Big Gaming?

I feel that "big gaming" is dying, and my interest in these "shelf games" has fallen off a cliff. I have no longer interest in supporting a shelf of games, and if I do, it will be the best. I also feel that those buying the 2024 collector's items books are buying for the collector's value.

Any game that relies on a collection strategy isn't playable. I have been down that road with Pathfinder 1e, and even Paizo did studies on how many actually play versus collect and read. Most were to collect the books and read; as I recall, most buyers were not those who played the game.

All of 5E is in my garage. Pathfinder 2 is in boxes waiting for a space. Pathfinder 1e is in my closet. All my "library games" are going the way of the dodo. I am out of space. That's it. No more buying and collecting "just to have."

If a game can't be done in one or two books, my interest level falls off a cliff. I am serious about learning to be concise and efficient with words and publishers. These vast, bloated, overly padded, long essays on "what a fighter does" that go on for a full-sized book's two-page spread are such a waste, and nobody needs them nor reads them. They don't affect play or worth much as "flavor."

They are wasting time passing out the book to make it appear you are "getting more."

And all the AI art and text can't save some of these books. More is less.

Old School Essentials, Shadowdark, and any of these small-book games do more with less. Even Traveller, the game that was the essence of small-book gaming, has exploded into a library. I don't like the new version of Traveller as much as I do the old one. It has drifted into the collector's market, which makes them money, but it contributes to my unhappiness with gaming.

The old Traveller Book has that one-book magic to it. This one book lasts decades of gaming. The new books are a shelf-clogging mess of information, more like a set of science fiction encyclopedias. This is also a problem with the latest books; it is more work to look up a piece of information than it is just to "make it up in your head." The original Traveller book is still a fantastic game; you could play any modern Traveller adventure with it.

Is there "less here?" Yes, but that is its beauty. The game does not need much to do a lot. Two six-sided dice and a 160-page book can unlock a universe.

Cepheus Deluxe (and the Enhanced Edition) also captures that "one-book magic" I like in a game. This is the community version of Traveller, minus the official setting, and it still has a lot of great rules and improvements over the source game.

You can add any of the "Without Number" games to that list, too. These are fantastic games, and why they don't get more attention and love is one of the biggest mysteries in gaming. These are games you can disappear into and get lost for years. They also have one-page rules summaries, and they are not difficult in any way.

Shadowdark is my last version of 5E. One book and go. OSE is still on my shelves.

I currently have a shelf for D&D 3.5E alongside my Dungeon Crawl Classics books. Both are relatively small games, with DCC being one book (the adventures are fun and imaginative) and 3.5E being 3/4 of a shelf, plus PDFs. If you like modern D&D, but don't like its direction, just play D&D 3.5E and forget everything past 4th Edition ever existed.

On the plus side, you will have complete sourcebook support for every significant setting in the rules, which is something 5E can't say for itself. D&D "stopped development" at D&D 3.5E, and everything past that was either a mistake or making up for one and never regaining the glory days.

D&D 3.5E, either in the original game or DCC's version of the system, is a worthy, playable game. Even though you can fill four shelves with DCC adventures, it is still a one-book game. The balance of DCC is closer to D&D 3.5E than B/X. You could use the D&D 3.5E Monster Manual as-is for this game, ignoring some of the 3.5E-isms, and be fine.

I have three shelves for my best game, which is GURPS. Arguably, the game is just two books, and everything else is just a setting guide or genre expansion. The base game is small, and you can get away with running GURPS Lite for 90% of your session.

GURPS will be the last multi-shelf game I support.

And the often repeated line "GURPS is math-heavy and complicated" is a lie. It is no more complicated than 5E and more straightforward to grasp since there is one core 3d6 rule driving everything and no plethora of action types to spend 30 minutes figuring out what to do with during your turn. Get yourself a good electronic character sheet (GURPS Character Assistant or GURPS Character Sheet), and you will have everything you need, and the characters will be easy.

Everything else is 3d6 and roll lower.

The only hard part of GURPS is the first learning curve and grasping how to create characters. Play with pre-gens at first; it is all 3d6. Roll under, and design characters later. And unlike 5E, 90% of the rules are optional. This is why everyone misunderstands GURPS.

I swear, people hear the name GURPS and instantly recoil. Among the general public, the instant reaction is "not for me," and I get the feeling the game is a lot like Blender's 3D program. "Not for me" at first, and then "How did I live without this" after the learning curve is over.

That is where I am going. I am done with many games and am just using GURPS for them.

The last "big game" I played was Pathfinder 1e. These days, I am just as happy playing GURPS or Shadowdark on Roll20 and using maps and hex grids online, even as a solo player. I don't have time for a big game, and tighter games with fewer books are more enjoyable.

But in my experience, Pathfinder 1e was "too big to quit," - which is why I suspect many of these companies flood the market with books. What does this do? If you are unhappy with the game, you will buy more to fix it. You will continue to be disappointed, and you will keep buying. You will extend your time with a game that makes you unhappy for years or even decades and ignore simpler games you would have enjoyed.

I still like the system, but it is a behemoth.

I was like this with Pathfinder 1e versus D&D 3.5E, a game I dismissed as being "less" because Pathfinder 1e has so much "more." Later on, I went back and rediscovered a classic. The size of my library forced me to ignore a game with merit and style.

Beware of "big gaming"—these libraries will prevent you from playing other games, take up all your time and money, and lead you into an "unhappy relationship" with a system just because of the sunk-cost feeling you have with it.

Big games are less.