Tech books are cumulative

[Stormcrow]

Originally Posted by Gigermann

To be fair, one doesn't typically run a campaign out of the X-Tech books.

I don't know about that. I previously asked a question in this forum about whether people typically just hand players the tech books, create customized equipment lists out of the tech books, or do something in between. A lot of people seemed to respond that creating lists was too much work, and they just gave players the necessary parameters and let them look for themselves.

So how do YOU use the tech books? Do you use them to build custom equipment lists? Do you find it necessary to use the books from previous tech levels to fill them out?

Originally Posted by Fred Brackin

I ended up needing to go to HT for modern lightweight backpacks and one-man tents. I had to go to Infinite Worlds for solar cells.

I'm not worried about whether published rules miss something. I'm trying to see whether people consider the tech books as a single catalog — you need the previous one before you can fully stock equipment of a given tech level — or whether people are content just to have the tech book covering the tech level of their game.

To put it yet another way: If someone told you they were interested in running a game set in World War II and wanted recommendations on which books to get for equipment rules, would you recommend just High-Tech or both High-Tech and Low-Tech? And you're not recommending something just because it would be nice to have it. It would be because you thought they needed it to accomplish their goal.

I guess the question just isn't very clear, since most people seem to be drifting off topic. Sorry about that. I'm not sure how else to put it.