160 pages.
160 pages of words of wisdom from screenwriter John August, Evil Hat's Fred Hicks, GURPS author Kenneth Hite, genius cartoonist John Kovalic of Dork Towers fame, and many others.
160 pages of gaming secrets from 2d6 of the industry's greats, for only $8.00.
So with this kind of a bargain, how could you go wrong?
Well, when much of the book consists of one single quote per page, like "Know why you play games.", "You cannot convince someone who is not having fun that he is.", or "A game, as a creative work, has no responsibility to historical or scientific accuracy." (I lie: there's also a page number and a footnote entry that reads something like "Tags: games | life"), you might just feel let down.
True, "bite-sized thoughts" is how they advertise the book. Most of these "bite-sized thoughts" go on for one or two paragraphs, and some are quite a mouthful ("Brevior vita est quam pro futumentibus negotiam agendo." was almost worth giving this book a third star.) But I just can't help but feel cheated when I open a book expecting to sink my teeth into something substantial like John Four's "NPC Essentials" or even the poorly-written (and farcically edited) "Ultimate Games Designer’s Coinpanion" [sic], and my meat-and-potatoes meal turns out to be a platefull of fortune cookies of dubious freshness...
The book deserves two stars because some (and I emphasize that only some) of the observations are very useful. But fewer entries with greater development would have made this a sure winner.
As for me, the next time I feel the need for words of wisdom by John Kovalic, I'll just reread one of the half-dozen Dork Towers books I purchased.
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