Yeah the cover is pretty cool, and as I said the book itself is inspirational.

Quote from: Rincewind1;514873As Justin noted - I remember from my MERP days as well, that the problem was not the amount of rules, but the amount of tables itself.

Yeah that's it in a nutshell.  To be honest, 90% of the problem with "Rules-Heavy" systems isn't the actual rules themselves, it's how, physically, the GM and players keep track of the information.  A well-designed character sheet can make what looks at first glance like a morass of info quite easy to use at the table.  When I was GMing MERP (using full RM), I would prepare the specific weapon charts ahead of time on my custom-built screen.

These days, Excel or OneNote would make RM charting a breeze.

Quote from: Benoist;514931The survival guides may be good for some inspiration at some point or another, but as rules books, as supplements, they are part of a late-AD&D picture I don't want to see at my game table. For me it's AD&D core, MM2 and FF, and cherry picked elements from UA, basically, as far as the TSR material is concerned.

Yeah, but you're an OSR Taliban guy, back to K&KA with you!  

Seriously though, the Survival Guides were a big change in D&D as they brought in the notion that "Well yeah, I can say my guy is a Ranger, but other then tracking, and being quieter, there's nothing I can do in the forest that the Paladin can't."  

One one end of the Spectrum you have "say what you want to have happen and the GM will make something up", and the other end you have "the character sheet being everything you can do and nothing else".  Assuming the Spectrum has 100 points from one to the other, AD&D 1.5 (UA, DSG, WSG) is like 1-3 steps away from AD&D depending on how much you use.  

Personally I like all the tables as they help keep the GM neutral.  I don't care how good you are as a GM, having to make up ad hoc rulings during a 3-week wilderness adventure as to how the characters can survive without making it a storytelling session is tough.

Quote from: CRKrueger;514954Yeah, but you're an OSR Taliban guy, back to K&KA with you!  

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