Why don't companies show people how to use their books?

[Crothian]

d20 has been going strong for 5 years. We have thousands of books covering a wide variety of areas and a wide variety of styles. But the one thing most of the books fauil to do in my mind is show people how to use them. They just come out with new classes, new rules, new settings, new everything. But no new ways to use them with the old. Now, I imagine many of don't need to be shown. We have been gaming for 20 years and we have a lot of experience with adding new things to our games. But there are plenty of gamers that don't have that knowledge and do not have that experience. I see threads here that seem to indicate a DM or player got in over their head with the options, the rules. They don't know how to really use it and not get into trouble. Or even worse they can use it, but there is a better way that they are not seeing. Writers have a unique insight into their works and I'd like to hear mor efrom them about their works. So many times it seems a month goes by and the latest releases are already forgotten about as companies move on.

THis is not a rant, just an observation on something I think the game could benifit by.

 

[Brother Shatterstone]

THis is not a rant, just an observation on something I think the game could benifit by.

I agree with most of what you said but some of the companies do a wonderful job in showing in the books, or via website how to use there products and to integrate them into the game.

Now even the great high quality publishers don’t do this with ever product and I think it comes down to a lack of manpower and/or money to do so.

 

[Crothian]

I agree with most of what you said but some of the companies do a wonderful job in showing in the books, or via website how to use there products and to integrate them into the game.
.

Who? If someone is doing a good job in this we should name them and reward them because it is extra work.

 

[Brother Shatterstone]

Who? If someone is doing a good job in this we should name them and reward them because it is extra work.

WotC does a good job… They have more articles than anyone out there.

GR has a whole website for Mutants and Masterminds.

AEG has a whole website for Spycraft.

But those are product lines and probably not what your really looking for… but I think it does show you where you will find this type of support is. (It’s also where the money is.)

Sorry for a rather unsatisfactory answer… :\ I’ll have to give some deep thought into more of this…

Paizo is another good one at doing what you speak off. Of course they’re pretty much required to be based upon their customers.

 

[MerricB]

Are you talking about things like the "Use this Book Tonight" web articles by Andy Collins, Crothian?

http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/ub/20050722a

Or the "Eberron Expanded" article on adapting Heroes of Battle for Eberron?
http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/ebee/20050725a

Cheers!

 

[haiiro]

But the one thing most of the books fauil to do in my mind is show people how to use them. They just come out with new classes, new rules, new settings, new everything. But no new ways to use them with the old. Now, I imagine many of don't need to be shown. We have been gaming for 20 years and we have a lot of experience with adding new things to our games. But there are plenty of gamers that don't have that knowledge and do not have that experience.

I don't think books with new bolt-on options need this treatment quite as badly as gaming books in general need to speak more generally to ways you can play. If I've seen the bit of advice that says, "choose which PrCs you allow in your game carefully," I don't need to see it again in every book that offers new PrCs.

An example from D&D: the GM advice section at the front of the DMGII, that includes a reworking of Robin Laws' player types, etc., should be right there in the original DMG -- along with other advice on what works well for D&D, what doesn't work well, etc.

I've written a bit about this on my blog, Treasure Tables, and Bankuei, who writes the Deep in the Game blog, has had some very insightful posts on this topic recently -- so it's kind of on my mind.

 

[Crothian]

These are exactly the type of things I'm talking about, I just wish more companies would do it and that the ones that do would do it more often. While I'm wishing, I'd also wish that the companies would talk about other books that go good or bad with whatever book they are talking about. I know it ain't going to happen but as an example I'd love to see Green Ronin mention a bunch of books that fit the feel of Thieves World and also list the ones that won't work for that setting.

 

[Psion]

I'm not exactly sure if this is what you were getting at, but to me, Mastermind is almost the rosetta stone of spycraft.

 

[Crothian]

I'm not exactly sure if this is what you were getting at, but to me, Mastermind is almost the rosetta stone of spycraft.

What is Mastermind? I don't follow Spycraft so I'm not familar with their stuff.

 

[Psion]

What is Mastermind? I don't follow Spycraft so I'm not familar with their stuff.

It's a supplement. It's sort of like Toolbox for Spycraft. The thing is, Spycraft has a dizzying array of rule extensions. Mastermind's tables sort of act like an index of these options, showing you how to put together a game using these options.