What are the advantages and disadvantages of separating core game info into a book intended for all participants and a book just for the GM?

Are these advantages different for the market-leading game than for niche or emerging games? If so, how and why?

Why have so many of the most popular non-d20 RPGs avoided this model? WHFRP, for instance, or White Wolf games? Have they gained or lost from those choices?

Background to my particular interest in this here.

Thanks

Well, I'm a big fan of detail. Lots of spells, magic items, and monsters. Of course, that takes up a lot of room in writing. If it's going to be that much information, I prefer it divided up.

The game should be playable out of the PHB. Using 1st Ed for an example, you wouldn't have monsters or magic items, so it wouldn't nearly be as much fun. I'd also point out that to play out of the book, you'd need hit tables and saving throws to be moved to the PHB. But if a game were organizes more or less like that? That would be my preference.

I doubt very much that I can get my game so that it's playable out of the Player's Primer, because I'm so particular about how I want the game run.

But anyway so the advantage is what - that the info is more navigable / more digestible?

I was thinking there's an advantage that the info is more targeted to the players.

Any more thoughts?

Quote from: Omnifray;867753I doubt very much that I can get my game so that it's playable out of the Player's Primer, because I'm so particular about how I want the game run.

I personally wouldn't want to be told how to run the game, but how to run the game seems the exact sort of thing to put in a GMs book.

QuoteBut anyway so the advantage is what - that the info is more navigable / more digestible?

That's more or less what I had in mind, yes. I was thinking mainly of myself when I'm referencing things to prepare for an adventure. I think it's actually easier to find things in 3 smaller books than 1 huge book. I could have the players book open to reference spells, monster manual open to reference a certain monster, and the DMG open to reference a magic item. Or the DMG open to the wandering monster section, the MM to flip open to the monster in question, and the PHB in case of an encounter with human adventurer.

QuoteI was thinking there's an advantage that the info is more targeted to the players.

I don't know how many groups do this, but my group we prefer to have a player's book available for each and every player. With one-core-book games, we usually only have the one copy between us. Sometimes two if we really like the game and play it often. Targeting player info does tend to up the bang-to-buck ratio for these purposes. Do it right, and it kind of becomes a multi-level marketing scheme, doesn't it, where GMs are unpaid salespeople?

And we do require print versions. Digital is nice. There are a lot of advantages of digital, especially for GMs. Especially if you could just freely distribute players guides among the group. But when it comes to actual play, print books to me seem more practical. You can save space on the table by putting them under your character sheet. It's not that big a deal if a drink is spilled and gets on your book, versus an electronic device. And so on. If it's a game we like and know we'll play a lot, we're more than happy to invest in some print books.