Mastering the rules? Is it really possible?

[pogre]

In a sense 3.5 made it much tougher to master the rules for me. The small changes to some spells and minor tweaks in other rules have caused me to question every rule I know. How does a spell work - I think I know, but I do not remember if 3.5 changed that. It can be frustrating for sure.

 

[caudor]

Thanks for all the replies! Now that I see I'm not alone with this, I don't feel so bad about it now. The change from 3.0 to 3.5 threw me enough to question myself on all the rules all over again too (not to mention all the d20 material heaped on top of that). As Yoda would put it: A moving target these rules are.

I also realize (after pondering the replies) that I simply don't play as much as I used to, primarily because I have more real-life responsibilities to tend to now days. So in my case, it probably just boils down to an effort/time limitation (i.e practice).

Somehow I had formed the false impression that most people on these boards were masters of the rules, and I was not up to par. So thanks to all for dispelling that notion and also for the tip regarding feats/skill cards, etc. I'll have to try that out as well

Ah, and now I have another good reason to spend more time playing

 

[Wormwood]

I'm a rules junkie. I actively enjoy reading game rules; my eyes glaze over fluff but I take to crunch like candy.

I have a good enough command of the rules that the only time I need to consult the books during a game is to reference a few rarely used spells and skills.

As far as my players are concerned, I'm a walking rules encyclopedia---which makes it all the easier to bluff my way out of tight spots.

I'm just not 17 years old anymore where I can read RPG books all day long.

Bah, I'm twice that age and I manage to read the rules all day.

Thank God I have my own office---and a terrible work ethic.

 

[Wolffenjugend]

It's all about application and repetition. You'll never master all the rules simply by reading them. You need to apply them. I got quite good at 2E rules but now I'm a relative newbie in 3.5. It just takes time. Every time we use grappling rules, it gets a little easier.

 

[Wolffenjugend]

Thank God I have my own office---and a terrible work ethic.

And an internet connection, hehehe. Can you say, SRD?

 

[woodelf]

I can honestly say that I've read the 3.5 Player's Handbook & DM Guide cover to cover...and sadly, forgotten most of it. Even though I try to be prepared with cheat sheets and battle planners, it seems there is always something that happens during the game that causes me to halt and lookup something. For example, last game there was a player that wanted to do a trip action, and guess what--I had to look up (again) how it worked. I was frustrated that I could not recall the specifics.

Does anyone else find it difficult to master the rules? Perhaps I'm getting old and feeble-minded. Back when I played 2e, I felt like I knew it all. The game seemed much easier to master.

Does anyone else have this problem? Or if not, what is your secret to getting this stuff down? Is 3e really more complicated than previous versions?

Thanks in advance for you comments and advice.

Advice? Only solution is to ignore rules beyond your capacity to keep track of, and/or make them up as you go. All modifiers become +/-2 (or multiples thereof, for more-significant modifiers); everything active is either a skill check or attack roll, and everything defensive/resistive is either a skill check or saving throw. That trip example? Forget what the rules say: tripper makes an attack roll, trippee makes a Ref save.

As for whether it's more "complicated"? That's a loaded term, as well as one without agenerally-agreed-upon meaning. Are there more rules in D&D3E than AD&D2 (speaking just of the core books)? Yep, *way* more. However, they are more similar, with basically one underlying core mechanic for all of them. Apparently you, like me, don't find the variety of mechanics a problem, just the volume. So you, like me, found AD&D2 trivial to keep track of, while D&D3E is a challenge. Obviously, lots of other people find the similarities cut down on the total mental space required to store the rules, so they find D&D3E "less complex", despite it having more detail. IOW, D&D3E requires, by analogy, the ability to remember one rule with 10 variants, while AD&D2 requires the ability to remember 5 rules none of which have variants. I'll leave it to the reader which is the "more complicated" game.

 

[Wormwood]

And an internet connection, hehehe. Can you say, SRD?

Thanks to a few departed perverts, our internet activity is logged and periodically audited.

Instead I read stephenh's offline SRD and the reference PDFs from Crystal Keep.

 

[Hypersmurf]

Someone over on RPG.net once deconstructed how AD&D1e combat was really supposed to work, and the end result was absolutely nothing like any game of 1e I'd ever played.

My favourite are the initiative rules.

There's an absolute value formula in there.

-Hyp.

 

[buzz]

My favourite are the initiative rules.

There's an absolute value formula in there.

For the life of me, I wish I could remember the name of the guy who posted it. He was one of the strongest devotees of 1e that I'd ever encounbtered. He wrote up a whole example that included everything: segments, weapon speed, rection adjustments, and some spellcasting. It was insane.

Ah, I found it.

Why is D&D so hellishly popular?

You're looking for posts by abraxis.

 

[Wombat]

Before I got into D&D (pre-1976) I played in miniatures wargames and AH/SPI games. In those sorts of games you did have to remember all the rules (or at least keep the rulebook handy for the constant arguments regarding "Line of Sight" and "Morale Check Failures").

In D&D and, by extension, other rpgs, I have never memorized all the rules. The best I get is all the rules basics and then the general "gist" of the rest.

Games, at my table, are about telling stories, developing characters, and using enough of the rules so that game doesn't get out of control, but if we break rules (which we do, at least 2-3 times per session), we go "Hey, it's only a game, and we are not worried about 'winning', anyway." Seems to cover everything and the group, as a whole, is happy