4e is too verbose
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Alansmithee
- Apprentice
- Posts: 89
- Joined: Fri Mar 07, 2008 7:54 pm
The big problem I've seen with 4e is that a bunch of the content is either useless, irrelevant, or badly organized. Many things just seem scattered about in different places. Or they've fluffed things out that would work better in a smaller (and hopefully, cheaper format). DMG 2 reminds me of that, as well as most of the "monster group" books. There's some interesting stuff (YMMV, of course) but it's hard to justify spending $35 for a few pages of content you actually care about.
Ah, but some people do care about it very much!Alansmithee wrote: There's some interesting stuff (YMMV, of course) but it's hard to justify spending $35 for a few pages of content you actually care about.
Last edited by Maxus on Wed Jun 09, 2010 4:31 am, edited 1 time in total.
He jumps like a damned dragoon, and charges into battle fighting rather insane monsters with little more than his bare hands and rather nasty spell effects conjured up solely through knowledge and the local plantlife. He unerringly knows where his goal lies, he breathes underwater and is untroubled by space travel, seems to have no limits to his actual endurance and favors killing his enemies by driving both boots square into their skull. His agility is unmatched, and his strength legendary, able to fling about a turtle shell big enough to contain a man with enough force to barrel down a near endless path of unfortunates.
--The horror of Mario
Zak S, Zak Smith, Dndwithpornstars, Zak Sabbath. He is a terrible person and a hack at writing and art. His cultural contributions are less than Justin Bieber's, and he's a shitmuffin. Go go gadget Googlebomb!
--The horror of Mario
Zak S, Zak Smith, Dndwithpornstars, Zak Sabbath. He is a terrible person and a hack at writing and art. His cultural contributions are less than Justin Bieber's, and he's a shitmuffin. Go go gadget Googlebomb!
Yes, but it's a collection of the first several Monstrous Compendiums, so it's the equivalent of bundling together Monster Manual 1, Fiend Folio, and Monster Manual 2. See here for details:Crissa wrote:2e Monsterous Manual I have is 384 pages, none blank, full art, or repeated spells.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monster_Ma ... 26_Dragons
And at any rate, 384 < 2 * 256.
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Kobajagrande
- Master
- Posts: 231
- Joined: Thu Jun 18, 2009 8:55 am
For some time already I've been thinking that the problem with RPGs in general is that they are just too huge.
Scratch that, I know that's the problem. Ever since I've bought some funny Victorian RPG few months ago and still haven't read it. Heck, I'm GMing nWoD Mage right now, and I still think there's some crap in that book I've never read.
And that's a huge problem when you realize that you need less than an hour to read the rules for Republic of Rome, or Third Reich and slowly start playing it.
Scratch that, I know that's the problem. Ever since I've bought some funny Victorian RPG few months ago and still haven't read it. Heck, I'm GMing nWoD Mage right now, and I still think there's some crap in that book I've never read.
And that's a huge problem when you realize that you need less than an hour to read the rules for Republic of Rome, or Third Reich and slowly start playing it.
I still agree that RPGs are too verbose, but my guess is that's a function of not having technical writers and it ultimately being a for-profit enterprise. If you want to crank out games at low-to-no profit, then you don't need to pad things out to make the consumer feel like they're really getting something.
As an aside, I think you're understating the difficulty of RoR and A3R. You might be able to read the rules for an hour and play but your first game is going to include another two to three where you're referencing the rules or FAQs or clarifications. There's a reason why both those games are generally well-regarded but also considered rarely-played, lumbering beasts.
As an aside, I think you're understating the difficulty of RoR and A3R. You might be able to read the rules for an hour and play but your first game is going to include another two to three where you're referencing the rules or FAQs or clarifications. There's a reason why both those games are generally well-regarded but also considered rarely-played, lumbering beasts.