[UA] Hello + Questions

[Torsten Bernhardt]

>Strictly from a market research perspective, I'm curious about two things.
>(1) What made you hesitate?  (Price, didn't like the cover, heard the
>authors were obsessed with buttocks, something else?)  (2) What overcame
>your hesitation?

I'm new to the game (and this list; hello everyone!) and didn't wait two 
years to buy it, but I did wait several months.  Much of the hesitation 
came from not knowing if another rpg would be a good idea; I already have 
more than I play, and am starting to run one-shots to give them all a 
chance. Some of it also came from the cover. Man, that's one of the worst 
game covers I've seen in a while. Sorry, but the image isn't to my taste at 
all. Worse, you had no idea what the game was about by looking at the cover 
image. Sure, there's a pile of stuff on the radiator and you can just make 
out the tarot cards, but that's about it. Price wasn't a problem, but the 
price of some of the supplements are, especially given the Canadian 
dollar's exchange rate. Also, it's a very setting-heavy game, and it's hard 
to see if the setting is good by flipping through it in the store. You need 
to sit down and read it through. Games that rely on lots and lots of rules 
and have lots of weapon and monster stats are easier to figure out at first 
glance.

So why did I buy it in the end? Some of it was being intrigued by repeated 
flippings through the book, but most of it was reviews. I don't know many 
people who role-play, and almost all of them are people I got into it. 
Instead, it was online reviews, most on rpg.net. Whether people actually 
liked the game or not wasn't as important as what they told me about the 
game. What was its approach to role-playing? What was it good at? What was 
it poor at? Did the setting hold together? That's what tipped the scale. 
Official and fan sites will go on and on about how good any game is, but 
(hopefully) unbiased reviews is by far the best method to get me 
interested. The news about your obsession with buttocks is unimportant 
unless it affects the game.

So there you go. Hope this helps.

Torsten Bernhardt
Redpath Museum
McGill University
Montreal, QC
Canada


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