How will 3.5E be presented?

Riveneye · Jan 22, 2003

Has there been any word on how 3.5E is going to be presented? If each new book is going to be published in a big 200 page book, with all the old rules that were kept swirled in everywhere, I'm not going to like it. It would force me to read the whole book again, to find the new rules, and even then, I'll most probably miss a few. If they're going to do that, I think the new rules should stand out somehow. Different colour text or something. Or, what might even be better is a smaller book, detailing all the rule changes. That way, the whole thing would be new, and I wouldn't feel like my time is being wasted.

Frostmarrow · Jan 22, 2003

My guess is Dragon Magazine will feature articles on the rules-changes. The books themselves won't distinguish new rules from old.

Fenes 2 · Jan 22, 2003

In the revised Star Wars Rulebook there were some descriptions concerning the changes.

Personally, I trust the guys and gals on this board to list each and every change way before I get the books (I usually receive WotC books 1 month after release even if I pre-order.)

haiiro · Jan 22, 2003

Making the new rules stand out within the body text would be a mistake, IMO. That would only be useful to people who already have the book, and even then only for a little while (until they had read the rules).

I agree with Frostmarrow: Dragon will be the primary vehicle for highlighting the changes, perhaps in conjunction with the newly refurbed website.

The most I can see being done in the books themselves is including a small section (no more than one page) that provides an overview of the changes. Other publishers have done this in the past, and I find it useful (FASA did it with Shadowrun and BattleTech, Atlas did it with Unknown Armies, etc.).

Zappo · Jan 22, 2003

Here's how it'll be presented:

Big picture. Two guys playing D&D. One says, with a bored look, "I cast Harm on the dragon, and then quickened Inflict Light Wounds".

The other says: "Ok... dragon's turn".

"Wha?", interlopes the first one.

"The dragon breathes. You die."

Skullfyre · Jan 22, 2003

Zappo said:
Here's how it'll be presented:

Big picture. Two guys playing D&D. One says, with a bored look, "I cast Harm on the dragon, and then quickened Inflict Light Wounds".

The other says: "Ok... dragon's turn".

"Wha?", interlopes the first one.

"The dragon breathes. You die."

ROFLSFH

brun · Jan 22, 2003

I agree that highlightiting the rules in the rulebooks is not a good choice, since it would be too confusing for first-time players.

But wath I trully would like is a document, either included in the new books or compiled by someone else, that lists evething that has been change. Not the changes, but wath has been changed. That way, when gaming, if I'm looking for something, but the 3.5 PHB is in use, I'd check the document, see that what I'm looking for is not listed in it, and would then take out my old 3.0 PHB.

dreadnought · Jan 22, 2003

Who cares? What's the point? Don't broken things get fixed in errata releases? Why we need a new edition? Sorry, new
revision .
Me no understand.
I don't think my group is going to invest too heavily in a new revision. We've already shelled out hundreds, if not thousands, between us on sourcebooks.

Zappo · Jan 22, 2003

dreadnought said:
Who cares? What's the point? Don't broken things get fixed in errata releases?

Errata release (or reprint): Identical to the PHB, save for the errata. 24.95$.

New revision: A PHB, but it's got the errata, better-explained rules, better class balance, and new content. 24.95$.

Is there even the need of asking what's better?

Drawmack · Jan 22, 2003

If I'm not mistaken they are adding about 100 pages to each of the core rulebooks and not upping the price at all. Sounds like a good deal to me.

Also which is better, fumbling through the rule book for 10 minutes and the errate for 5 more or having the errata in the book?