Splatbooks are

sourcebook A sourcebook is a collection of writings on a subject that is intended to be a basic introduction to the topic presented. Academic use In American universities, a sourcebook, either a standard one or a custom collection, may function as a supplem ...

s devoted to a particular facet, character class, or fictional

faction Faction or factionalism may refer to: Politics * Political faction, a group of people with a common political purpose * Free and Independent Faction, a Romanian political party * Faction (''Planescape''), a political faction in the game ''Planes ...

in a

role-playing game A role-playing game (sometimes spelled roleplaying game, RPG) is a game in which players assume the roles of player character, characters in a fictional Setting (narrative), setting. Players take responsibility for acting out these roles within ...

, providing additional background details and rules options. For example, a "swords and sorcery" fantasy game might offer splatbooks for each of the races in the setting: humans, dwarves, elves, and others. The first game to use such books was Dungeons & Dragons, though not described as "splatbooks". The term originally rose to describe the sourcebooks published by White Wolf Game Studio for its

World of Darkness ''World of Darkness'' is a series of tabletop role-playing games, originally created by Mark Rein-Hagen for White Wolf Publishing. It began as an annual line of five games in 1991–1995, with '' Vampire: The Masquerade'', '' Werewolf: The Apoca ...

games. Many of these books were titled using similar patterns: ''clan''books in Vampire: The Masquerade, ''tribe''books for Werewolf: The Apocalypse, ''tradition'' books for

Mage: The Ascension ''Mage: The Ascension'' is a role-playing game based in the World of Darkness, and was published by White Wolf Game Studio in 1993. The characters portrayed in the game are referred to as mages, and are capable of feats of magic. Magic in ''Ma ...

, and so forth. In newsgroups, these were called ''*books'' (the

asterisk The asterisk ( ), from Late Latin , from Ancient Greek , ''asteriskos'', "little star", is a typographical symbol. It is so called because it resembles a conventional image of a heraldic star. Computer scientists and mathematicians often voc ...

on a computer keyboard being used as a wildcard character). Since the asterisk is also known as a " splat", this gave rise to the term "splatbook".
Winn, Ross. 'The Vorpal Sword Went "Snicker-Splat"', RPG.net, Nov 11,2004 This term was subsequently used retrospectively for Advanced Dungeons & Dragons books such as ''The Complete Book of Dwarves'' and ''Complete Arcane'', or the numerous

Codices The codex (plural codices ) was the historical ancestor of the modern book. Instead of being composed of sheets of paper, it used sheets of vellum, papyrus, or other materials. The term ''codex'' is often used for ancient manuscript books, with ...

for '' Warhammer Fantasy Battle'' and ''

Warhammer 40,000 ''Warhammer 40,000'' is a miniature wargame produced by Games Workshop. It is the most popular miniature wargame in the world, and is particularly popular in the United Kingdom. The first edition of the rulebook was published in September 1987, ...

''. By extension, the term "splat" is used for the character class described in a splatbook.

Notes

Role-playing game terminology

See also

Notes