Wrote a new blog today about how much setting should go in a rulebook. It’s different for every game, but I feel a lot of games put too much lore in with the rules.
I know it’s really hip to have your setting lean on your mechanics and vice versa, so neither works great without another, but I am more of a fan of rules that support tone and play patterns that reinforce genre more than specific settings. Probably mostly because I am not big on learning a lot about a setting before I feel good about running a game.
I also like to have lots of room to improv and make a setting my own. I know you can do that with any setting, but I just feel more confident doing that with less definition in the setting.
I could probably drop a little something more into my rulebook as a stinger to get people excited about what kind of fiction the game presents. I guess that could be interpreted as setting, or at least adjacent.
Curious about what other think about this topic.
https://infantofatocha.itch.io/chronomutants/devlog/572397/whats-a-paradox-war-anyway
What i really want in books is enough lore and setting to easily make plots. In the book for Myriad song they included 20 planets with quick plot hooks for each. Add to that a good sized monster section with rules to make your own.
Another good book Ninja crusade. They have a few pages of history and one place that includes a list of possible alternate version of important events. Thats really useful as a gm.
Both give me setting and rules to make one shots or campaigns