Re: Nickel and Diming

On 2/10/2025 12:16 PM, gbbgu wrote:

Kyonshi <gmkeros@gmail.com> wrote:
 

It turns out I will have to buy a not yet published GM's book to make
use of these "Core Rules". Or buy a previous edition, because Pendragon
never changed so much that I can't use the previous edition for this.
I find this quite annoying. Core Rules in my opinion are supposed to
contain the actual core rules of a game that you need to actually play,
not just a small subsection.

 

And outside of Pendragon I recently learned that the new edition of
Cthulhu by Gaslight also will be split into a Players' and a GM's book.
That also used to be a single book. Something that already annoyed me
with the 7th ed. Call of cthulhu rules.
>
I know they want to make money, but Chaosium is lately overdoing it
somewhat.

 It seems to be the way games are going. Pathfinder went from a single thick
Core Rulebook to Player/GM/Monster Core.
 When I wanted to try out Cthulhu, I didn't know I only needed the Keeper
Rulebook and bought the Investigator Rulebook as well.

Yeah that was me as well, I didn't research properly and first got the Investigator Rulebook, only to realize it was the GM book I actually needed. I was too used to CoC just being a single book.

 A lot of the indie games seem to stick to a single core book, Kevin Crawford
"without number" games are nice standalone books. Shadowdark, Blades in the
Dark, Monster of the Week, Kids on... Knave etc (too many to name) There's
something nice about being able to play a game with just a single book, a
couple dice, pens and paper.
 

I have a fondness for games that manage to actually present their core rules in a single book, in a way so you never actually need another book. There's something wholesome and nice about it.
That's why I really got into OSR back in the day: I realized Labyrinth Lord (which basically was B/X) was a complete game in itself. Same with (Mongoose) Traveller, where it even contained the information how to create your setting in the game itself.