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Message: <blockquote data-quote="CharlesRyan" data-source="post: 3368475" data-attributes="member: 5265">I love the new format. But then, I sit firmly on one side of a debate that's been raging among RPG consumers for decades.One side holds that RPGs are bought and sold on a cash-per-word basis. If Product X delivers 50,000 words for $20, while Product Y is only 40,000 words for the same price, then Product X is empirically a better deal than Product Y. (Or, as it's more often expressed, Product Y is clearly a rip-off by a cheap, money-grubbing, corporate publisher.) If Monster Book A contains 200 monsters, and Monster Book B contains only 180, then clearly Monster Book B is, to put it most charitably, a worse deal than Monster Book A.The other side values RPGs by the experience provided. If Product X is more fun and interesting and useful than Product Y, for the same money, then it's a better deal--no matter what the page or word count. If Monster Book A delivers a reasonable number of monsters that are really useful and make the GM's life easier, it's a better deal than Monster Book B, even if the latter has twice the number of monsters.Gamers have been arguing this point since the advent of desktop publishing. I remember Usenet discussions about whether Product Z had "too much white space" in the page layout, and whether players were getting ripped off because the publisher went with an "artsy" design when a couple more square inches per page could have been filled with additional text.I adhere firmly to the second camp. Thus, an encounter format that makes the game easier and faster to run and prep for--or a graphic design that's evocative and establishes the game's atmosphere--is far more important to me than issues of space efficiency. If I get a little less content (or have to pay a little more for the same content in a larger book), it's well worth it.If you're counting the words, or worried about publishers "padding" their products, your mileage may, of course, vary.</blockquote>

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