aishabintjamil (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
aishabintjamil) wrote2009-11-16 04:34 pm
aishabintjamil) wrote2009-11-16 04:34 pm
Some thoughts on gaming and new rules editions
I walked into my local gaming store last week, and there sitting on the shelf was the shiny, new 6th edition of the Hero Rules System. One of my gaming buddies who knew I played a lot of Champions pointed it out and asked if I thought I'd buy it. So I went over and took a look at it, and then told him, no, I didn't think I'd be buying it.
This wasn't a simple decision. I was introduced to Champions back in the mid 1980s, when it was in its third edition - 3 paperbacks, which sold for 9.99 each. the first one was the basic rules set, and the other two were expansion and additions. We had a lot of fun with those rules. They included some sample characters, and there were supplements. One of the guys I played with even contributed to a couple of the supplements. But we never felt we had to buy them, and mostly we didn't. We wrote our own.
Then the 4th edition came along. That was a good update, for the most part. It was handy to have all the rules from the 3 books in one volume, and the price was pretty comparable to what we'd been paying for the 3 books together. I never had much use for the sourcebook or the campaign book sections, but I can see their value for novice players. I never bought a version with the software included, so all I can say about that is that I was glad they offered versions without it, so I wasn't buying something I didn't want and wouldn't use.
I was less enthusiastic about the 5th edition. We were perfectly happy with the way things went in 4th edition. I finally broke down and bought it when I joined a game where the GM wanted to use it. It was still only a little more expensive than the original set ($39.95). It looks like a bigger book but I just did a page count, and it's actually shorter than the 4th edition set (371 pp vs. 384 pp). I guess the additional 1/4 that makes it look like a bigger book must be thicker paper. It doesn't have a ton of rules changes, but enough that I felt I needed to have it if I was going to play in a game that used it.
Now I'm looking at the 6th edition. It's suddenly grown to something on the order of 800 pp., in two hardcover volumes. With glossy paper and color illustrations. And if I buy it, it's going to set me back a minimum of $70 if I buy them as a package from the publisher, $80 if I buy it at my local gaming store, which I'd generally like to support so it stays around.
But I'm looking at this new edition, and asking myself why I should spend that kind of money on something which replaces a product I'm already happy with. I'm just not seeing a benefit to it any more. A quick skim through the books doesn't suggest that they've made drastic changes. To be sure, there are changes - a character statistic has been dropped, there are a few new powers, some old powers are gone, and so forth. But are those benefits really worth investing $70-$80 in?
It seems to me that most of the changes are in production values, which aren't really important to me, and just enough mechanics changes to force me to buy it if I want to play in a game using it, because the old rules details won't be close enough to get by. This is starting to feel to me like some gaming publishers (not just Hero) are taking a page from the textbook publishing industry, and creating a new edition ever other year or so, whether there are really changes which call for it, just to keep people buying new books.
Personally, at this point, the one thing I'd like to be able to buy is the 4th edition in PDF format. But that won't happen because they want to sell the new, 6th edition.
This wasn't a simple decision. I was introduced to Champions back in the mid 1980s, when it was in its third edition - 3 paperbacks, which sold for 9.99 each. the first one was the basic rules set, and the other two were expansion and additions. We had a lot of fun with those rules. They included some sample characters, and there were supplements. One of the guys I played with even contributed to a couple of the supplements. But we never felt we had to buy them, and mostly we didn't. We wrote our own.
Then the 4th edition came along. That was a good update, for the most part. It was handy to have all the rules from the 3 books in one volume, and the price was pretty comparable to what we'd been paying for the 3 books together. I never had much use for the sourcebook or the campaign book sections, but I can see their value for novice players. I never bought a version with the software included, so all I can say about that is that I was glad they offered versions without it, so I wasn't buying something I didn't want and wouldn't use.
I was less enthusiastic about the 5th edition. We were perfectly happy with the way things went in 4th edition. I finally broke down and bought it when I joined a game where the GM wanted to use it. It was still only a little more expensive than the original set ($39.95). It looks like a bigger book but I just did a page count, and it's actually shorter than the 4th edition set (371 pp vs. 384 pp). I guess the additional 1/4 that makes it look like a bigger book must be thicker paper. It doesn't have a ton of rules changes, but enough that I felt I needed to have it if I was going to play in a game that used it.
Now I'm looking at the 6th edition. It's suddenly grown to something on the order of 800 pp., in two hardcover volumes. With glossy paper and color illustrations. And if I buy it, it's going to set me back a minimum of $70 if I buy them as a package from the publisher, $80 if I buy it at my local gaming store, which I'd generally like to support so it stays around.
But I'm looking at this new edition, and asking myself why I should spend that kind of money on something which replaces a product I'm already happy with. I'm just not seeing a benefit to it any more. A quick skim through the books doesn't suggest that they've made drastic changes. To be sure, there are changes - a character statistic has been dropped, there are a few new powers, some old powers are gone, and so forth. But are those benefits really worth investing $70-$80 in?
It seems to me that most of the changes are in production values, which aren't really important to me, and just enough mechanics changes to force me to buy it if I want to play in a game using it, because the old rules details won't be close enough to get by. This is starting to feel to me like some gaming publishers (not just Hero) are taking a page from the textbook publishing industry, and creating a new edition ever other year or so, whether there are really changes which call for it, just to keep people buying new books.
Personally, at this point, the one thing I'd like to be able to buy is the 4th edition in PDF format. But that won't happen because they want to sell the new, 6th edition.