mac40k said:
Per the preview of Creature Vault: "By transferring
creature and NPC information from
charts and spreads in a book to handy cards and
sheets, the Creature Vault provides a new tactile
and visual way to create and manage encounters,
as well as reference creature stats
and background
information
on the fly."
This to me says that all of the info, including the fluff , that is currently presented in book format will be on cards as many have been asking for. They will probably be career-sized for the creatures background/stats and action card size for special actions, but I'm banking on those who prefer this format to not also have to buy the book (unless of course, you want to). FFG seems to be trying (almost) too hard to please multiple market segments with these announcements. I can't imagine that they would then turn around and screw those of us that want the card version to have to buy both products while allowing others to get by with just the book.
For those of you worried about fracturing the market, I don't see this as being much different from the print/pdf argument. For many RPGs, some people prefer DTB and will pay more for them (than the corresponding pdf product), others prefer pdfs and are willing to wait for them (since they usually lag the DTB release by a bit), and still others like and are willing to pay for both. For one thing, even if you assume that the subsequent releases will be collected and reprinted in hardback at some point, there will still be those that are willing to pay more for the boxed version because they want the bits/cards and are willing to pay for the additional value they provide, and others who will be willing to pay the higher price just to have the material sooner rather than wait for a hardback compilation release. There's also no reason to think that the release of hardbacks will lead to the death of the bits any more than pdfs have resulted in the end of printed books. Complaining that if you like the bits you have to pay a premium for them when those that prefer to do without can get by with slightly lower priced hardback is like complaining that you have to pay a premium for a DTB while others are perfectly willing to get by with a cheaper pdf.
I SWEAR TO GOD YOU'RE A LONG LOST BROTHER. GET OUT OF MY HEAD!
I was originally thinking (in another post) that along the lines of the creature stuff, it sounds like it might be huge and would have been a $70 product anyway with all of the info and content. Now they're allowing people who DON'T want the components to just get the guide, but if you want it all, you get the Creature Guide + Vault.
But maybe it's the case that everything in the book is incorporated into the cards (including background fluff) as you suggest. In which case - yum!