Christmas in July - The OSR Picks - Megadungeons & More

Time for Round two of the OSR Picks for the Christmas in July Sale at DTRPG. Without further ado lets jump right in, the water is fine :)

The Halls of Arden Vul Complete - over 1100 pages of megadungeon greatness. Undermountain, quiver in fear! - "Arden Vul is the most ambitious megadungeon ever created, with over 1,100 Pages of Incredible Adventure. This 1st Edition compatible fully-bookmarked PDF product features: 2,162 Encounter Descriptions, 14 NPC Factions, 10 Massive Levels, 15 Extensive Sub-levels, 7 Dangerous Exterior locations, 149 New Monsters, 332 New Magic Items, 69 New Technological Items, 44 New Spells, 189 New Books through which PCs can gain a deep understanding of the dungeon, A full NPC appendix with 10 competing parties at 3 levels of power, Over 140 original pieces of art, including 28 full-page illustrations! All of this is mapped via 33 Amazing Maps that you can download for free at The Maps of Arden Vul. As we have gotten requests for VTT player's maps we have created The VTT Maps of Arden Vul for free as well. If you know you want the physical copies, just head over to the Arden Vul Bundle and get everything Arden Vul in one fell swoop. There has never been anything like Arden Vul, and there never will be again.
Welcome to the Halls of Arden Vul! 109  81.75

Low Fantasy Gaming Deluxe Edition - the last game my Saturday Night group played. Very solid system - "Low Fantasy Gaming is a tabletop RPG built for gritty adventures in low or moderate magic settings. It has simple rules, dangerous combat, flexible PC customisation, and mysterious, unpredictable magic. Designed for short, episodic adventures in sandbox worlds, LFG provides the mechanics and tables needed for easy GM improvisation. It’s a heady mix of the best old school, modern, and new game design, wrapped around a familiar d20 core." 20  15

Old-School Essentials Classic Fantasy: Rules Tome - I love this presentation of the Basic / Expert Rules - "Old-School Essentials is an adventure role-playing game of exploration, danger, monsters, and magic. The game is intentionally rules-light, putting the focus of play on imagination, improvisation, and fun. The rules are optimised for ease of use at the table, with meticulous attention to wording and layout clarity. What's more, Old-School Essentials is 100% compatible with the classic Basic/Expert game from 1981, meaning that decades of adventure are at your fingertips! A Complete Game All in One Book. The Old-School Essentials Rules Tome is a complete game of classic fantasy adventure, containing the following: Core rules: Rules for character creation and advancement, adventuring in dungeons, the wilderness, and at sea, magic and combat. Character options: Seven classic classes (cleric, dwarf, elf, fighter, halfling, magic-user, thief), complete lists of weapons and adventuring gear, extensive lists of vehicles, mounts, and vessels, mercenaries and specialists for hire, rules for stronghold construction. Spells: The complete set of 34 cleric spells (from 1st to 5th level) and 72 magic-user spells (from 1st to 6th level), for use by players or cleric, elf, and magic-user characters. Monsters: A selection of over 200 classic monsters to challenge adventurers of all levels. Treasures: A hoard of over 150 wondrous magic items. The material in this book forms a complete clone of the classic Basic/Expert game, including all rules, classes, spells, monsters, and magic items."  20  15

Barrowmaze Complete - the premier OSR megaduneon - "Local villagers whisper of a mysterious place deep in the marsh - a place shrouded in mist and dotted with barrow mounds, ruined columns, and standing stones. The tomb-robbers who explore beneath the mounds - or rather the few who return - tell tales of labyrinthine passages, magnificent grave goods, and terrifying creatures waiting in the dark. Are you brave (or foolish) enough to enter the Barrowmaze? Barrowmaze Complete (BMC) is a classic old school megadungeon for use with Labyrinth LordTM and other fantasy role-playing games. BMC includes everything in Barrowmaze I and II in the same book in addition to new material, art, layout, and cover art by Ex-TSR artist Erol Otus. Barrowmaze Complete will keep your players on their toes and your campaign going strong. BMC is brought to you by the Old School Renaissance (so don’t forget your 10’ pole)." 29  21.75

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Christmas in July Sale - OSR Picks - Swords & Wizardry

DriveThru is running a Christmas in July Sale, with a HUGE selection of PDF releases at 25% off. I'll be highlighting some of my personal OSR picks that are on sale over a series of posts. This is the first.

Note: A portion of monies spend via the affiliate links on this page will go to support The Tavern. I thank you in advance - Tenkar

Swords & Wizardry Continual Light - My baby. My precious. Published by your friendly bartender. "What is Swords & Wizardry Continual Light? It is a streamlined version of the Swords & Wizardry rules many of you already love. You will recognize some White Box and some Complete, but its all Swords & Wizardry. It covers four core classes (and a bunch of optional ones), four races, seven levels of play (and optional rules to keep the game going after seventh level), magic items, spells, monsters and more - all in about 17 pages of rules. Suitable for introducing new players to old school gaming or reintroducing a lapsed gamer, perfect for pick up games, convention play and yes - even campaigns.  3.00  2.25

SURVIVE THIS!! Vigilante City - Core Rules - OSR supers? Say it isn't so! "From the creators of SURVIVE THIS!! Dark Places & Demogorgons comes SURVIVE THIS!! Vigilante City, a gritty, street-level, superhero game set in the near future. Vigilante City is heavily inspired by Batman:  The Animated Series.  Along with the X-men, Spider-man and TMNT cartoons of the 1990s. Vigilante City utilizes the familiar ruleset of the world’s most popular fantasy RPG, mixing the old-school with modern mechanics for the best possible gaming experience. With it’s modular system design, you can easily play to the exact style of super’s game you want! SURVIVE THIS!! Vigilante City - Core Rules features ALL the rules to make a vigilante and play the game. Complete Modular Independent rules for Humans, Mutant Animals, Borg Conversion and Power Armor, Magic, Mutant Abilities, Psionics, Speedsters and Super Soldier Drugs, that are designed to be added or removed easily to allow your game of Vigilante City to be tailored to the exact style of superhero game that you want to play! There is also, Background/Origins, Weapons, Equipment, Gadgets, Vehicle Upgrades, Vehicle Combat, Ranged & Melee Combat, Morale, Skills, Usage Die & so much more! Vigilante City features both Human (no powers) and MegaHuman (powers) classes!"  9.99  7.49

Eldritch Tales: Lovecraftian White Box Role-Playing - I am a huge Mythos fan, and this scratches my itch - Eldritch Tales: Lovecraftian White Box Role-Playing in an OSR rule set with its roots in the original version of the world's favorite RPG, but instead of exploring musty dungeons, characters in Eldritch Tales investigate Mythos horrors in the 1920s! The setting and background are based on the cosmic horror tales of Howard Phillips Lovecraft and other members of his writing circle. Within the pages of Eldritch Tales you will find four character classes representing many classic pulp archetypes, occupations, rules for insanity, spells, monsters, esoteric tomes, artifacts, a starting scenario, and setting material, as well as advice on using Eldritch Tales with other White Box games. This game is compatible with Swords & Wizardry White Box and other OSR games. 6.99 5.24

White Star: Galaxy Edition - simply the BEST way to play a sci-fi RPG game - it was inspired a plethora of 3rd party publishers - "Endless galactic adventure awaits you in White Star: Galaxy Edition! Integrated and updated to include material from White Star and the White Star Companion, White Star: Galaxy Edition integrates new rules, new options, and expands the original game. Now more than just a tool box, White Star: Galaxy Edition offers you a universe full of thrilling adventure! White Star: Galaxy Edition includes: Twenty-five character classes! Complete rules for Starship, Vehicle, and Mecha combat! New Starship and Vehicle Modifications! New Aliens and Creatures! New Equipment, Advanced Technology, and Cybernetics! New Meditations and Gifts! Two new forms of Mysticism: The tribal Etchings of the Yabnab and strange Chitterings of the Star Squirrels! New Optional Rules, like Deeds Dark & Daring, to add pulp sci-fi heroics to your game! New Star Systems: The rugged Marnash Sector and strange Scuiridae System!"  9.99  7.49

Willow - I'm a fan of mini-settings and this looks damn good -"Willow is a town that can be dropped into your campaign setting. Focused on game-able content and being easy to use at the table, It is graphic and art heavy. Structured as a mini hexcrawl, players will have to work together to investigate a mystery to move on from a damp backwater town to bigger, brighter places. The Setting: Deep in a vast wood, a town called Willow sits beside the Lake of Tears. The lake is framed by weeping willow trees, their vines pouring into the lake’s dark green shores. Willow is not what one would call an upbeat town. The rains here are relentless and the grey skies loom low like a giant cage. Travelers do not linger here long; one night in the Blue Brew Inn is enough to make most jump on the ferry and move on. But recently the ferries have stopped running as something terrible has taken up residence on the river. Meanwhile, the town folk will not talk about the noises echoing up from the staircase that descends below the lake, nor the broken stone circle on the hill at the edge of town. The town's leader, a witch named Morose Morgan, is a recluse and refuses to leave her island."  7.00  5.25

Far West - Obligatory Annual Update on Gareth the Hut

On July, 15th, Gareth Skarka made the following update on the Far West Kickstarter (funded way back in 2011 - note, my commentary will be in ORANGE)

For those of you that haven't seen this already via social media, the following update appears on my personal blog and the FAR WEST website (not Twitter? I'm surprised):

I've been quiet recently, I know. (but not on Twitter. NEVER quiet on Twitter. If only Far West could be written 256 characters at a time)

First things first:  Far West is NOT dead (please, bring out your dead). I only have one chapter remaining to assemble from the earlier drafts (and I have this bridge in Brooklyn to sell really cheap).  Things are moving slowly, and I figure that I owed you an explanation. (I think we are owed a new explanation)

It's no secret that among the many trials and tribulations that have plagued this project, my depression and anxiety have been at the forefront.  I have been my own worst enemy. (strangly enough, it hasn't stopped Gareth from working on other projects, which we'll detail below)

Well, a few months ago, my family convinced me to finally seek treatment. 

So I've done that. 

The initial stages of the process, where, among other things, we were trying to zero in on the right combination of prescriptions and correct dosages, made it very difficult to get anything done.  I just couldn't focus on anything other than my mental health. 

Now that we are further along, and I've begun to feel the effects, I'm coming back into myself, in a way.  And that includes finishing Far West. (so close, yet so far...)

So that's what I'm going to do. 

I appreciate the patience of so many people who have given far more than I could have ever asked. "Thank you" seems terribly inadequate, given the circumstances. (i think the last year you've given so many people a big FUCK YOU)

As a final administrative note:  All official updates will now appear on the Far West website (last update was THIS very update).  We have a forum there where I can be reached for questions. (last forum comment, not from Gareth was January 2 - Gareth's last was in 2015 - did i mention the forum hasnt taken new sign-ups in years?) The Kickstarter page will be used purely for delivery of texts, PDFs, etc. to backers. (so obviously the KS page hasn't been used)

Now, the home stretch.  Talk to you soon. (but only on Twitter)

Gareth-Michael Skarka
Lawrence, KS
July 15, 2019.

So, what else has Gareth written during the time frame he HASN'T completed Far West?

• Axanar: Ships of the Four Years War for Squadron Strike! Troy, NY: Ad Astra Games, 2019.
• Legend of the Five Rings Roleplaying Game. Roseville, MN: Fantasy Flight Games, 2018.
• Star Wars: Force and Destiny — Unlimited Power. Roseville, MN: Fantasy Flight Games, 2018.
• Star Wars: Age of Rebellion — Cyphers And Masks. Roseville, MN: Fantasy Flight Games, 2018.
• Star Trek Adventures: Beta Quadrant Sourcebook. London, UK: Modiphius Entertainment, 2018.
• Star Trek Adventures: Core Rulebook. London, UK: Modiphius Entertainment, 2017.
• Fiasco ’12: Fiasco Playset Anthology Vol 3. Chapel Hill, NC: Bully Pulpit Games, 2015.
• Doctor Who: The Eighth Doctor Sourcebook. Oxford, UK: Cubicle 7 Entertainment, 2015.
• Doctor Who: Adventures In Time And Space – Limited Edition Rulebook. Oxford, UK: Cubicle 7 Entertainment, 2014.
• “Exit Visa”, Have Blaster Will Travel. Washington, NJ: Galileo Books, 2012
• Defending The Earth: The UNIT Sourcebook. Oxford, UK: Cubicle 7 Entertainment, 2012.
• Doctor Who: Adventures in Times and Space (Eleventh Doctor Edition). Oxford, UK: Cubicle 7 Entertainment, 2012.

Kind words said by those that weren't Far West backers:“[A] standout example […] of one of our newest professions: the e-book publisher.”

—The Associated Press. (Washington Post, December 2007)

“…a visionary in the electronic publishing field.”–Dominic McDowall-Thomas, Cubicle 7 Entertainment.

“A trail-blazer… an innovator… one of the inventors of ‘how it’s done’ in the ePublishing sector.”

–Sean Patrick Fannon, OneBookShelf, Inc.

“Gareth got the Inner Circle off of the ground and I couldn’t recommend a better person to take start-ups under his wing.”

–Jeffrey J. Visgaitis, The Inner Circle.

“A lot of publishers would benefit from [his] experience.”

–Steve Creech, DragonWing Games/Bastion Press.

Humble Bundle - Pathfinder 2nd Edition by Paizo

Color me VERY surprised. I never expected Paizo to put Pathfinder 2nd Edition on sale on Humble Bundle so early in its life span. Nor did I expect them to include a PRINT copy of the rulebook to be included at 30 bucks, but they did. Hell, it's tempting even for me ;)

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Kickstarter - Frog Folk Villagers - 3D Printable & Physical Model + CHIBI

I'm really really tempted to get a 3d printer, especially in these days of pandemic lockdown. The files coming out for 3d printers these days are simply amazing in detail. With the Frog Folk Villagers Kickstarter you can snag files or physical pieces. I've always been a Bullywug fan ;)

As your brave RPG adventurers travel through the edges of the swampland on their way to the Mountain of Taunting Doom ... they come upon a village of simple Frog Folk.  Are they peaceful?  Will they attack suddenly when your guard is down?  Maybe befriending them will give your party some vital information for your daunting quest ahead!

Deal of the Day - Timemaster (Pacesetter / Goblinoid Games)

I have fond memories of Timemaster. It was one of a series of games from Pacesetter Games and a bunch of ex-TSR employees produced in the 80s, including Star Ace, Chill, and Sandman, and uses a color-coded results table. Goblinoid Games resurrected it and for that I am happy.

Normally 5.95 in PDF, until tomorrow morning Timemaster is on sale for 3.57

This is the reprint version, with all new interior art by Mark Allen. This book combines the two books from the original boxed set. The introductory adventure is now provided separately as a free download. 

Lurching into action, your battered chronoscooter crosses the void of time and space. Another lurch, and the vertigo fades. The countryside comes into view. Knights in armor battle, clanging sword against shield, and then someone blasts at your neck with a laser beam. Once again, all of Time is a mess, and as an agent of the Time Corps, you must set this world straight or die trying! Adventure to any place, any time, in this universe and beyond! The TimeMaster Roleplaying Game makes you master of the "Fourth Dimension", guiding you to the ultimate adventure in history, legend, and science fiction. fight cunning aliens and savage renegades who twist Time to their own purposes. Only skill and wit stand between the world you know and absolute chaos

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Deal of the Day -The Nocturnal Table (OSR)

I've always been a huge fan of inspirational game aids that can be used within the game session, as I'm a huge improv style GM. Today's Deal of the Day, The Nocturnal Table, looks to scratch that itch. Normally 6.50 in PDF, until tomorrow morning it is a mere 2.60.

“The City is a maze. A labyrinth of alleyways, plazas, shortcuts and hidden thoroughfares, it isn’t any less treacherous to navigate than a dungeon. At least during the day, the worst one can expect is a greedy patrol of guards eager for a shakedown, or a thief in the crowd, ready to make a grab and run for it. At night, the sensible and the timid hurry home and bolt their doors. Ecstatic revellers, madmen, assassins, religious fanatics, thrill-seekers, enigmatic apparitions and tiger-headed opium nightmares prowl the streets. And the guards are still not helping. The Nocturnal Table is a supplement intended to bring you this city by way of an encounter system, random inspiration tables, NPC and monster statistics, as well as a giant nighttime random encounter table, whose three hundred entries can serve as interludes as well as springboards for complicated investigative scenarios and fantastic conspiracies.” 

The Nocturnal Table is a 60-page game aid dedicated to city-based adventures, lavishly illustrated by Matthew Ray (cover), Peter Mullen, Stefan Poag and Denis McCarthy. This is a game aid designed for regular table use, and formatted to be comfortable and accessible, offering a handy guide to design and run adventure scenarios in a large, sinful city filled with action and intrigue. 

At the core of The Nocturnal Table is a 300-entry table of random encounters and odd events you can run into at night in a busy fantasy metropolis. From a patrol of guards carrying a slain comrade, to a sinister beggar-catcher soliciting the aid of dishonest adventurers, or a skeleton covered in grey ooze, its eyes glittering gemstones shambling towards the party, all the wonder and menace of a city-crawl are at hand. But that is not all. With The Nocturnal Table, you can…
create general encounters with the aid of a comprehensive encounter system… 

• generate merchants selling strange and fantastic goods (as seen in Echoes From Fomalhaut #01)…
• find out what’s in their pockets…
• generate local colour on the fly…
• stock warehouses with exotic goods to plunder…
• and set up secret meetings and investigation sites!
• Guidelines are also offered to re-use the encounters and chart contents for the construction of bizarre plotlines and sinister conspiracies which rule from the shadows… while the City sleeps. All that, and more are at your disposal in… The Nocturnal Table!

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News - Lamentations of the Flame Princess over 100k in Debt

James Raggi updated the LotFP blog for the first time in three years earlier today. Here is the relevant news:

THE CURRENT SITUATION 

This one is for all the marbles. As you're probably aware, LotFP has gone through a rough patch the past year and a half. 

The tldr is we're about 90,000€ in debt, 60,000€ of which is due in about a month or we're done. And we have so much more to do. 

So if you want LotFP to continue, you need to buy something, preferably a lot of somethings, and very soon, when the new books go on sale. If you don't want LotFP to continue, you don't have to do anything. You're good. 

A more thorough explanation for those who will surely ask:
After a record 2018, webstore sales hit a wall in January 2019 (I assume because of increased Finnish postal costs; November and December 2018 were strong and then *bam*), but we were supposed to have a new US-based webstore opening in the early summer. So I was confident that I was in for a fifth straight year of growth and prosperity, and made plans to take care of that. 

The exact same week the Zak allegations hit in February 2019, I received the last of series of business loans totaling just about 70,000€. These would cover a number of reprints (which sell slowly and thus take more time to recoup their costs, making them very difficult to finance from normal cashflow), and convention expenses for the year. I secured these loans based on the fact that I'd grossed over 250,000€ the previous year, had two new Zak books set to come out in 2019 (not to mention Red & Pleasant Land as one of the reprints), with a few other new books on the schedule as well. 

The fallout from the Zak situation was that his upcoming work, and the Red and Pleasant Land reprint, were canceled. Everything else went into disarray and only one full-fledged (not limited edition) release happened all year, and that was a low-price short adventure. The US fulfillment center fell through and didn't get going until over half a year later than scheduled. 

Even so, convention sales in 2019 were greater than 2018 (and we did one less convention in 2019!), retail distribution sales was about even year-to-year, PDF sales were down a bit... but direct webstore sales were down 80% for the year. And direct sales are where we traditionally make most of our money. Webstore sales plummeting has almost killed the business: Gross sales were in total 40% down, and the profits (AKA my personal income) went from (rough numbers) 45,000€ in 2018 to 3,500€ in 2019. That's not a typo. 

By last fall, I started falling behind in loan payments. By spring this year, just as the world at large was beginning to fall apart due to the pandemic, I started falling behind on royalty payments to the talent. There's only so long I can shuffle money and beg for patience...
And now with the pandemic, conventions for the entire year are gone (conventions accounted for 25% of last year's gross income). Distribution/retail sales (by far the biggest income source last year) were wiped out completely for a time due to shutdowns and at best will be weak for some time to come due to the pandemic. 

And so here we are. Pretty much all of these new items were financed on credit, sparing no expense to make these the best books we could, and it's time for what just might be the last stand. It is my hope that not only can we clear this debt, but we can get a bit of a cash stockpile so we can make sure the next batch of books (and the next, and the next...) are up to LotFP standards of quality and deliver significant royalty payments to their authors. 

It's up to you now. 

Posted by JimLotFP at 12:28 AM 

Then there was this regarding the LotFP Referee Book:

February 2020 Update! 

The big news: So we've got what I'd consider a complete draft in hand. 296,000 words.  

As far as I'm concerned, this is it. Not throwing out large chunks wholesale, deciding entire sections need rewriting from scratch, or any of the other nonsense that has turned this into a hellscape forever project. 

But it will need editing. I'd estimate it's going to lose 10-20% of the word count through this process, because right now it's not tight. There are a few other things that are going to press imminently so those have to be shepherded first, but as of April 1 doing this will be my sole priority. 

After that we'll know what sections need to be shored up, plus the promised supplemental stuff that needs a tight draft prepared first in order to do, and then we start putting together the final layouts.
And the part that will cause trouble saying it out loud rather to the group than replying individually... there have been refund requests. I can't do it. The money simply isn't laying around. Over 7000€ has been spent on the project just the past 14 months, the whole thing is already way over budget, and I'd estimate there's five figures additional expense on the way getting this thing finalized and ready for print... and then there's the print cost which is going to be another five figures.
This has turned into the Homer and I can't see how it'll retail for less than 75€. Maybe significantly more than that (Veins of the Earth is about 100,000 words and that's 368 pages) and now that I see that written down, maybe broken down into multiple books (which you'd all get as backers at no additional cost but shipping). 

So that's not bad for those getting in for 30€ or 38€ books, and we've now got a US fulfillment center so it won't be necessary for those of you around that area to pay shipping from Finland. 

And that's just the main Ref book. Doesn't count the screen, slipcase, or the monster book due. 

It should be quite the exciting end part of the year. 

(I just jinxed it, didn't I...?)

Tavern Chat Podcast episode covering the current situation

YouTube of the same podcast episode (all episodes are available via YouTube)

What do you Think About "Crunch" in a Game?

I don't think this is going to be a character or player story, but it's not like I write up an outline for these things and shoot them by an editor or anything. The closest I do is go back and fix grammatical and spelling errors I notice after-the-fact.

This last week I was "home" on vacation and trying to explain RPGs to someone who had no clue what an RPG was, but loved reading fantasy novels, to include a bunch of TSR D&D novels. Of course I answered with a high-level pass and then dialed-in on specifics based on follow-up questions.

The conversation moved on to different RPGs and basically why, which is a whole lot to think about. In so many ways I'd say there are three big reasons why we have different game systems: money, ideas, and preferences.

Money is easy. People like money. It lets us buy stuff and do stuff. If you own the game and sell it to others you make money. If you don't own something but can make/sell something similar....

As far as ideas go, yeah...they're like assholes...everybody has one and everyone else's stinks. I'm sure plenty of games exist because somebody either didn't like the way one system did something and that somebody had what they thought was a better idea to solve the "problem", and the fix could make money. Money is good....

The third reason, kind of related to "ideas" is just the fact that folks like to play a certain type of game and if enough people like their game a certain way somebody is going to put forth their ideas for a game system that runs a game that certain way and that somebody can now possibly make money selling that game.

I personally like a bit of a crunchy game, which is why I loved HackMaster 4th Edition. I personally think that game only came about because the KenzerCo D-Team had some ideas they wanted to put into print, basically publishing their home-game rules. They liked a crunchy game like I did.

The thing is, and really where my rambling so far is leading up to is, "How much crunch is too much?" Clearly one person's crunch is another's fluff.

One thing I like about a crunchy game is that you can usually throttle-back things, removing some crunchy bits, and the game will still work. For example....you don't like weapon to-hit adjustments based on armor class/types (something I really don't care for)....just remove it. The adjustments work both ways and removing them doesn't do a whole lot for combat.

As a player I enjoy encumbrance and having to figure out what to keep and what to take. Trying to get those 1,000 silver pieces out of the dungeon when you're already at capacity is.....well, it's a challenge. Spending your hard-earned coin on upgrading your spell books so you aren't risking your main book in the dungeon....good times. Deciding which magic items I can take along on an adventure because there is an experience level-based magic item cap.....(that was a thing) loved it.

Now this was as a player.........I didn't care for it nearly as much as a GM. I trusted my players in my home game, but running a table at a convention.....especially a higher-level game? Fuuuuuuuuuuck that could suck. I saw plenty of what I'm 110% certain was straight-up cheating. I remember one player who always had 95%+ of all possible hit points at higher level. "Oh, your 5th level Mage has 48 1st level spells memorized? I call bullshit." Thankfully this kind of crap was really only seen, at least by me, at the highest level.....and in my experience the players that cheat the most in this regard are generally not the best players overall.

Still, a game's a game and even when I'm not playing in a crunchy game it doesn't mean I can't add a little on my own end. I can still try to spend money on extra spell books and keep track of my encumbrance even if the GM doesn't care too much.........

Again, I'll ask the question, "How much crunch is too much?"....but I'll add, "What do you do to add, or (someone else might want to know...) remove crunch from your game?"