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Rethinking the 3-Book Model
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<blockquote data-quote="Transformer" data-source="post: 5911577" data-attributes="member: 70008"><p>You'll have to forgive me as I've never played anything before 3.5 and haven't experienced the model you're describing, but doesn't having a book that's basically a third of a PH, a third of a DMG, and a third of a MM, alongside an actual PH DMG and MM, cause a constant and very annoying practical problem?</p><p></p><p>The problem I mean is, what happens every time you go to use a book or look something up?</p><p></p><p>"What's the rule for concealment again? Give me the basic book. Lemme find the page. Hmm. I can't find it. Give me just another minute. Shoot. Ah, of course, it was considered advanced enough to only make it into the PH. Hand me the PH there..."</p><p></p><p>"I wanna build a fighter! Gimme both the basic book and the PH, since a few of the martial maneuvers I want are in there. Dang, it sure would be nice if I didn't have to cross-reference two books just to build the fighter I want..."</p><p></p><p>"What's the official penalty to climb for that again? Look it up in the PH. Ah, shoot, I guess it <em>was</em> considered basic enough to make it in the basic book. Well, gimme the basic book then."</p><p></p><p>"Alright, random encounter time! Lemme find that one monster. Hmm. What the heck? Oh, of course, it's in the basic book, not this one..."</p><p></p><p>"I wanna build a trap. Hmm. Well, better dig out the basic book and the DMG, since the basic trapbuilding rules are in the basic and one of the advanced trap options I want is in the DMG. Sigh..."</p><p></p><p>"Time to select feats for my character. Well, I've gotta look in at least two different books, even if I ignore all the splatbooks..."</p><p></p><p>I suppose you could duplicate all the information in the basic book in the other three, but then everyone will complain about buying the same information twice, or else they'll just ignore the basic book.</p><p></p><p>I can understand the BECMI model of a book or boxed set for every 5 or 10 levels much better; then there's relatively little confusion about where to look. I could also understand having a separate rules compendium and then just having player options in the PH; that's a very clear model. I could even understand having a PH with just four classes and races and all the rules, and then having a PH2 with other player options as well as a DMG and a MM, all available at launch. But dividing every sort of information, from classes to feats to DM advice to combat rules to monster between a single basic book and three other books? That sounds like a recipe for frustration.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Transformer, post: 5911577, member: 70008"] You'll have to forgive me as I've never played anything before 3.5 and haven't experienced the model you're describing, but doesn't having a book that's basically a third of a PH, a third of a DMG, and a third of a MM, alongside an actual PH DMG and MM, cause a constant and very annoying practical problem? The problem I mean is, what happens every time you go to use a book or look something up? "What's the rule for concealment again? Give me the basic book. Lemme find the page. Hmm. I can't find it. Give me just another minute. Shoot. Ah, of course, it was considered advanced enough to only make it into the PH. Hand me the PH there..." "I wanna build a fighter! Gimme both the basic book and the PH, since a few of the martial maneuvers I want are in there. Dang, it sure would be nice if I didn't have to cross-reference two books just to build the fighter I want..." "What's the official penalty to climb for that again? Look it up in the PH. Ah, shoot, I guess it [i]was[/i] considered basic enough to make it in the basic book. Well, gimme the basic book then." "Alright, random encounter time! Lemme find that one monster. Hmm. What the heck? Oh, of course, it's in the basic book, not this one..." "I wanna build a trap. Hmm. Well, better dig out the basic book and the DMG, since the basic trapbuilding rules are in the basic and one of the advanced trap options I want is in the DMG. Sigh..." "Time to select feats for my character. Well, I've gotta look in at least two different books, even if I ignore all the splatbooks..." I suppose you could duplicate all the information in the basic book in the other three, but then everyone will complain about buying the same information twice, or else they'll just ignore the basic book. I can understand the BECMI model of a book or boxed set for every 5 or 10 levels much better; then there's relatively little confusion about where to look. I could also understand having a separate rules compendium and then just having player options in the PH; that's a very clear model. I could even understand having a PH with just four classes and races and all the rules, and then having a PH2 with other player options as well as a DMG and a MM, all available at launch. But dividing every sort of information, from classes to feats to DM advice to combat rules to monster between a single basic book and three other books? That sounds like a recipe for frustration. [/QUOTE]
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Rethinking the 3-Book Model
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