How would you do 3.5e in 160 pages?

[Ry]

About a month and a half ago, I was talking with some people on the board about the possibility of making a 32-page booklet containing all or almost all of the spells from the PHB. The general consensus of the thread was that it would be possible with heavy editing and without a need for many (if any) rules changes.

Maybe that project will come to fruition when I have more free time.

That would be a very impressive document, especially if it didn't have size 0.001 fonts.

 

[Kem]

That would be a very impressive document, especially if it didn't have size 0.001 fonts.

The spells in the PHB have all kinds of extra text and white space.

One thing I've realized is, holy smoke, can the race descriptions be cut down. One problem with 3E edition is they kept all kinds of old-school racial modifications that don't interface well with the 3E mechanics.

I would only do this with the rules as is. Being able to change the rules makes it too easy

 

[Ry]

I may sit down and try to pare down an SRD to levels 1-10 only.

 

[Kem]

Hehe, the Bonus Spell Formula is much easier then I remember. The hard part was the default rounding down/up that excel does.

(Mod-Spell Level)/4+1

That cuts out half a page for that table

 

[trollwad]

Castles and Crusades is basically 160 page 3e d&d with some of the 1e/basic spirit

 

[maggot]

If you are going so far as to eliminate animals because they are "setting specific" than you might as well eliminate all the races. They are "setting specific" as well.

True, maybe I went too far. I've been working on a Dark Sun like setting, and none of the default animals are available. I had a similar problem with animals in an ice age setting.

So I would include only animals and monsters needed by players: animals for companions, simple undead that you can create, elementals that you can summon or shift into, and some outsiders for summoning.

If you were selective and cut out a lot of the bulk of the stat block, you could get this down to 20 pages.

 

[Mercule]

Well, given that we're talking about the Rules Compendium, I'd consider the Spell Compendium and Magic Item Compendium to be fair assumptions. So, the Rules Compendium contains no spells, magic items, or monsters. Those aren't "rules", anyway. They're lists of ways the rules can apply.

So, from core, that leaves XP, CR, and treasure guidelines from the DMG, plus traps, conditions, and similar rules. Cut out half or more of the PHB (no magic). Get rid of all examples and iconic characters. No deities. No spell lists (Spell Compendium). Condense the races to just rules, no descriptions, names, etc. That'd probably do it.

 

[Kem]

Well, given that we're talking about the Rules Compendium, I'd consider the Spell Compendium and Magic Item Compendium to be fair assumptions. So, the Rules Compendium contains no spells, magic items, or monsters. Those aren't "rules", anyway. They're lists of ways the rules can apply.

So, from core, that leaves XP, CR, and treasure guidelines from the DMG, plus traps, conditions, and similar rules. Cut out half or more of the PHB (no magic). Get rid of all examples and iconic characters. No deities. No spell lists (Spell Compendium). Condense the races to just rules, no descriptions, names, etc. That'd probably do it.

Actually that breaks the idea in the OP in which this is the ONLY book you would need to play 3.5.

I am going to try it with the SRD so that leaves out Dieties and most examples and iconic characters.

I mean the basics go from 3 pages to 1 page (This includes ability scores) when you cut the junk and duplication (who needs it when everything is in 160 pages?)

Even putting the ClassI.rtf into 2 column layout cuts out 3 pages, although the tables look messed up, but thats ok as they will be gone. ClassII doing the same cuts out 4 pages. Total of just over 20 pages BEFORE the chopping starts.

I am doing special abilities right now and the first 2 pages drops to half a page.

Best part is this is fun
Although I am the one that had fun porting EmberMud from C to C# so it could be that I am wierd.

 

[Delta]

I may sit down and try to pare down an SRD to levels 1-10 only.

For some reason I much prefer a level 1-12 breakdown. I'm not entirely sure why, but here's some brainstorming:

- 12th level is what the DMG specifies as the boundary for "high level".
- 12th level is the cap on the original GDQ adventures.
- 12th level caps your spells at 6th level, which is the same as the OD&D boxed set source.

 

[tensen]

I may sit down and try to pare down an SRD to levels 1-10 only.

I was going to say the 1-12, but pretty much the same gist.
Basically you end up then with a set of books of: basic book, superhero book, epic book