Missing Rules

[Barner Cobblewood]

What I'm getting from this thread is that ttrpgs pioneered the beta release.

 

[Reynard]

What I'm getting from this thread is that ttrpgs pioneered the beta release.

Second editions did seem to come fast and furious in the 90s...

 

[Celebrim]

Fifty years on and I'm still waiting for D&D to explain how characters are supposed to complete a journey through the Ethereal Plane to another plane of existence.

In 3e I attempted to solve this question by creating a "Planeswalking" skill that let you do these sorts of things as skill tests. Never really worked out all the details though because the planes are something I've never found a reason to engage with heavily, as they feel like somewhere characters don't need to before like 15th level at the earliest, and I've never gotten that high.

 

[Thomas Shey]

Second editions did seem to come fast and furious in the 90s...

They still often do, and for somewhat similar reasons: few game designers can't afford to get proper blindtesting done, so they get to find out all kinds of new and exciting problems once the game is in the wild.

 

[Maxperson]

Fifty years on and I'm still waiting for D&D to explain how characters are supposed to complete a journey through the Ethereal Plane to another plane of existence.

Multiple books across multiple editions say characters who find themselves on the Ethereal Plane can physically travel through the Ethereal to reach other planes. However, none of those sources explain how characters are supposed to exit the Border Ethereal region at the end of a physical journey through the Ethereal Plane.

There are rules for entering the Deep Ethereal region; rules for traveling through the Deep Ethereal towards one's destination plane; and rules for entering the Border Ethereal region which overlaps one's destination plane. But there are no rules for crossing from the Border Ethereal to the destination plane using only the features of the Ethereal Plane itself.

"BORDERS
Borders allow movement between the planes in a smooth, almost uneventful manner. Travelers may not be aware of the boundary and slip unaware over a planar border into a new dimension. Such borders may be patches of darkness, banks of fog, or driving rainstorms. Sometimes one plane gives way to another plane so gradually that it’s impossible to tell where the border region starts and ends. Vision across a border may be limited by the nature of the plane or the border (such as being caught in a fog bank), but it is not inherently impeded."

That's in the 3e Manual of the Planes in the Getting from Plane to Plane section.

From the Ethereal Links section of the Ethereal Plane.

"ETHEREAL LINKS
The Ethereal Plane is strongly connected to its coexistent plane. As a traveler moves through the Ethereal Plane, he perceives the Material Plane alongside it every step of the way.
Portals from other planes may open onto the Ethereal Plane, rather than the corresponding point on the Material Plane. Such portals appear as curtains of shimming colors (rather than the Astral Plane’s color pools). These portals create conduits through the Astral Plane to reach their destination, just like any other portal, but their entrances are on the Ethereal Plane. Travelers from elsewhere become ethereal once they reach the Ethereal Plane by means of a curtain, and they must pass through another such curtain (or have some other means of manifesting themselves) to reach the Material Plane."

I'm not going to quote it, but there's a good sized section on those curtains a bit later on.

 

[MGibster]

Have you ever discovered, after some play, that a RPG was missing a rule or a class of rule? For example, you started with local adventures and when it is time to move farther a field you discover the game has no travel rules. Like that.

I don't know if anyone actually tried to play Cyborg Commando (1987), but there were some combat rules missing.

 

[Epic Meepo]

"BORDERS
Borders allow movement between the planes in a smooth, almost uneventful manner. Travelers may not be aware of the boundary and slip unaware over a planar border into a new dimension. Such borders may be patches of darkness, banks of fog, or driving rainstorms. Sometimes one plane gives way to another plane so gradually that it’s impossible to tell where the border region starts and ends. Vision across a border may be limited by the nature of the plane or the border (such as being caught in a fog bank), but it is not inherently impeded."

That's in the 3e Manual of the Planes in the Getting from Plane to Plane section.

From the Ethereal Links section of the Ethereal Plane.

"ETHEREAL LINKS
The Ethereal Plane is strongly connected to its coexistent plane. As a traveler moves through the Ethereal Plane, he perceives the Material Plane alongside it every step of the way.
Portals from other planes may open onto the Ethereal Plane, rather than the corresponding point on the Material Plane. Such portals appear as curtains of shimming colors (rather than the Astral Plane’s color pools). These portals create conduits through the Astral Plane to reach their destination, just like any other portal, but their entrances are on the Ethereal Plane. Travelers from elsewhere become ethereal once they reach the Ethereal Plane by means of a curtain, and they must pass through another such curtain (or have some other means of manifesting themselves) to reach the Material Plane."

I'm not going to quote it, but there's a good sized section on those curtains a bit later on.

Hmm. If the 3e version of Ethereal travel is intended to replace the 1e version instead of supplementing it, then I suppose there aren't any missing rules. There were some incomplete rules prior to 3e, but those incomplete rules got thrown out and replaced with something entirely different.

 

[Reynard]

Hmm. If the 3e version of Ethereal travel is intended to replace the 1e version instead of supplementing it, then I suppose there aren't any missing rules. There were some incomplete rules prior to 3e, but those incomplete rules got thrown out and replaced with something entirely different.

Is there anyone who thinks any rules in 3E were intended to be supplemental to older rules, as opposed to replacing them?

 

[TheHand]

I once ran Gamma World 3rd edition, the one with the color success chart inspired by Marvel Superheroes. The main rule book was missing so many rules that they printed an errata book and included it in the boxed set. And still it was missing rules. I seem to recall the GM screen referencing weapons and damage types mentioned nowhere else.

Yet it was such a fascinatingly experimental system I tried for a year to make it work, even going so far as to write my own errata booklet. But by then my players were revolting and we switched game systems.

 

[Thomas Shey]

Is there anyone who thinks any rules in 3E were intended to be supplemental to older rules, as opposed to replacing them?

I find it very unlikely they even assumed most people using 3e would be that familiar with rules past (at best) the AD&D2e period, and many of them not even those.