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I will probably be plundering it for some things.
I hope it doesn't go the direction of the compendiums, which gave tons of super-specific and largely useless information, most often writing whole paragraphs to describe behaviour that could be said in a sentence or two. I always felt that these were written with the idea that the party was going to spend five or six sessions dealing with this one specific monster, so we had to be sure we gave the whole biological construction for the thing.
Writing monster descriptions myself, I try to be as concise as possible. I have many memories of being in the middle of a game and being faced with some ridiculously long description of a monster I didn't have time to read in depth. It is very inconvenient when time is an element ~ and I think it has caused me, on many occasions, just to throw orcs or something else simple at the party because I didn't have time to figure out the fifty rules dealing with carnivorous plant culture (monstrous compendium vol. 2).
I find that, when writing my rules down for my players, brevity is everything. There's no need to spend a full page describing the fighter or thief class. Everyone pretty much knows what they are and what they (generally) do. And new players are going to learn by watching veteran players and... well, playing the game.
ReplyDeleteNow, the trick might be figuring out which details are the most important...
Have you had the opportunity to check the Pathfinder SRD? Since it's been my main game system for quite sometime, this is one of the major info points for running a game, and I find the way it's structured to be quite clear and to the point in most cases. Also they have a lot of small additions to some pages like Rules as intended, Rules as Written, Errata, etc. Example: Great Cleave
ReplyDeleteIn addition they have pretty short and to the point Bestiary entries, e.g. Guardian Gargoyle
I see it. Sure can't compete with that. But I don't like the system its using and, from what I see, it's a lot of extraneous info ~ and monsters ~ I'd never use.
ReplyDeleteFair enough for others to use it, and I'm sure they do. If you're in pathfinder, that's a great resource. I can't deny that I would like that kind of money and manpower behind my own very meagre efforts.
I was pointing to it as an example of great resource of a similar type, no comparison intended. I think what you have done is amazing and quite in-depth, and I'm happy you are sharing it with us.
ReplyDeleteMaybe at some point they will release the system running the sites, it's mentioned across the bottom of all of them (OGN SRD vX.X.X) - I might use it for some of my stuff as well. If not, I might actually move ahead with a side project and make something similar.