"?" about "The D&D Rules Cyclopedia"

[Treebore]

I think anyone who is truly "into" D&D should own, read, and have played this set of rules.

Not much usable with any other edition of D&D?

I would never have expected such a wrong statement from you Remathilis. At the very least it is a great guideline to use when modifying rules of the other editions, and it was very usable with 1E and 2E. Not so much with 3E and 4E, but still a good guideline and inspiration when you want to modify the rules.

 

[Glyfair]

It's one of those "If I could only have one game book on a deserted island" types of books, because it's so comprehensive on all subjects.

Indeed, it is the only set of D&D rules that can run a long term campaign from one book. Even OD&D had 3 books to start (4 if you count Chainmail).

 

[Arawn76]

No one I know is interested in pre-2000 versions of D&D.

Were it not for our vastly different geographical locations/time zones I and at least one other would cheerfully add an extra gaming night to our schedule. Only solution is fr you to emigrate to sunny Wales

 

[Reynard]

• Rules for building and running a stronghold/dominion.
• Rules for Mass combat.

.

These two alone make it (or tracking down the Companion Set rule book) worth owning. The ruling dominions and waging war rules are fairly loose and easily adaptable to any other edition and go a long way toward making a D&D campaign a truly epic heroic cycle.

 

[Remathilis]

I think anyone who is truly "into" D&D should own, read, and have played this set of rules.

Not much usable with any other edition of D&D?

I would never have expected such a wrong statement from you Remathilis. At the very least it is a great guideline to use when modifying rules of the other editions, and it was very usable with 1E and 2E. Not so much with 3E and 4E, but still a good guideline and inspiration when you want to modify the rules.

As a ruleset, it doesn't add much to an ongoing AD&D or D&D game in terms of actual rules (the "elf" class, for example, is not very portable to AD&D). Strictly speaking, I tried to say "its great on its own, but don't buy it to mine it for new spells/classes/monsters for your ongoing 1e/2e/3e/4e game.

In terms of inspiration, I agree though, its great for getting a good feel. The Dominion and Mass combat rules, with modification also are good templates for later editon games.

 

[MrFilthyIke]

channeling diaglo:

The Rule Cyclopedia is the one true game, and all others are pale imitations.

 

[Remathilis]

lol what!?!?!?

you wouldn't think so w/ all the ppl bisnitching about 4e

and I'm interested in all rpgs anyway, no matter what they are. i used to only play 3.5 but i'm branching out. maybe that's how other people are too. then again I'm younger and just got into D&D a few years ago. it was watching this site that branched me out

Most of my players around here (and its not a large cross section, but big enough) fall into two camps.

a.) 3.5 enthusiasts who despise (or merely dislike) 4e but refuse to go back to earlier D&D because of its clunky elements (Thac0, multiple XP tables, etc).

b.) 4e enthusiasts who don't mind (or actually do despise) 3e but much prefer the 4e experience much more, even with some initial misgivings they think the system will even out.

You'd think it'd be easy to get both groups to agree to disagree, but we have a couple, ah, "mixed marriages" among the local game groups.

One thing's certain, none want to go back to the pre-feat fighter and 1-spell-day magic users, no matter how good the game is.

Were it not for our vastly different geographical locations/time zones I and at least one other would cheerfully add an extra gaming night to our schedule. Only solution is fr you to emigrate to sunny Wales

Depends; you hiring English Teachers over there? If so, I'll see what I can do.

 

[weem]

Love this book, my favorite book as well as others have mentioned.

To this day, it's one of those (best) books to crack open and skim through from time to time that will take me back and really get me inspired about playing D&D - get's my creative juices flowing. I ran campaigns out of it long ago and would love to again except, as is the case with someone else above, I don't have anyone wanting to play an older edition that 3.5

 

[Philotomy Jurament]

There's always the Flame Princess Build-Your-Own-Old-School-Group-Method if you'd like to run an older edition and don't know anyone willing to play.

 

[Philotomy Jurament]

I think the RC is a good book, although there were some mistakes made when compiling the info from the boxed sets (see here for errata). If I were running classic D&D (instead of original D&D), I'd go with the 1981 B/X boxed set rules, rather than the BECM/RC rules, but I'm just nitpicky that way (and the RC's horrible interior art rubs me the wrong way).