Nickel and Diming

[Kyonshi]

I recently was in a game store while on holidays, and came across the
new 6th edition Pendragon Core Rules, wrapped in plastic of course, so I
couldn't look into them. But I had looked into Pendragon before and
decided that maybe this would be finally the point where I actually
would take the plunge.
Imagine my surprise when the really pretty Core Rules book contained no
DM section whatsoever. It's all on really thick paper, with a layout and
illustrations that harken back to theme-appropriate medieval
illustrations. They even have marginalia in there that look quite fun
and appropriate. But despite being physically thicker than previous
editions the contents also have been cut down to only player-facing
rules, with only slight hints towards the background.

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.

It doesn't help that other publications for Pendragon also get the
treatment. It turns out the Great Pendragon Campaign, which started as a
78page supplement in first edition, now will be published in multiple
books (I assume at least 5). And yes, it most likely will have a lot of
content more, but still it will split up one book into five parts.

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.

[gbbgu]

Post by Kyonshi
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.

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.