Hello,
There have been a couple of messages back and forth about the
value of the Player's Handbook. On the one hand, I agree that 304
pages of glossy paper with color art and so forth is a very good
deal for what it is. If you want to play D&D, it is a great value.
But as I understand it, the idea of the D20STL is that "D20"
will be separate line from "D&D", and will have other genre games
which depend on the D&D3 Players Handbook. My statement is that
the D&D3 Players Handbook is not a particularly good value as a
core rulebook for non-D&D D20 games.
On Thu, 7 Sep 2000, Doug Meerschaert wrote:
> >From: John Kim <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> > In short, I stand by my assertion that $20 is a lot to pay for what
> > the Players Handbook gives me for a modern espionage game.
>
> Let's look at it from the other angle: how much WOULD You pay for the
> relevant rules? How much could you sell a book with "only" the
> relevant rules and still make a respecible profit?
Well, to start with, if I was interested in a book of core
mechanics for a modern espionage game, a 30-page book of *just* what
I need is actually worth more to me than a 304-page book where I have
to flip through piles of unused material to find what I am looking for.
So what do I get? I get a random-roll character system,
a class-based structure but not the classes I want, a skill/feat list,
and combat system. For a nicely laid-out 36-page book with this core,
I would consider $6 pretty reasonable. By comparison, I can get GURPS
Lite for free (well, for printing costs which would be significant if
I didn't print such stuff at work).
But to me as a non-D&D player, the value is reduced by all the
D&D stuff which is constantly through it. So less than $6, but
obviously more than zero -- maybe $3.
-*-*-*-*-*-*-
>
> > As for popularity: if I wanted to do what was popular, I would
> > be hanging out in sports bars and drinking beer.
>
> False analogy. When you go to play cards, do you bring the modern
> deck, or an old Tarot deck?
Huh? I'm not sure I see either the failure of the analogy or
your point with cards. My usual card game these days is _Lost Cities_
(by Reiner Knizia), so I would typically bring that deck if I wanted
to play a card game. That is two-player, though, and I don't really
have a favorite multi-player card game so I would probably bring a
couple: possibly _ZumKukKuk_ or _Mamma Mia_.
- John
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