Sourcebooks: Comments Appreciated

[incandescens]

I'm trying to clarify my thoughts on something, and would be grateful for people's opinions/comments.

There exist a fair number of roleplaying game sourcebooks, for the pen-and-paper type of rpg, which are based on a fictional property (Firefly, Revolutionary Girl Utena, Star Trek, Song of Ice & Fire, etc), and which contain a fair to extensive amount of background detail on the series, but which are mainly marketed to roleplaying gamers, and at that, the sort of rpger who is likely to see them in a specialised gaming shop or in specific online selling areas (such as http://www.rpgnow.com).

I'm curious about whether fans of the series/background on which such sourcebooks are based, or even people who play them in lj-rpgs or fiction communities, would be interested in such books if they knew of them or knew where to find them, and what sort of factors they'd be looking for in them.

So go on, tell me about it. Which, if any, of the following points would make such a book interesting to you? And is there anything else that'd get your attention?

- Heavy character-level detail (personal history, abilities, relationships, etc)
- Heavy universe/background-level detail (geography, history, metaphysics, spaceships, etc)
- Mechanical rules for handling any of the above in play (complex? simple? in between?)
- Lots of pretty art taken from the original series
- Art supplied by other artists
- Speculation about the series/background
- Ideas for further play/exploration/stories
- Comments on the themes
- Availability in PDF format
- Price (What would you consider a good price? And for how thick/detailed a book?)
- Anything else that'd influence your interest in it.

Thanks to all.

Comments

[copperbird.livejournal.com]

This isn't of huge interest to me, I'd rather find an online community where I could just chat about the setting with other fans.

BUT it is the sort of thing I'd buy as a present for friends who like the series but maybe aren't gamers. For that, you need big glossy pictures to go with the text, and quirky facts about the characters/creators that a casual fan might not know. Availability in pdf is nice but if I'm buying presents, I'd rather buy a book.

[incandescens]

Thank you! Your thoughts are appreciated.

I don't have any definite purpose in mind. I'm just trying to collate a cross-section of views. It seems to me that there must be some sort of middle ground that could be pitched to here, and that quite often books which could have intrigued the fan market simply never get heard of by them.

[copperbird.livejournal.com]

Oh one other thing. This occurred to me when I was flicking through the Dr Who magazine in Smiths.

I would happily pay for material that included good, insightful interviews with the writers and creators. I'm not so bothered as to what the fan-author thinks of the theme but I would LOVE to know what the creator intended, that sort of thing.

[incandescens]

That is something you actually get quite a lot of in manga. In the original magazines, and later compiled into the collections, you often get short interviews with the author, discussions of points he/she liked, questions answered from fans, etc.