I can’t really speak to this except to say it was published before White Wolf became popular. Any of the early RPGs from the mid ’80s can set up rules and a setting with half the pages than an RPG can today. Jeez, Cubicle 7 felt the need to do a book for every damned Doctor in Doctor Who. Each D&D core book — Players Handbook, Dungeon Master’s Guide, etc. is 400ish pages. The AD&D books did it with half that.
Now, get off my lawn!
The Black Campbell 
21 August, 2017 at 11:28
Amen! The page count today is insane; the rules aren’t any more complex than they were in 1984, so why do they need ten pages to explain what two or maybe three pages did back then? White Wolf and Games Workship really changed how games were produced; White Wolf with the blathering content that takes you over the hills and through the woods to Grandma’s house (when you could have cut through your back yard into her’s) and GW brought the excessive glossy paper and artwork.
I miss the days when I’d go to a convention (GenCon East, EastCon, the early GenCons and Origins) and be excited to get a new supplement that looked like it had been typed and photocopied…because it had! It was all about the content back then, content and the heart and passion of the creator. Now…it’s flash and trash.
21 August, 2017 at 12:40
We don’t seem to be the only folks that think that way, although I wonder if that’s a function of age.
I’m curious if anyone else feels this way, and those who have picked up the Black Campbell stuff, what they think about it vis-a-vis substance and style.