[DL] Thoughts about the Epitaphs (For Shane, mostly)

[Janne Matti Oskari Vuorenmaa <jvuorenm@cc.hut.fi>]

Howdy again.

This became a longish, badly structured post, but please bear with me.

I went to my FLGS to pick up a copy of Doomtown or Bust, because my posse
parked itself into Gomorra, and I wanted to know what's happening there.
At the same time, I picked up rest of the books I lacked from my
collection (plus the Cowtown creator -- I missed the first batch of it,
since it sold out here).. except the Epitaphs.

I, as many fellow gamers, have a bit of collector in me, and that's why
I've been picking up those books I did not buy when they first came out
(like DoB! and RVC1&2, which I bought today) since I did not need them
enough back then, when I did not have that much extra money.

But the epitaphs.. the first two have WW and HOE-stuff in them, plus the
comic. I flipped through it, and since I don't play HOE, decided that the
12E plus change was way too steep price for the pages useful for me. It
was a close call, since the comic looks pretty cool, but still no.

Some of you might remember me going on about the d20 -content when the
news about using it came out. It didn't turn out to be as bad as I
thought, and the space wasted by the d20-content did not put me down. But
now, when Epitaphs start supporting WW and HOE normal AND d20-versions
plus bonus d20-stuff to cover the non-dual statted books, not to forget
the Lost Colony (and GRW), the payload of the upcoming Epitaphs start to
become very low for the likes of me.

I believe there was a lot of consideration done when PEG decided to
combine all the stuff inbetween two covers. However, I also believe, that
there is a horde of PEG-fans like me out there, that play but one of the
PEG games. That makes a lot of people, who do not want to pay for a
140 page book with maybe less than 50 pages of usable content.

Why not keep them separated? Sure, that means that there're longer pauses
between new books for individual lines, but then even guys like me would
purchase them(be they d20 or normal). Plus, I don't think the hard-core
DL-players that play each of the lines would not buy a book because it's
only for one of the lines.

Epitaphis a good idea: A lot of material that cannot be published on its
own between two covers, but when too many games are mixed into the soup,
they become something of a gaming mag pretending to be a supplement.

Separate the lines, sez I.

Thank you for readin', pardner.

---Hulkin' Finn