dark Matter the Fraal became Grey, the Weren Sasquatch, the Sesheyans Mothmen, and the Mechali (not sure about the name, but the ones that were cybered up the wazoo) Sandmen.

 

[R_J_K75]

Since I usually play away from home, hardcopy is often not practical – particularly with games that get lots of "necessary" expansions and sourcebooks. Much easier to just bring one laptop than 5-10 books.

This reminds me of the pre-computer internet days when I used to lug around a 50 lbs book bag to go play. Thats why 99% of the time because I have most of the gaming materials at my house, I don't play away from home very often if at all anymore.

 

[Thomas Shey]

In theory a tablet or small laptop at the table with a pdf or a program like D&DB but just cant get used to it to use it seemlessly, So Im still print out and books when actually playing

Different people have different kinds of engagement. I'm running off my laptop anyway, so referencing a bestiary or power/spell reference that way isn't any more painful than everything else I'm doing.

 

[Thomas Shey]

The idea was that the aliens would be adapted to the setting. For instance, the core book aliens were pretty much used as-is in Star Drive, but in Dark Matter the Fraal became Grey, the Weren Sasquatch, the Sesheyans Mothmen, and the Mechali (not sure about the name, but the ones that were cybered up the wazoo) Sandmen.

They really weren't (except for the Fraal). Besides look-and-feel those others didn't share much in the way of numbers. They were just vaguely similar concepts. And honestly, that wouldn't help much if you were using a setting that should have aliens--just not those.

 

[R_J_K75]

Different people have different kinds of engagement. I'm running off my laptop anyway, so referencing a bestiary or power/spell reference that way isn't any more painful than everything else I'm doing.

I agree, I wish I could do that but my brain just doesnt let me. I get too distracted, then again I have a habit of losing print outs at the table too, so its a lose lose situation for me

 

[jolt]

I find that as I get older, I like effects-based system less and less. I don't want to worry about how three different characters built their fire powers differently (or how I'm going to do so). I don't want to have to build Fire Blast, I want it to be there already. I also don't like fishing disadvantages or flaws for points. Maybe there's a good reason to play a dwarf eunuch with anosmia, but "I needed 20 more points" isn't it. I picked up Dungeon Fantasy for GURPS specifically so I didn't have to do all that tweaking - it would have taken forever and the end result would likely have been worse.

I remember a comic (I don't remember which one) where a guy wants to sculpt and elephant from a block of marble and he thinks to himself, "They say you just need to remove everything from the block that isn't an elephant". In the next panel he's chipped away the entire block and he thinks, "I guess this one didn't have an elephant in it". That's how I've started to feel from trying to shape generic systems into what I want (especially if they're crunchy). It's far easier IMO, to add in optional elements rather than trying to trim a system back.

 

[Thomas Shey]

I find that as I get older, I like effects-based system less and less. I don't want to worry about how three different characters built their fire powers differently (or how I'm going to do so). I don't want to have to build Fire Blast, I want it to be there already. I also don't like fishing disadvantages or flaws for points. Maybe there's a good reason to play a dwarf eunuch with anosmia, but "I needed 20 more points" isn't it. I picked up Dungeon Fantasy for GURPS specifically so I didn't have to do all that tweaking - it would have taken forever and the end result would likely have been worse.

Its not like templates and pre-built powers aren't a thing in effect based systems. They just don't force you to use them.