What do the want from a new game book?

[Grumpy RPG Reviews]

What do you want from a new game book?

Let us say you are in a game shop and see if a new "setting book." For purposes of this question, this hypothetical book is not setting neutral, but fill-in the blank setting. Namely, whatever setting you like or want to see applied to a new setting.

So you see this book which uses you preferred system... what else do you want from this book besides system? What would make you pick it up and look at it? What would make you buy it?

 

[pming]

Hiya.

Easy.

Non-color and non-glossy pages. If it has color and glossy pages, that's two strikes against it.

Next, how much is devoted to "crunch" vs. "info". If the TOC has about 25% or more devoted to "crunch", that's another strike against it.

Another is how much info is devoted to individual locations. For a campaign setting to be used by me, I want a *heavy* "less is more" approach. I want to look on the map and see the "Kaalran Woods". When I look up the entry for Kaalran Woods, I either: (A) don't actually *find* a reference to it, or (B) have the reference be made up of six or seven sentences. Those sentences should be descriptive and us 'vagaries'. In other words, I want "A clan of savages claim the center of the woods, why is still unknown". I *don't* want "A clan of halfling savages claim the center of the woods, containing the Lost Idol of Buug, which the halflings worship as a god".

Last is maps. I want a legible map with some areas almost devoid of settlements. I want room to add my own stuff to the campaign setting.

Oh, and for added bonus; the book needs to be in 3 or 4 booklets, ring-bound, and in a box.

^_^

Paul L. Ming

 

[GMMichael]

First consideration: the cover. Decent art and a good name are required. If the art is only moderate quality, it should be imagination-jogging, and avoid cliche's.

Next consideration: price. It should be less than anything WotC puts out. If not, it would have to be damn good.

The system isn't really important, since setting doesn't need rules. It needs maps (with secrets), people, places and events. Okay, sure, the people start to need rules, but only if they're capable of super-human things. You don't need to stat-out a commoner, or even a well-connected thief.

Finally: detail. I can make my own bland setting, thank you. I'll pay a designer to come up with interesting stuff that has lots of detail. Too much detail is probably when a character gets more than half a page, or when a drinking game gets its own sub-system. When historical detail (not general history) goes back more than one generation.

 

[Ahnehnois]

What do you want from a new game book?

Not to put too fine a point on it, but I want it not to be setting-specific.

 

[scourger]

Here are the buzz words that most likely get me to buy a new game setting book for my preferred system these days, gleaned over the last few years of over-buying and refining my purchasing:
cover,
art,
adventure,
story,
maps,
counters,
rules (minimal),
index &
dwarves (for the win).

 

[Lord Mhoram]

For me - something different and evocative. Very subjective.

My favorite setting books have been Dinosaursous Rex (from Goodman) - SF western riding dinosaurs instead of horses and the "Indians" were intelligent velociraptors.

Hollow World. Need not say anymore.

Cerulean Seas - never saw an underwater game like that - great intro on why it was a water world, and great ideas.

Spelljammer.

Golarian - a dead God, a rift in the world to the Abyss, and a Devil worshipping country. A country with an undead leader that brough a paladin back as undead to be a wife. All really unique ideas.

Eberron was fun with the whole steampunk fun.

But for me, the setting can't be too dark or I don't want o play in it - See Dark Sun, Planescape, Ravenloft.


So I guess, for me, it all comes for a hook for the world that is really intriguing to me. Not just another fantasy world with standard structure but different details.

 

[Ratskinner]

What do you want from a new game book?

Let us say you are in a game shop and see if a new "setting book." For purposes of this question, this hypothetical book is not setting neutral, but fill-in the blank setting. Namely, whatever setting you like or want to see applied to a new setting.

So you see this book which uses you preferred system... what else do you want from this book besides system? What would make you pick it up and look at it? What would make you buy it?

This is a very tough question for me. With the exceptions of indie games that are tightly tied to their settings...I rarely buy setting-centric material anymore. I think the ones that temp me the most are ones that cover genres that I want to play, but haven't a good inclination as to how that genre "works". Steampunk is one of those for me...it seems more color and flavor than actual genre.

Also, while an introductory adventure is fine, I generally want the material for making my own adventures. So plenty of information on how and why to set things up is grand. Show me the tensions in the setting, and the principal players in those tensions, tell me about their resources and how they use them. Even better, tell me how to create my own villains in this setting.

The "trade-dress" or whatever possesses people to create pages that print black on almost-black must be restrained. If you want evocative art, fine, give me a plate or two in between chapters. The pages that I need to read should be clear and easily read. Play with the font, breaks, and columns a little, but don't give me text wrapped around or over images. If someone is holding a gun to your head and demanding you use a "parchment" background, then turn down its contrast....a lot. I know you can do a lot of nifty things with the design software nowadays....but remember: just because we can do a thing doesn't mean we must do a thing.

Minor things:
I like it if the book has commentary or sidebars written by an in-setting character.
If the setting has specialized rules, give me examples of how those play out....both as play and as narrative.
I like artwork that paints a quick picture...I'm not generally interested in super-detailed stuff, especially if its too busy.
Speaking of art...line art is a great and underused thing, nowadays.

 

[delericho]

What do you want from a new game book?

The simple, hard truth is that the bar for new game books is painfully high these days. Not only do I now have more material than I will ever use even if I live to be 200, but the shelves on which I store my RPG stuff have hit their maximum load. So not only does a new book have to be very good to be considered, but it has to be something I actively intend to use in the near future.

What I am interested in, though, are things that will make my existing game better or easier to run, especially if those tools are system-neutral. A few years back, I would have scoffed at the notion of using spell cards; now, I would kill for a good, complete set. Even better, though, would be a software tool that came loaded with the data for the existing spells, and also included user customisation options so I can add my own spells. Likewise, a good character management tool (including in-play electronic character sheet for iPad), or similar. And so on.

(Of course, the problem with spell cards and the like is that you can't get a complete set for D&D 3e, since the supplements were never opened using the OGL and WotC never released a full set. And, of course, it's now not worth anyone's time to bother.)

I'm sorry - I know that's not terribly helpful in answering your question!

 

[Randalthor]

Non-color and non-glossy pages. If it has color and glossy pages, that's two strikes against it.

See, and for me it's the opposite. My all-time favorite RPG book, for appearances sake (though the fact that I love the system and setting surly don't hurt any) is the Star Wars 2nd Edition Revised & Expanded RPG book. It is full-color and glossy all the way through baby! My second favorite (even though I really don't like the rules) is the D&D 3.5x Monster Manual (the 1st!), and it too is glossy and full-color.

Last is maps. I want a legible map with some areas almost devoid of settlements. I want room to add my own stuff to the campaign setting.

Yup, yup! Maps, maps, and more maps. Maps of all kinds - preferrably full-color and not cartoonish/hex-based.

Flavor, mucho flavor! For example: To read, my favorite book is The Wanderer's Journal for Dark Sun. ("I live in a world of Fire and Sand." *shiver* Awesome.) It was almost entirely flavor, and the only "rules" stuff were the stats for some of the more common, Dark Sun specific creatures in the back of the book.

From the criteria you set above, that it is a setting book and not a rules addendum, I would go with the following criteria, in order:

1. Flavor - The setting itself has to grab me. But as this is very subjective, even having it on the list is a little silly. but it is that important. Even knowing that everyone knows it is important, it is important enough to still stress.
2. Images (Art and Maps) - Art can convey as much setting information as the writing, sometimes more. Let's use Dark Sun as an example (again): The Brom art (moreso than the Baxa, in my opinion) really gives you a feel for the setting, making sure you understand that it is not your typical fantasy setting.
3. Maps - I love maps. Even if I don't use the setting, I will often grab it if it has good maps, like I did with some of the Accordlands stuff. Large world maps, local area maps, specific structure maps, town maps, city maps, village maps, they all are needed to help flesh out the setting, because architecture can really express a tone, and it is quadrubly effective if you also have images of what the structures look like from the outside.
4. Creatures/NPCs - It is nice if a setting has some setting-specific creatures, and some examples of NPCs really help a GM learn what to look for when making their own.

 

[Gilladian]

I would buy a new campaign setting that was geared to make E6 type campaigns reasonable; a world untouched by magic of 4 th and higher level except via gods or wishes/artifacts. Fairly generic fantasy would work for me, but so would a world with its own strong setting flavor. Just no cthulhoid horror, please!

as far as art and layout? Clean, simple, with only necessary art; color or not is immaterial, but glossy text pages can be very hard to read. Color maps, though? Yes, please!