D&D Rules Compendium (Hardcover) - October 2007

[Jürgen Hubert]

I'm bored by pure rules supplement - I've managed to completely avoid the "Complete" series and similar books - so I am strongly ambivalent about the Rules Compendium.

However, I'm always interested in new Eberron books - and this one is written by Keith Baker, too. So the odds are that I will pick it up, and the odds are good that I will like it.

 

[Treebore]

I think Shroomy has it spot on, even though JeffB's concerns are all too possible.

 

[Maggan]

I don't think I'e ever made a 4e post before, but this (and other compendia) looks like a sure sign of its proximity to me. Sky falling and all that...

Heh ... I'll just chuck that sure sign on the bonfire with all the other five hundred or so sure signs of 4e that we've had over the last year. They work wonders for keeping me warm through the cold and dark winter nights.



/M

 

[Vanuslux]

I don't think so.

I think that a Feat Compendium could be done up in a 192 page or 244 page book in and of itself thanks to the dozens of books out there.

And Feat Compendium certainly sounds better than 'Rules' Compendium. At least in my opinion.

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.

 

[Singing Smurf]

One advantage is so that WOTC (and Dungeon/Dragon) can diversify a bit in future products...instead of having to not use Feat X or Prestige Class Y or Optional combat variant Z from The Complete Doofus in an adventure or whatnot....

That makes a lot of sense, and would f'ing rock. If nothing else, they could stop wasting sidebar space on defining swift and immediate actions.

There would likely be some new and/or revised content, so that freaky completists like myself have an incentive to buy it. There aren't a lot of 3.5 books that I don't have, except FR stuff.

 

[mhacdebhandia]

Ugh, Dragons of Faerun embodies everything that I find crappy about the current state of the realms - nit picking minutia. I seriously hope this is a more abstract book than that stupid thing, as Eberron doesnt need every single inhabitant statted out.

To quote Keith Baker on the official Eberron forum:

The "dragon" book would NOT be "Secrets of Argonnessen". It would be a book about the role of dragons in Eberron. While that would undoubtedly include information about Argonnessen, it would include information useful to PCs of all levels and adventures set on all continents.​

One presumes that this would also include information on the Draconic Prophecy and the progenitor dragons Eberron, Siberys, and Khyber, as well as on the dragons of Argonessen, their conflicts with the giants of Xen'drik (i.e., the war which shattered the land) and the elves of Aerenal (i.e., the war that wiped out House Vol), the Chamber and its agents in Khorvaire and other places, rogue dragons, and almost certainly the draconic deities mentioned in the Eberron Campaign Setting (about the only thing that Eberron carries over from classic D&D).

There's an interesting thread called Where were the dragons? where Keith explains more of how he sees the dragons operating in Eberron, which presumably reflects what we'll see in the book.

 

[Nightfall]

I would worry about a rules set that DOES think it can handle every possible situation in the core...

It handles the ones I deal with such as players in the Scarred Lands.

 

[Kobold Avenger]

One of the reasons they mentioned 4e wasn't coming out soon was that they were releasing yet another experimental book of concepts (much like ToB). And I still don't see such a book on the schedule yet.

If Dragons of Eberron isn't Secrets of Argonnessen then it's likely to be a book on the machinations of the Chamber, and how dragons are manipulating things from behind the scenes and secretly watching for signs of the prophecy. And maybe it'll have some details about certain tribes and cultures, since the alignments of dragons in eberron are more determined by their culture rather than their species. I'm curious if they'll mention things like dragons touched by Khyber.

 

[JVisgaitis]

One of the reasons they mentioned 4e wasn't coming out soon was that they were releasing yet another experimental book of concepts (much like ToB). And I still don't see such a book on the schedule yet.

Where did you read that?

 

[Thurbane]

Dragons of Eberron (Hardcover)
by Keith Baker
Hardcover: 160 pages
Publisher: Wizards of the Coast (October 16, 2007)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0786941545
ISBN-13: 978-0786941544
http://www.amazon.com/Dragons-Eberron-Keith-Baker/dp/0786941545/

Hooray, another book about dragons...