D&D Rules Compendium (Hardcover) - October 2007

[Maggan]

What would be wrong with it being a RULES CYCLOPEDIA but for 3.5? All rules, no fluff text? No sample dungeons, no long winded spiels about Lord Autmnbottom the 4th or whatever. One book a group can pick up and start playing with.

I'd love for that to be the case. But I wouldn't bet on it.

/M

 

[Mark Hope]

What would be wrong with it being a RULES CYCLOPEDIA but for 3.5? All rules, no fluff text? No sample dungeons, no long winded spiels about Lord Autmnbottom the 4th or whatever. One book a group can pick up and start playing with.

I think that this would be supercool, but I just don't think that you could fit it into 160 pages.

I did initially think that it might combine feats and skills, but the name doesn't suggest that to me. Oh well. I guess we have to endure several months of the usual, tedious "everybody knows it's coming but nobody will tell us what it is" carry-on that seems to come with gaming releases these days...

 

[Li Shenron]

I think that this would be supercool, but I just don't think that you could fit it into 160 pages.

I don't even know if the (flavor-stripped & rules-only) content of the 3 core books would fit in 160 pages... and a cyclopedia would have to include the core as well.

 

[JoeGKushner]

But feats normally don't take up that many pages in the books they're in. You can fit all the feats from the first four Complete books and the first three Races Of books in about 75 pages. Nevermind that a lot of those feats are specific to new races or classes introduced in those books which wouldn't be appropriate in a compilation of core feats.

Well, we have

Complete Books (4 core, Psionic, 3 supplements)

XPH

Oriental Adventurers

DMG (Epic Feats)

Vile Darkness/Exalted Deeds

Various FR/EB sourcebooks

And of course, Dragon Magazine.

Yeah, I see an easy way to fill up books. Heck, don't forget third party publishers, AEG and Mongoose, both filled up books larger than 160 pages in 3.0.

 

[philreed]

Is it possible this will be like UA and include some OGC from other publishers?

 

[Vanuslux]

Well, we have

Complete Books (4 core, Psionic, 3 supplements)

XPH

Oriental Adventurers

DMG (Epic Feats)

Vile Darkness/Exalted Deeds

Various FR/EB sourcebooks

And of course, Dragon Magazine.

Yeah, I see an easy way to fill up books. Heck, don't forget third party publishers, AEG and Mongoose, both filled up books larger than 160 pages in 3.0.

Errrr...the AEG book was less than 160 pages. 144 according to AEG's website. The Mongoose book was 256 pages but includes feats from nearly a hundred sources if I remember correctly, including the SRD (which if Spell compendium is any indication WotC wouldn't include) and the Netbook of Feats (which is over a hundred pages by itself) and was famous for basically just throwing everything that they could find in without regard to quality or redundancy. I owned it and saw that for myself. As an aside, I recently sold it and don't miss it at all.

The Spell Compendium did not have every spell from every supplement, not even from every supplement it drew from. I see no reason that a feat compilation would necessarily have to include every feat from every book. A vast many of the published feats are specific to non-core things like the Shifter, Warforged, and Dragonmarked feats from Eberron and would naturally be left out. I highly doubt that they would use anything from fairly current sources like Complete Mage or Scoundrel. Spell compendium didn't reprint anything from the PHB so I don't see why they would include the epic feats from the DMG. I don't think they'd use anything from XPH since that's the core psionics book and anyone using psionics (and have any use for the feats) is apt to have that.

Spell Compendium proves that completeness is not necessarily a goal for the Compendiums. Not that I think that the Rules Compendium is a Feat Compendium. I'm just saying that I think people are overestimating how big a Feat Compendium would have to be.

 

[JPL]

About a week back, I suggested that WotC needs to do a compilation of the stuff that is getting cross-referenced the most these days --- especially the more popular non-PHB base classes like the warlock.

Now here's a notion...what if all of this stuff is going to be released as open content?

 

[WhatGravitas]

Why is everyone ignoring Dragons of Eberron? Man, they get no respect.

Because the title says what it is, while the mysterious "Rules Compendium" gives us the possibility for wishful thinking (or perhaps it's a marketing ploy by Wizards, so they get to know what we want )

More seriously: Concerning Dragons of Eberron - I like the idea as well, but I know it's pretty much hit-or-miss, since Eberron books are quite fluffy. If the Hellcow hits a particularly engaging concept OR my current vision of the Chamber, then - great. Otherwise it'll never be bought.

But Hellcow's authorship should guarantee the former (i.e. hit).

Now here's a notion...what if all of this stuff is going to be released as open content?

Gosh, great! Finally, 3rd-party producers could include more interesting statblocks! However, WotC is currently not very OGC-friendly...
But I'd also like it as an addition to "core", allowing Dungeon to include the stuff in the material, since Dungeon is "core-based"

 

[Mercule]

I doubt this will have any UA material in it. UA is all variants, whereas, I bet this book will be add-on rules that don't require any low-level changes to existing/core rules.

I also don't think this book will have anything from Tome of Magic, Magic of Incarnum, or Tome of Battle. Those books are self-contained cap systems that need a book of their own.

There are also too many feats to do them and something else in a book. I don't see any reprints in this book. At least, I hope there aren't any feats.

Instead, this is probably one of two things. Option one: new mechanics spread all over kingdom come; like magic sites, environmental rules, organizations, teamwork, spell book materials, etc. Option two: a collection of base classes, prestige classes, alternate skills and skill uses, races, and equipment found in the various complete, race, and environment lines, as well as some FR-specific stuff like in the Spell Compendium (and, presumably, the Magic Item Compendium). It could also be a combination of the two, but I suspect that'd look like option two, with some bonus features.

Personally, I'm looking forward to this, especially if it's option two. There is enough extraneous BS is the various books that I just don't want to deal with anymore. It's not that I don't like the stuff, I just want my library organized by function, not theme. I'm starting to look at the compendiums as chapters is a rather large PHB/DMG3. The "Rules Compendium" will, hopefully, fill in all the smaller chapters for me: races, classes, skills, description, equipment, combat (okay, not so small), and adventuring.

Once the Feat Compendium is released, I'll have my whole book and can cull the complete/race/environment books completely. Then, I'll just be waiting for 4E so I know my collection is complete. Actually, I'd continue to buy cap systems, like ToM and ToB.

 

[JPL]

It just occurs to me that this would be a great way to give open gaming a shot in the arm --- take stuff that has proven popular or useful* --- warlocks, swashbucklers, swift and immediate actions, various feats --- put it all in one book, and make it all open. It would almost be like Edition 3.6.

* Which is debatable, of course, but WotC would just have to make a call about what should be encouraged as "near-core" and what should be quietly abandoned. I figure anything that got coverage in PHBII is a contender (favored souls, marshals, etc).