I don’t know that it’s so much that reading isn’t thought of as important as that including fictional content in the text is looked upon with deep suspicion in indie/small press circles. The players are supposed to make that stuff up themselves, and if the author does any of it beyond providing procedural guides for producing it, they’re robbing the players of agency. I get that, but it doesn’t actually align with what I find most exciting about gaming.

One of the things I found really exciting about Circle of Hands was that Ron was unafraid to tell us about its world.