One Book or Two?
Pondering a Change to Thousand Suns
I haven’t talked very much about the revision of the Thousand Suns rulebook, one of the first projects I discussed when I began this newsletter in July of last year. That’s not for lack of work on it. Rather, the project has fallen prey to some of the same mental roadblocks I discussed earlier this week. In addition to those, which I hope are in the process of being resolved, there’s another one and I thought it might be useful to talk about it here, if only to offer some additional insights into where things stand with Thousand Suns.
Currently, Thousand Suns is available in a single 275-page 6×9 rulebook. It’s a good size in my opinion, one that’s compact and easy to use, both in play and simply to read. Based on my experience, having a single rulebook is probably the standard for most roleplaying games. The primary exceptions are games descended from Dungeons & Dragons, which often (though not exclusively) have three rulebooks. Likewise, many boxed RPGs, which are increasingly rare nowadays, have more than a single rulebook. Traveller, for example, followed this format in most of its boxed editions.
This got me to thinking: should the revised edition of Thousand Suns be released in multiple books, perhaps a player’s book and a GM’s book? This would certainly distinguish the new edition from its 2011 predecessor, but would the change be too much? Would potential players find it more or less attractive if it were released in this format? I wish there were a clear answer to this question.
From my perspective, a pair of rulebooks, divided according to content and focus, has both advantages and disadvantages. One the plus side, I could probably price each individual book lower than the current combined rulebook. That might make it more attractive to new players, since the initial buy-in is less. Additionally, I could probably produce these new individual rulebooks faster by focusing on one first, releasing it, and then the other. A single, combined rulebook, as I have now, take more work to complete.
On the negative side, this is a change. Speaking as someone who generally does not like change, I am sympathetic to this concern. Why fix what’s not broken? Likewise, a single rulebook is much more complete. There’s no need to carry around or consult more than one book. It’s all there under a single cover and that, too, is attractive to a lot of people. Even if someone buys the rulebook with no intention of ever becoming a Game Master, he still has everything he needs to run a game should he ever decide to do so.
This is where I wish I had a better sense of what current and potential players of Thousand Suns might want. Both approaches have their merits and both have their drawbacks. My natural inclination is to stick to the current, one-book format, but, as I said, since I’m already in the process of rewriting the rulebook from the ground up, if ever there were a time to make a change like this, it’s now.
What do you think? Even if you’re not a current or potential player of Thousand Suns, I’d be curious to know what you think. Do you like RPGs that have distinct player and GM books or do you prefer a single, complete rulebook and why? Any insights you can offer would be greatly appreciated.
Single rulebook in general. The only time I like two is when the second is primarily a reference guide: terse rules summary, stat blocks, lookup tables, oracles, charts and the like for quick reference at the table; the first book being the rules with explanations and examples, the lore/setting, nice artwork, etc — all of which are valuable and can be beautiful, but which aren’t needed at the table.
I know as a game this is a little outside your wheelhouse but how Shaun Tomkin does it with his Starforged Rulebook and the companion ref book is a great example. The Starforged rulebook is beautiful in hardback, the reference guide is elegantly arranged and lies flat, spiral-bound.
I’m on the fence. As a GM I likely need both books unless there is significant rules (and any setting info) duplication between a player and GM book which feels wasteful. I see no reason for a separate bestiary or adversary book. There should be enough to start in the GM book plus rules to create your own and space for third parties to add to those. I do like a lower entry point cost for players, but I find my current players/friend group is happy to work with PDF’s, so arguably that’s just an extract. Daggerheart’s player cards are popular but I got those with the base set. I haven’t seen a rush from my players to buy their own. I guess if all story building and campaign stuff is in the GM book (so I don’t really need it at the table) and all rules - char creation, combat, magic etc, everything I need to run a session - are in a separate and therefore smaller player book, so I need less on the table in front of me, I’d go for that. I have to say with older eyes something bigger than microfont and not white on colour text is preferred.