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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Tyler Do'Urden" data-source="post: 2055534" data-attributes="member: 4601">I don't know... for some of us, the "tingles" always came from new *crunch*, not fluff.  I remember how exciting it was, in 1998, a year after I started playing (yeah, I know, I'm a youngun), to get my hands on the Player's Option books- Skills and Powers and Spells and Magic especially- WOW!  Not kits, but new Core Classes!  Crusaders, Monks, Shamans, Artificers, Alchemists, Force Mages, Shadow Mages... this was truly neat stuff.  A flexible system for modding classes, point-based skill buying (so you could round out your character more like other skill-based systems)... alternate casting systems (Channelers!  I can make Wheel of Time D&D!), complete rules for magic item creation, cool new spells... suffice it to say, I was a happy camper.  Nothing made me tingly like those books- not for the "UBER L33T P0W3RGAMING ELEMENT", but because it finally gave me a hard and fast- balanced- system to modify the parameters of my campaign into what I wanted them to be.But then 3e came out- wow, that was exciting.  And then Sword and Fist came out- tingles!... and then the FRCS... more tingles!...And then it just kind of died.One of the thrilling parts of Dragon for me in 2e was that it was just about the only source for new rules material (not including fan sites on the net).  I'd always eagerly await new rules with options for expanding my games, making my monsters deadlier, systems for various special classes, etc... in 3e, that feeling vanished completely, because rather than searching for water in a desert, I was innundated.So no, it's not the writing in the books that bothers me (I'm rather fond of how clear and concise everything is, it appeals to my meticulous "simulator" side)... the comic-bookish art and feel isn't my favorite, though other d20 companies and lines don't have this problem (the style of the 3e Forgotten Realms books is probably more the look I would have used for core, but this is mostly a taste issue)... I just think the problem is too much- WAAAY too much- of a good thing.  A few months back, I finally did something unthinkable- I liquidated my entire collection, keeping nothing but my core books, and decided I'd start fresh.  I would only buy books that none of my friends owned, and would actually see frequent use in a game- either in preparation or in play.  If I wanted material from other books, I'd borrow.  So far, I'm not looking back...</blockquote>

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