So this is a thread based on a couple of people telling me to check out BECMI when expressing dissatisfaction with 4e and what it looks like to someone who has fond memories of his rules Cyclopedia, but what I'd change based on my "new school" influences. It goes chapter by chapter, so it will be quite long.
Feel free to comment either support or bafflement based on what I'm removing and what I'm keeping.
Part 1: The Characters
The Rules Cyclopedia covers every topic I'd want in a D&D rulebook. The only thing I'd add is a chapter involving skirmish combat with minis. I like the what the old school products focus on in terms of playstyle, but I dislike most of the rules and their assumptions. Going chapter by chapter...
Chapter 1: Character Creation - I like the idea of rolling for your stats, because I like characters to be have random quirks and I like the idea of "meeting" your character when you roll him up.
In the new school of 4e, ability scores only exist to support how good you are at your class abilities, making them a redundant step. You could imagine a 4e rules system without ability scores at all, but merely with an attack bonus and class-specific bonuses to certain skills. For example, you have the rogues attack bonus, and you gain +10 to skills appropriate to the thief class, rather than having a 20 Dex (+5 bonus) and trained skills (+5 bonus).
Of course the reason the new school went to point buy was that randomly rolled characters that rolled poorly were overshadowed by their luckier party members, and those with the initial luck survived longer. Perhaps the middle ground is allowing those with lower scores to make up the difference through training at earlier levels? Yeah, I like that... some start out strong or smart but the deficient can make up the difference by hitting the weights or the books, with those with lower ability scores able to make gains faster and easier than their higher-statted brethren (who are already approaching human perfection). Sort of how you could improve your stats with wish spells back in the day.
Chapter 2: Classes/Races - I'd divide these into two chapters, because I am new school enough to say that every race should be able to take every class. Of course I'm also old school enough to say that some races should be better at certain classes than others. I don't approve of enforcing it through level limits. So in short, all of the rules on races will have to be rewritten, probably closer to 3rd or 4e.
On Classes there is a lot more to like, but a lot of things to change as well. The combat system and class features need extensive rewrites,but I like the sense of progression, where you become a lord and master of your profession at about level 10. I especially like that whether you are landless or not, or who you swear fealty to, determines the type of followers you get.
Chapter 3: Spells and Spell Casting - Magic power is the big problem, as spell-casting classes continue to exponentially grow in power while the martial classes stagnate. That's not a huge problem, because most of the spells are just unfairly powered up versions of lower level spells (burning hands and cone of cold for example), and other spells can be ported to magic items, rituals or lair items (teleportation circles instead of the teleport spell for example) or banned (such as wish).
The bigger question is whether I want my magic to be more constrained to specific combat effects like 4e, or whether I want to leave spells more open to interpretation and argument. 4e itself has drifted back into more open-ended interpretations of spell effects itself (see the utility power "instant friends") so I think there is some room for compromise there.
Chapter 4: Equipment - Yes! Exactly what an equipment chapter needs. Money, Weapons, Armour, Adventuring Gear, Land and Water Transportation, Siege Equipment. Not padded, but nothing lacking either.
The only thing that really bothers me is weapons, which I dislike the implementation of no matter what the edition. Weapons don't really do more or less damage (you only need a couple of inches to kill someone), they are used to overcome certain types of armour or certain combat situations. Unfortunately, all previous attempts to simulate this have been clumsy and overly complex. The weapon qualities system (high crit, versatile, brutal etc.) of 4e probably comes closest to being both simple and giving you a reason to use one weapon vs. another.
Chapter 5: Skills - I'll probably use 4e's skills, because it gives the basics for dungeoneering survival. However, most of the other non-essential for survival skills/2e proficiencies will be brought back as "talents" which are more about being character quirks, and can be acquired by leveling up and spending gold and time to train. Cooking, Seamanship, Crafting etc. generally won't break the game if you acquire a lot of them.
Feel free to comment either support or bafflement based on what I'm removing and what I'm keeping.
Part 1: The Characters
The Rules Cyclopedia covers every topic I'd want in a D&D rulebook. The only thing I'd add is a chapter involving skirmish combat with minis. I like the what the old school products focus on in terms of playstyle, but I dislike most of the rules and their assumptions. Going chapter by chapter...
Chapter 1: Character Creation - I like the idea of rolling for your stats, because I like characters to be have random quirks and I like the idea of "meeting" your character when you roll him up.
In the new school of 4e, ability scores only exist to support how good you are at your class abilities, making them a redundant step. You could imagine a 4e rules system without ability scores at all, but merely with an attack bonus and class-specific bonuses to certain skills. For example, you have the rogues attack bonus, and you gain +10 to skills appropriate to the thief class, rather than having a 20 Dex (+5 bonus) and trained skills (+5 bonus).
Of course the reason the new school went to point buy was that randomly rolled characters that rolled poorly were overshadowed by their luckier party members, and those with the initial luck survived longer. Perhaps the middle ground is allowing those with lower scores to make up the difference through training at earlier levels? Yeah, I like that... some start out strong or smart but the deficient can make up the difference by hitting the weights or the books, with those with lower ability scores able to make gains faster and easier than their higher-statted brethren (who are already approaching human perfection). Sort of how you could improve your stats with wish spells back in the day.
Chapter 2: Classes/Races - I'd divide these into two chapters, because I am new school enough to say that every race should be able to take every class. Of course I'm also old school enough to say that some races should be better at certain classes than others. I don't approve of enforcing it through level limits. So in short, all of the rules on races will have to be rewritten, probably closer to 3rd or 4e.
On Classes there is a lot more to like, but a lot of things to change as well. The combat system and class features need extensive rewrites,but I like the sense of progression, where you become a lord and master of your profession at about level 10. I especially like that whether you are landless or not, or who you swear fealty to, determines the type of followers you get.
Chapter 3: Spells and Spell Casting - Magic power is the big problem, as spell-casting classes continue to exponentially grow in power while the martial classes stagnate. That's not a huge problem, because most of the spells are just unfairly powered up versions of lower level spells (burning hands and cone of cold for example), and other spells can be ported to magic items, rituals or lair items (teleportation circles instead of the teleport spell for example) or banned (such as wish).
The bigger question is whether I want my magic to be more constrained to specific combat effects like 4e, or whether I want to leave spells more open to interpretation and argument. 4e itself has drifted back into more open-ended interpretations of spell effects itself (see the utility power "instant friends") so I think there is some room for compromise there.
Chapter 4: Equipment - Yes! Exactly what an equipment chapter needs. Money, Weapons, Armour, Adventuring Gear, Land and Water Transportation, Siege Equipment. Not padded, but nothing lacking either.
The only thing that really bothers me is weapons, which I dislike the implementation of no matter what the edition. Weapons don't really do more or less damage (you only need a couple of inches to kill someone), they are used to overcome certain types of armour or certain combat situations. Unfortunately, all previous attempts to simulate this have been clumsy and overly complex. The weapon qualities system (high crit, versatile, brutal etc.) of 4e probably comes closest to being both simple and giving you a reason to use one weapon vs. another.
Chapter 5: Skills - I'll probably use 4e's skills, because it gives the basics for dungeoneering survival. However, most of the other non-essential for survival skills/2e proficiencies will be brought back as "talents" which are more about being character quirks, and can be acquired by leveling up and spending gold and time to train. Cooking, Seamanship, Crafting etc. generally won't break the game if you acquire a lot of them.
