Reading comments on #DeltaGreen today really cemented a thought that’s been floating around in my head: people don’t buy #TTRPGs for rules, they buy them for rules AND a compelling world. And it’s ok if the rules are merely sufficient, but the world? Not so much.
The job of a #TTRPG book is to HAND OFF the world to the GM. To christen them God and tell them “do what thou will with this,” but to jump that hurdle you must ENTERTAIN AND HOOK THE GM.
This sounds obvious, but apparently (based on some comments) a lot of people don’t get it.
This sounds obvious, but apparently (based on some comments) a lot of people don’t get it.
“Why do you have a giant timeline in the Handler’s guide?” A GM coming in blank to a game is a God-in-training. They need to get the flavour (to change the flavour but they have to know what it IS first). The background. The characters. The factions. The history it is not fluff.
People that don’t understand what a #TTRPG game book (particularly one for the GM) is meant to do will look and go, “what’s this for?” IT IS THERE TO TEACH THE GM WHAT THE WORLD IS ABOUT. IT IS THERE TO HOOK THE GM. IT IS THERE TO MAKE THE GM GO “I WANT TO PLAY A GAME LIKE THAT!”
These books should not be rote guides about mathematical calculations — the core need of a #TTRPG book, I would argue — is to ENTERTAIN. It has to be pretty to look at and fun and engaging to read. If it isn’t, it doesn’t really matter what’s in it, because no one will read it.
We’re asking people to read hundreds of pages. Those pages better be filled with funny, frightening, bizarre ideas that grab the reader by the throat and shake them about. Something in that book needs to excite the GM to say, “now, *I* am the author,” or else the book has failed.
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