To some, a rule book of over five hundred pages is initially striking.  What, they wonder, could such a book contain?  Allow me to elaborate on this.

  I would first point out that the most complete game systems--and the ones with the most players--generally have long sets of rules.  This is necessary, because the broader a game becomes, the more things need to be covered.  I began refereeing one of the most popular games back in 1980, and today I own (if my count is correct) thirteen hard-cover volumes of rules, plus quite a few soft-cover supplements which are not modules--and I am told that there is one more hard-cover volume which I do not have!  The most essential of these books (the referee's rulebook) is itself two hundred forty pages long--and is useless without the separate player's rule book and one of the collections of creatures, another one hundred twenty-eight pages in the one plus one hundred twelve pages in the other.  This means that in 1980 when I chose to referee the game originally, I had to buy four hundred eighty pages of rules in three books (at a cost even then of fifty dollars).  Yet these three books were apparently inadequate to continue to run the game, since I have acquired ten more similar volumes in my effort to keep current with the game, each at a cost of not less than fifteen dollars!  By the time they began to publish their second edition--which was not entirely compatible with their first version-I was being much more selective in what I acquired.  However, even without taking a direct interest in this revised version, I could easily see that collecting a complete set of rules for that game would cost more than I could invest.

  I have played a more recent popular game--not the live action version, although I know some who do--and have noticed that it, too, has found the secret of extracting money from gamers, by putting rules in volume after volume of expensive supplements, so that the referee can't have the whole system without spending his entire college tuition on it.  I have not checked the number of pages per volume, nor the number of volumes, but I have seen shelves at the local gaming supply store covered with these.  The most recent game I saw from the author of that first game I referee was selling at $30 a volume for a minimum of three volumes; I'm told that the most recent game announced from that company is also $30 per volume, and four volumes are needed to begin play.

 Valdron Inc. is committed to the idea that the gamer should be able to buy the entire game system in a single package.  We expect that there will be no other rules.  Certainly we will publish additional materials--mostly books of worlds, although we've got a few other things in the works which would be useful, such as referee's screens--but the five hundred sixty page Referee's Rules is all the rules you need.  We think that it's a bargain at fifty dollars; but (even though it really does pinch our budget) we're including the First Book of Worlds, another one hundred fifty pages containing nine scenarios for players to explore, because we want gamers to be able to play as soon as possible, and to see how some of us who have been playing over the last decade have built some of our worlds.  Also, we will continue to make a few worlds available for download off the Internet , and to provide some supplemental materials at no cost.  Of course, we need to make some money to keep going; but part of the way we can do that is by being the most supportive RPG company around.
  The rulebook itself is over an inch thick.  Each page is eight and a half by eleven inches, and the cover is the same.  As the second printing comes out, it is what is called in the trade a "perfect bound" soft cover, the industry standard for soft cover rule books. The First Book of Worlds is of similar design, somewhat less than half an inch thick.

  The primary text of the Referee's Rules is in eleven point type, so that it will be easy to read; many explanatory reference sections are in smaller nine point type--still larger than many other game systems.  The bulk of the text of the First Book of Worlds is in ten point type, with introductory materials in twelve point type.  The referee should be able to clearly read the text even in low light.

  More to the point is the content of those pages.
  Within the body of the rules are the skills sections.  Many games have similar sections--the spell and psionic skills lists of D&D, the skills sections of Star Frontiers.  The skills sections of Multiverser are comprehensive, in the sense that the lists form a framework within which anything which any character can do in any world will fit.  This reference material forms a major portion of the text.
  There are numerous sections of the book which are supporting text.  There is a complete outline of the rules, giving each subheading and each chart or table in the order in which they appear in the text.  An extensive glossary and index appear at the end.
 The eleven appendices include What is an RPG?, the first and shortest, which has been posted on the web for some time.  Other appendices include information on measurement conversions, dicing curves, gaming shortcuts, insanity, and temporal anomalies.  The longest appendix contains all of the charts, tables, and diagrams found in the rules (with a couple more) for easy access.
  In short, for a complete rules system, Multiverser is neither longer nor more expensive than would be expected; it is shorter and less expensive than other game systems which undertake much less.
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