this post was submitted on 15 Oct 2026
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wtf is a splatbook?
Basically, the tabletop roleplaying game equivalent of DLC. A splatbook contains fun new spells, classes, items, abilities, and monsters that mean all new ways to make things go 'splat'.
wild...when did this term come about? been dm'ing for years, and playing since the 80s, everything from gurps, tmnt, paranoia, AD&D, palladium stuff, then pathfinder.... til a new word lol
IIRC it was Vampire the Masquerade that started it. Mark Rein•Hagen, who created VtM, used this sort of bullet-point thing in his surname and some people started calling him Mark Rien Splat Hagen. When it became obvious that each of the thirteen clans would get its own 'DLC' people started referring to those as splat books.
ty! deep lore
Early 1990s according to Wikipedia according to Appelcline (2014).
TIL, thanks
It was a common term for D&D 3.0 and 3.5
Ahhh. Cool!
I cast... DISCOVERY!!
all the lawyers go splat
Any sourcebook that isn't needed for basic play - so you can play d&d with just a player's handbook and GM handbook, but if you want additional mechanics, new classes, new settings etc you'll find them in splats.