Do you think core rule books shrinkage is a good thing ?

[Aloïsius]

If we compare the three core rule books, 3.5 was 960 pages ; 4.0 will be 800 pages. That's 160 pages less. What do you think ?

* It means that rules will be simpler and use less space
* It means less spells, less monsters, less magic item
* It means smaller font
* It means the planar information of the DMG will disapear
* It means no more prestige class
* It means less/no more random generation table
* It means a lot of stuff is moved to DDInsider
* It heralds a soon to come 4.2 revision
* It's a good thing, my backpack will be lighter
* It's a bad thing, WotC don't give a good money/page count ration anymore

 

[Alnag]

You know... I don't measure rules quality by page count. I firmly belive that shorter, polished rules are worth more than over complicated ones. I am happy to pay for quality no matter how many pages it constitutes from.

Random tables are not quality. Too many prestige classes, spells, feats and magic items... that is not quality. That is a filler. I never get the obsession to buy books filled with these. Why? Now half of the crowd is crying because they invested too much into the books. Cry. Because you have bought filler. I don't want it. I will not buy any supplements based on this.

And I hope the pagecount means, the WotC will find a new strategy to produce content than just steadily growing amount of optional rules and supplementing of easy-to-create material such as this. The true art of design of supplemensts is elsewhere.

 

[WayneLigon]

If I'd had my way, the entire thing about be 160 pages, so.... I think - hope - that some of the stuff we don't need is moved off to optional books. Planes, magic items, a lot of spells, the weirder monsters... all those could easily be moved off.

Again, if I had my way, you'd have about four pages on magic items, total, and just give them their own book.

 

[Olgar Shiverstone]

Dunno. It could be better with more streamlined rules ... or it could mean there is less of the "option" content that takes up so much space in the current books (feats, skills, spells, magic items, etc).

Also depends on formatting. How many monsters does the MM have? It could be more or less, depending on formatting.

I wonder if the PrC class concept will remain ... and if so ... will it be in the PHB or DMG?

 

[Baby Samurai]

I just hope that spells don't take up a 1/3 of the PHB the way they have in the last three editions.

 

[heirodule]

I just hope that spells don't take up a 1/3 of the PHB the way they have in the last three editions.

In one sense, I'd prefer there to be a "book of spells" totally aside from the PHB, so you don't have the current issue of Spell Compendium and the PHB being the 2 places to look for everything.

 

[Mallus]

Good god yes it's a good thing. The game doesn't need "more options", it's needs a set of simple tools for building your own options.

Take a look at M&M 2e... you could use that single, not exceptionally large, book to emulate most, if not all, of D&D 3.5 ruleset. It would take a good amount of initial prep work. But I'd wager nothing like the ongoing prep-work required to run a mid-to-high level 3.5 game that uses most of the WotC books in play.

 

[jaerdaph]

Honestly, I think it's both good and bad, because it might attract a younger generation of people in the WoW/video game/internet chat/cell phone TXT generation to the game who really don't read books anymore.

PSA time: Parents, please make your kids read, everyday.

 

[Khairn]

In my crystal ball I see, the core rules will be bare bones skeleton (ala Runequest by Mongoose) with all the meat in the DDI. Afterall the DDI is where the real money will be so they must make it as necessary for all 4E players as possible.

All the additional options will come out in droves and droves of 4E versions of the "Complete ..." books. Lets not fool ourselves into thinking all you will need to play 4E is the 3 core books Hell, that's what they've been saying about 3E and see how that turned out?

 

[drothgery]

I'm not at all certain the pagecounts are set in stone at this point; they might not be willing to add another 32 page bundle for Star Wars, but for D&D, I think they might be. I do think that the (tentative) relative pagecounts of the PHB and DMG suggest that some things currently in the DMG may be moved to the PHB if they stick around (my votes are for PrCs and magic items).