Dungeons & Dragons Rules Cyclopedia

[painted_klown]

Hello all,

So, I finally broke down and bought a copy of the Rules Cyclopedia today. I had to pay quite a bit for it at a local retailer, but happy to have it, none-the-less.

The back of the book states that it contains all of the rules from the D&D box sets Basic, Expert, Companion, and Masters.

However, when looking at the book, it doesn't really break these down into sections, but rather, it seems to just have smashed them altogether to make a hybrid rules set altogether.

I am new to D&D (started with 5E) so I am not familiar with these box sets individually. Were all of these designed to be used together to form a complete rules set, or were they stand alone boxes that could be picked up and played by anyone (even if they had no other D&D boxes/books)?

Can someone please explain?

Thanks!

 

[Obryn]

It's all edited together into a single rule set. And it is fantastic. Probably the tightest rule set TSR ever released.

 

[pemerton]

Were all of these designed to be used together to form a complete rules set, or were they stand alone boxes that could be picked up and played by anyone (even if they had no other D&D boxes/books)?

They were cumulative: Basic dealt with levels 1 to 3, Expert with levels 4 to 14, Companion with levels 15 to X, and Masters with levels X+1 to 36 (I can't remember the value of X).

Each also introduced additional rules "modules" intended to complement adventuring at that level: eg Basic dealt with dungeon adventuring, Expert with wilderness adventuring, Companion with domain management (I believe - I never owned it), etc.

 

[painted_klown]

It's all edited together into a single rule set. And it is fantastic. Probably the tightest rule set TSR ever released.

Is it then (essentially) an edition on it's own?
Sorry for the silly questions.

In looking at the introduction in the book, it essentially states the book is aimed at people who already play D&D, and just acts as a handy resource to reference rules in. Although it goes on to say that it is possible to learn to play from the book as well. Perhaps I am not as intelligent as the average gamer, but I find the older D&D systems to be complicated, and difficult to figure out. Especially since I have no one to teach me, and just read the rules, to figure out myself.

With 5E, there is this (ENWorld) great community, so I have an excellent resource that I used a LOT (especially in the beginning), but the amount of older edition players on here doesn't seem to compare. Granted, I haven't really "tried to seriously learn" any of the older systems yet, but in glancing at my 1E books, and reading what older players on here say, I think the rules were unclear, leaving a LOT to house rule. I may be way off base with that line of thinking, I admit.

Thank you for your input, its greatly appreciated!

 

[Obryn]

Yep. A lot of the rules from Master, for example, were helpful down to 3rd level or earlier. Weapon Mastery is the best example of this. Mystics became core, too.

 

[Obryn]

Is it then (essentially) an edition on it's own?
Sorry for the silly questions.

In looking at the introduction in the book, it essentially states the book is aimed at people who already play D&D, and just acts as a handy resource to reference rules in. Although it goes on to say that it is possible to learn to play from the book as well. Perhaps I am not as intelligent as the average gamer, but I find the older D&D systems to be complicated, and difficult to figure out. Especially since I have no one to teach me, and just read the rules, to figure out myself.

With 5E, there is this (ENWorld) great community, so I have an excellent resource that I used a LOT (especially in the beginning), but the amount of older edition players on here doesn't seem to compare. Granted, I haven't really "tried to seriously learn" any of the older systems yet, but in glancing at my 1E books, and reading what older players on here say, I think the rules were unclear, leaving a LOT to house rule. I may be way off base with that line of thinking, I admit.

Thank you for your input, its greatly appreciated!

Oh yes, it's standalone. You can use anything from the BECMI and BX lines with it though, which are plentiful.

It's a very simple game at the core and scales up elegantly. It starts incredibly basic for players and DMs and ends up adding in options all over the place. You should have an easy time learning it as opposed to AD&D 1e.

 

[painted_klown]

They were cumulative: Basic dealt with levels 1 to 3, Expert with levels 4 to 14, Companion with levels 15 to X, and Masters with levels X+1 to 36 (I can't remember the value of X).

Each also introduced additional rules "modules" intended to complement adventuring at that level: eg Basic dealt with dungeon adventuring, Expert with wilderness adventuring, Companion with domain management (I believe - I never owned it), etc.

Ah, VERY cool then. That explains the popularity of this book then. It really is all the same system, but just advances as your characters advance.

Thank you for the clear explanation. Much appreciated!

 

[painted_klown]

Oh yes, it's standalone. You can use anything from the BECMI and BX lines with it though, which are plentiful.

It's a very simple game at the core and scales up elegantly. It starts incredibly basic for players and DMs and ends up adding in options all over the place. You should have an easy time learning it as opposed to AD&D 1e.

Very good to know! I am liking this book even more now! HAHAHHAHA!

 

[pemerton]

Is it then (essentially) an edition on it's own?

It's B+X+C+M, edited together. So it's a reprint of that edition, but complied in a novel fashion.As [MENTION=11821]Obryn[/MENTION] points out, that has benefits (eg some rules retrofitted in later products, like the Masters rules for weapon usage, can be incorporated from low levels). It also means that you miss out on one of the virtues of the original segmented form of publication, namely, building up your familiarity and competence bit-by-bit.

But if you own the RC, you won't be wanting to fork out money on those old boxed sets unless you're a collection completist.

In looking at the introduction in the book, it essentially states the book is aimed at people who already play D&D, and just acts as a handy resource to reference rules in. Although it goes on to say that it is possible to learn to play from the book as well. Perhaps I am not as intelligent as the average gamer, but I find the older D&D systems to be complicated, and difficult to figure out. Especially since I have no one to teach me, and just read the rules, to figure out myself.

If you're familiar with 5e, you'll be able to follow the rules in RC without hand-holding. Though some of them will probably strike you as quirky or oddly limited compared to what you're used to. (Eg races-as-classes.)

The biggest challenge in actually running a RC game, I think, will be working out what the goalof play is. Some of its mechanics really hark back to classic D&D dungeon-crawl play (for a terrific discussion of that sort of play with reference to a slightly earlier version of the Basic boxed set, see this blog post). XP-for-treasure is just one example of this.

Other elements of the game - eg wilderness adventure, domain management etc - suggest a much broader scope of play, based around exploring the world and building up the PCs' place in the world. That will require a bit more work from the GM, though, as the game is missing a lot of the tools that a GM might want to use to support that style of play.

I guess the real question is, what are you hoping to do with your newly-acquired RC?

 

[painted_klown]

I guess the real question is, what are you hoping to do with your newly-acquired RC?

Well, to be honest, I bought it for this romantic notion that at some point I would like to learn & play all of the different editions of D&D.

I read stories on here of old adventures/modules, the various systems, etc. and I have no idea of what those games were ever like. So, I decided to try to collect the 3 core books for all editions, with the idea of hopefully learning & playing all of them at some point.

Thus far, I have all of the 5E books, the 3 core for 1E (just got last week), and I picked up the 2E DMG and PBH today, along with my RC (Unfortunately, they didn't have the 2E MM).

A new guy at work said he has the 3E core books, but doesn't know anything about them, and said he would sell them to me. He's supposed to be bringing them in tomorrow for me to look at. I'm honestly hoping they are 3.5E, and in decent shape...we'll see..

I guess to answer your question, eventually I'd like to learn & play all of the various D&D systems and thought that the RC was the "Basic" system, while everything else was the "Advanced" system.

I am still up in the air on OD&D. I don't want to drop the cash for an old white box set that isn't really a complete game. Old copies of Chainmail are priced like gold, and I can't even remember the other game needed to play OD&D...plus, I just can't afford to do all that, to be honest. Having said that, I WANT to try it, but the investment is too steep for me.