How Much Game Do I Need?

I got a shipping confirmation for the new Kobold Press crowdfunding book for ToV, and my 5E books are heading into the garage. I like ToV; this is the best version of 5E out there, but 5E is far too much game for me. I will keep it, but it is heading into the garage once it arrives.

I hate that feeling.

Sometimes I feel like selling all my 5E books would make me the happiest, and I will just stick with OSRIC and OSE and have just enough "fantasy game" for me. I don't need all the 5E structure; it is too much. The entire 5E industry overwrites and doesn't care one bit about efficiency, conciseness, or compactness; the 5E market is the "bigger SUV" market of gas-guzzlers and shelf-eaters.

For a "power-based game," a superhero game gives me much more. Sometimes I look at D&D 5E and compare it to something like Champions, and the latter is the better choice. Why am I messing around with games that sell me prebuilt superheroes (powers on a level track) who talk like they're at Ren Faire? The designers prebuild these builds at level 20 and then slowly hand you the powers over 20 levels. They make money by selling you new ones once you get bored of the old ones.

It is the difference between a deep-fried fish sandwich at a fast-food place versus knowing how to fish and prepare your own food. The fast food is worse for your health, more expensive, and never what you want. Yes, learning to cook takes longer and isn't as easy, but it is far healthier, more rewarding, and cheaper to feed yourself with all-natural shelf staples and healthy foods.

And nobody in a superhero game is redefining terms, controlling the language, or telling me where my powers come from. I do that. I swear some of these games care more about thought control than about shipping fun games. Give me a generic framework, please, and I will tell players what these things are. Or games like Vampire, where some factions have these powers and others have those powers. Thematically, yes, cool, okay, but in the end you are all superheroes with different shapes and themes. Vampire stuff affects you, werewolf stuff affects others, and we are done; please pick your superpowers now.

Are you a mage? Oh, then you have to deal with the mage disadvantages. A demon? Then holy stuff hurts you. Same powers, different shell. We are done here, and nobody is buying predesigned packages that drip powers out one at a time with an illusion of choice.

My Champions stuff fits in one box, and it is in the garage.

My 5E books are nearly 20 crates of the same size.

That one box does far more than the twenty.

And most of the power comes from one book.