From: David Cake (davidc@cs.uwa.oz.au)
Date: Sat 05 Feb 1994 - 04:49:50 EET
>
> Boris:
> > If you look at the game market now, those games which are successful
> > contain a game world that is well, if not fully, described in the basic
> > rule set; Shadowrun, Vampire/Werewolf/Mage, Cyberpunk. And all of these
> > weigh in at or around the 300 page range, or more. This does not seem
> > to cost them sales, and I don't think mere size will cost RQAG sales.
>
I am in complete agreement - a nice, thick book filled with general niftyness
is what I would like to see. RQ is not Elric!, where much of the world is only
sketched out, and the magic and combat systems are stripped down and
uncomplicated. There is, of course, a school that would like to see RQ more
like that - but that is not what we are talking about here.
RQ:AiG needs complete rules, it needs to absolutely minimise the need
to reissue supplements, and it needs enough background for people who do not
own Genertela to start playing when they get it home.
Even if we decide to stripout much of sorcery - I would rather see the
book contain a stripped down sorcery (enough to play beginning sorcerers)
than nothing.
> Shadowrun is 208 pages. CyberPunk 2020 is 240. Pendragon 4th edition, which
> I haven't seen at any store (I had to special order), is 352. Seems to me
> that the shorter the game, the more successful. I find reading 352 pages
> too much like work. (Pendragon might be a counterargument -- that splitting
> the game didn't work and they had to rejoin Pendragon 3rd Edition and
> Knights Adventerous -- but it may also simply point out that you have to
> split the right stuff.)
>
Actually Shadowrun is 295 or so pages, including index and all (I think 208
might be the first edition), and Ars Magica (an excellent game that I think
appeals to a very similar market - roots in traditional fantast gaming but
with much more attention to cultural and mythic factors) runs to 386.
I might also note that when Call of Chtulhu was reissued to put all
the separate supplements in one book, rather than a slim rulesbook and a pile
of supplements, it was both a favourite with players and very good seller.
Same goes for Champions.
Big books are the format that sells nicely at the moment (I like 'em),
and I think that quibbling over what should be removed to slim it from ~300
to <200 pages is just silly. Lets make it nicely complete rulesbook.
trying to slim RQ down to the size of Elric! or RQ2 is just not going
to happen without splitting it into multiple supplements several of which are
necessary for most play. Maybe 1 separate supplement might be part of the
RQ4 project (and if so I go for a brief precis of sorcery in RQ:AiG swiftly
followed by a full length and rather complete sorcery supplement). I think
talk of things like moving optional combat rules into a separate book is a
big mistake.
Cheers
Dave
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