The New Rules Cyclopedia

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

So, those marked down books on Amazon and the super cheap used ones at half price book store and ebay are not official?

None of those are part of WotC's business model. Nor is "go ask someone on ENWorld."

Even so, it's only a hundred dollars. Not a lot of money in this day and age. I don't know anyone that wanted to play D&D and couldn't because it was just too expensive.

Plenty of high schoolers would find $100 to be a significant chunk of change. And a lot of folks playing D&D started much earlier than that. I started the summer before 6th grade. I can't imagine that if I were in 6th grade today, I'd have $100 in disposable income, nor would my parents be eager to drop that kind of cash for me on something that, as far as they know, I'd forget about in a few weeks.

 

[Crothian]

None of those are part of WotC's business model. Nor is "go ask someone on ENWorld."

Ah, there is our confusion. I thought you were talking about the fans buying the book. I wasn't worrying about Wizards of the coast and their business model.

 

[edemaitre]

Rules Cyclopedia

I could see the value of a single, stripped-down book for D&D3.5/4x, but I agree that right now, the introductory boxed sets and Player's Handbook are sufficient for getting new people into role-playing. I have some nostalgia for earlier editions of "Dungeons & Dragons" and wonder how the rules will be streamlined or expanded in D&D4e, but if I want a single book with streamlined D20 rules for new gamers, True 20 does the job just fine (GURPS Lite for GURPS 4e or T20 Lite for D20 Traveller are other examples).

Having one book with just some of the character generation options, spellcasting and combat rules, game mastering advice, and monsters might be nice for portability, but most players would quickly outgrow them and need the PHB anyway. Also, the PHB by itself is fairly complete (if not particularly accessible to newbies, younger gamers, or "rules-lite" folks) and is smaller than a combo PHB/DMG/MM book probably would be, even with streamlining.

I would like D&D4e to be simpler and more flexible/customizable than its predecessors, but D&D's publishers have always relied on proliferation of rules to sell books and stay in business. Perhaps it's a necessary evil. I don't want a D&D lite offshoot to be incompatible with the full, current edition of the game, as the OD&D Cyclopedia coexisted with AD&D1...

 

[Turjan]

None of those are part of WotC's business model.

I think you are wrong in this point. They acknowledged already years ago that the bulk of their products isn't sold via game stores but via Borders or amazon.

As for the idea of a Rules Cyclopedia, it sounds intriguing, as long as it stays in general compatible with D&D 3.5.

 

[atomn]

I started playing 2nd Ed. D&D with a similar product (although much more simple than what you're suggesting). It had some premade characters, rules for playing the game, four adventures and two very thin spellbooks (one wizard and one cleric). It was a great introduction for my group into D&D but we eventually ended up needing to buy the PHB, MM and DMG. If there was a new setting/system with both the all-in-one sort of book and an expanded library, I would read reviews and peruse a copy in a bookstore and if I liked that I saw, skip the all-in-one book and start buying the library. So I could avoid spending $30 on the all-in-one book that could have been spent on the player handbook.

 

[JVisgaitis]

Might it bring in people who play other RPGs and don't want to drop $100 to play D&D?

Sure it could and it isn't a bad idea, but I thought you were more of less polling people that already play D&D for a product like this. Yeah, it might be great for new players, but it isn't something I'd purchase myself.

 

[Snotlord]

Couldn't you trim down the PHB to four classes (cleric, fighter, rogue, sorcerer), cut the spell list in half (or shorter), stick in two dozen monsters and a quarter of the magic items from the DMG and get pretty close to Rules Cyclopedia size, though?

I would most seriously consider such a product for DMing purposes, and leave the rest to the players to haul to sessions. The sheer weight of 3.5 is dragging me down, and I've begun considering options.
A new Rules Cyclopedia would be perfect.

 

[ivocaliban]

I agree with both Whizbang and Crothian. Yes, D&D can be expensive. Yes, there are alternatives. You can argue the pros and cons of each all day long and both will still be true. The gist of the thread seems to be lost somewhere along the way. I, like many others, loved the Rules Cyclopedia. It's really the book that made me a DM. I'd probably buy a new version of the book if it was the "final volume" of the 3.5e legacy. I would be less likely to buy it in a 4e form.

I know several casual gamers who gave up on D&D after the release of 3.5e. So many books, then more versions of the books, an excess of cut and pasted material, then Book X, Part II, etc. They found it ridiculous and from a certain point of view, it is. I didn't have such a dramatic reaction myself, but I did curb my purchases somewhat.

And, yes, there's always the SRD option. I've been online for years, I've been playing 3.0/3.5 since it's release, I joined ENWorld almost three years ago...and I've never used SRD. (Of course, I also don't own a cell phone or an iPod and I don't download music online. I'm archaic, I know.) Without a laptop or a great deal of printing, I'm not sure how practical the SRD is anyway. And it certainly isn't going to attract new players the way the old Rules Cyclopedia did. As for borrowing a book, well, that isn't always possible. The only other players I'm aware of in my town (heck, even my county) don't own any D&D books at all. (Well, there is one guy...but he scares me.)

Anyway, I think a Rules Cyclopedia would be a better way to introduce people to D&D than say the Basic Game approach. I don't use miniatures in my games and if you teach people to play with miniatures (or if they come to the game new with miniatures), they might end up thinking that you need miniatures to play. Great, more stuff to buy!

So, yeah. I'd bite. I ran a campaign for three years with nothing but the Rules Cyclopedia. It taught me the basics of D&D and, if it hadn't fallen apart from use a few years back, I'd still have it on my shelf today. My only concerns with a new version would be that a) I can't imagine WotC would ever release such a book, and b) it would probably not live up to it's predecessor if they did.

 

[Ron]

The D&D Rules Cyclopedia is still my favourite D&D book, especially because is the only one I have to bring to a game session whenever I run a game with it. Wizards of the Coast released at least four complete d20 games in a single volume: The Wheel of Time, Call of Cthulhu, Star Wars, and d20 Modern. None of these games uses simplified rules set and thus a new D&D Rules Cyclopedia is pretty much doable. As a matter of fact, I believe there is no reason why D&D is not a single volume except to make an extra cash from players to eager to buy everything.

To fit all rules in a single volume, it would be necessary to cut some feats and spells as well as include a limited number of monsters, many of them that will not be illustrated. Only a few pages of the DMG is actually necessary, including a reduced version of the treasure generator. Notice that this product do not precludes Wizard of the Coast to continue to cash with the three core books, so I think it would only help their sales. I would buy a new D&D Cyclopedia, it would make Dungeons & Dragons a much more viable game to me and other casual D&D players than it is right now.

 

[HeavenShallBurn]

I've always been leery of the put out lots of teeny little books model. I never did pick up the Rules Cyclopedia since I originally picked up with 2e but I like the approach. With some judicious consolidation and reorganizing you could probably get the entire core 3 books into a single hardcover not much larger than the AGoT book. And if they'd consolidate all the major series. (Core+Races+Complete+Spell Compendium+Environments+UA). I would definitely pay $150 to $175 for it just to have it all be cohesive and in a single place. I wouldn't care if it weighed fifteen pounds so long as it was all in one place, and it wouldn't be the only fifteen pound book I own either.