How much attention do you pay to a game beyond the game itself?
That is, if you play or are interested in a game — especially one that has significant market presence (e.g., D&D, Shadowrun) — do you pay attention to anything beyond the game itself? Each choice below is inclusive of the previous choices, fyi.
Depending on how much I like the game. But if I like it enough to be running it long term, it’s likely to be #4.
I ask partly because of my looking at 5e again, which is drinking from a firehose if we’re talking option 4.
The rule book should carry everything you need but I’m used to people letting me down and can adapt.
1 & 3, but not 2, so your inclusive poll is hard. 🙂
Christopher Weeks You wouldn’t keep up wth the publisher’s website/blog? Why not?
I dunno, because publishers are clueless? And I don’t really think that in any sort of all-encompassing way, but it’s totally my gut reaction. The fans are going to do the cool stuff with the product.
You know, maybe I’m not your target audience, actually. I don’t think I’ve been a serious fan of a product with “significant market presence” since before the web existed.
My answer is the same as Christopher’s. It’s actually become pretty frustrating to me that on G+ I can’t have a conversation about a game without someone +ing the designer into the conversation. I’m more interested in conversation with other people playing the game and their thoughts than the designer/publisher’s.
If its a game I’m interested in before its released I’ll drink all the kool-aids.
But after…generally nothing unless specifically seeking out errata, or release schedules or something.
Mostly I just stalk Paul Beakley.
I love reading about what other people have done with the game, like actual play, house rules, adventure ideas, art, etc. Does that mean the game let me down?
Matt Wilson How much do you read about 5e? You run a game for your work buds, right? Do you follow WotC’s blog, frex?
Although I picked option #3, it kinda depends. There’s some games which I just look at the book, and that may have a lot to do with the crowd that goes around the game itself.
There’s some games where I’m also expecting to introduce it to players who might be new to roleplaying, and part of exploring #3 is to be able to tell them what to expect from the social circle around the game. “This game is great but it draws the same crowd as military sci-fi books- a lot of crypto racists… so… yeah.”
Mark Delsing I’m running Star Wars d6 for work buds, D&D 5 for friends in the neighborhood. Doesn’t seem like there’s as much on the wizards site as there was for 4e, so I haven’t followed that closely. But there is an amazing community resource for the d6 stuff.