To DF or not to DF, that is the question
 

I play and use the core GURPS rules for my established campaign.
When DF first came out I bought the volumes individually. In part because, at the time it was to support SJG, in part because there was little pure GURPS material coming out and I could port it with little trouble.

I want the DF Monsters I that was released with the Kickstarter but SJG won't sell Monsters I as a stand alone (that I can find).
Is the updated material from the first DF books compared to the KS DF Boxed Set book worth getting the box set?

Re: To DF or not to DF, that is the question
 

It's cohesive, tidy, and reduces the amount of cross-referencing you need to do. The heart of the rules are still just about the same, but DF has trimmed away a lot of the extras that aren't really relevant to the DF style. It also includes all the new rules and options that DF developed incorporated alongside and in context with all the other advantages/disads/skills.

The DF pdfs that came out before the box set have been perfectly compatible as far as I've found, as are rules and options imported from elsewhere. For example, Martial Arts makes a decent showing in my current DF game.

I would say that if you have the scratch it's probably worthwhile. It saves a ton of time, and gives you a solid cornerstone to base a campaign on without having to do the option trimming yourself.

Re: To DF or not to DF, that is the question
 

If you want to run a dungeon crawl in GURPS it's nice to get the box. It has the spit and polish, the books are well constructed and easy to use. You get colorful maps and cardboard characters, Generally it makes the game that much more pleasant with little effort.

If you want to run a somewhat realistic contiguous fantasy campaign then you've likely got everything of value from the books you have.

Re: To DF or not to DF, that is the question
 

DFRPG is well written and fun to read. I think it’s totally worth it.

And if you wanted just the Monsters book, it would be like $10-$15 by itself maybe? It’s $40 for all the PDFs so not that much more for All The Content.

The books cross-reference all mention of rules and traits, so every instance in Monsters of “see Exploits pg. 38” is a click away to see the details.

I got into DF from the opposite direction. I had been doing old west and autoduel and infinite worlds for years. I didn’t pick up the DF line as it released, I wasn’t interested and was having plenty of fun with other GURPS. But the DFRPG box set campaign looked cool and I decided to jump in, and ended up at the $$level that got the whole backlog of DF PDFs thrown in. It all works together, and the box set is just a great Core.

I am an avid follower of Gaming Ballistic’s Nordland line as well... ;)

Re: To DF or not to DF, that is the question
 

As am I and if the OP is looking for a monster book, keep a look out for the Nordlund Bestiary kickstarter some time this year.

Re: To DF or not to DF, that is the question
 

It will depend upon each individual's budget for gaming and discretionary income. Why would I recommend it?

• The formatting is so much better and cleaner. Compare the Swashbuckler template in the free preview of DFRPG's Adventurers to the template in GURPS Dungeon Fantasy 1: Adventurers. The entire book series is like that--tighter, more refined, easier to read, and in color.
  
• The rules remove so much of the unnecessary information from the GURPS Basic Set and GURPS Magic. Gone are the extraneous rules that have no place in Dungeon Fantasy; gone are the various modifiers from Advantages that take up a lot of space; gone are the Item costs for every single spell in GURPS Magic. It goes on and on. In short, it's focused on one thing--Dungeon Fantasy.
  
• There are a lot of rules that have been tweaked and clarified from GURPS Basic Set and GURPS Dungeon Fantasy 1: Adventurers.
  
• It's a heck of a lot easier to find Cleric, Druid, and Wizard spells because that is built into Spells. With GURPS Magic and GURPS Dungeon Fantasy 1: Adventurers, you have to cross reference to see if a spell is on your template's list or not.
  
• The DFRPG's Monsters book is also better organized and in color--it has a lot of what is already in GURPS Dungeon Fantasy: Monsters 1, maybe some differences here and there, but overall, a nice product. DFRPG's Monsters 2 is also quite good.

Having said all of that--is there a lot of ground-breaking, new material in the DFRPG Boxed Set? I don't think so. Can you have tremendous fun playing Dungeon Fantasy with just the materials you already have? Definitely. But it really is a great product. It puts everything into a few easy to handle books (or PDFs, if you prefer that), with a good design, and a refined, more centered approach. I'm happy I backed the Kickstarter and got the books. They are wearing out a bit (after a lot of use), and if I have one quibble, I think that they should have also offered Adventurers, Exploits, and Spells all in one hardcover "Player's Handbook" type volume (I may still make that for myself on Lulu). Otherwise--I very much like it. For new players who are just interested in the DFRPG and not GURPS in general, the DFRPG Boxed set is definitely the way to go. For those of you who already own most of the Dungeon Fantasy line? Depends upon your discretionary income and whether or not you want to own the boxed set. I'm a bit of a "completionist" and a little bit of a collector with a bookcase full of D&D stuff going back to 1e when I was a preteen all the way to 5e, so yeah, I was definitely buying the boxed set (and I play DFRPG probably about 20x per year). For me--if you've got the money to spend--I would buy it.

Re: To DF or not to DF, that is the question
 

Thanks, I appreciate the insights and info gang!