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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Zaruthustran" data-source="post: 3473944" data-attributes="member: 1457">D&D grew from a crunchy wargame, created before computers were common household items. The current 3.5 ruleset has normalized some of the rules (a high number is always good, etc.) but has also turned the fiddly crunchiness up to 11. At 11, the system starts to break down and a computer is needed to process the game. For example:* Many different Types of modifiers, some of which stack, some of which don't* Many different combat modifiers, some of which only apply in certain situations* Hundreds upon hundreds of feats, many of which allow the character to "break" the rules (for example: Combat Reflexes, which breaks the "only one AoO per round" rule)* Dozens of skills, many of which have their own sub-system of rules (diplomacy, jump, intimidate) and many of which give bonuses to other skills* Many hundreds of spells* Many dozens of PRCs, many of which have new abilities/sub-systems of rulesDue to the need to continue to feed the revenue furnace, all of the above are spread over dozens of rulebooks. The current game has gotten too big for any single player to comfortably manage. As written, 3.5 *needs* to go online simply in order to be usable.Think about it. A player with every single 3.5 book (not even counting the weird DM-focused books, like Stormwrack, Monster Manuals, or Dragon Magic) cannot go to a game day with a single backpack. He needs at least two backpacks in order to carry all of his resources. I know players who have moved on to those rolling carry-on suitcases--their game books (again, only books with *player* material) cannot physically fit into a single backpack.This weekend I was DMing a Savage Tide game. The four players were all game veterans each with 20+ years of experience. Two of them worked for prominent RPG companies, and one was a published game designer. The players leveled, and it took an hour and a half to complete all the paperwork. An hour and a half. There were adding errors, flipping through books ("is that feat in Complete Warrior, Complete Adventurer, or PHB II?"), rules issues, etc. etc.If all the books' rules were integrated online with a character entry, the levelup process would have taken 30 seconds.1. Click "levelup this character"2. Click a class (the system auto-highlights available classes, and automatically applies BAB, saves, hit points, and any other numbers)3. Click a feat (the system auto-highlights available feats, and has a tooltip popup with the feat's effect)4. Distribute skill points (the system auto-calculates skill points, and highlights class skills, and auto-calculates final skill number)5. Click "Save" (the system stores your character online, making him available anywhere you can access the internet: your phone, home, work, your friend's house, wherever)No more erasing. No more math errors. No more hours searching through books. When even industry professionals have a terrible time using the game, it's time for a fix. There can either be a complete overhaul of the rules (a fourth edition, as the OP describes, with far, far less crunch) or the game rules can be put online. It's one or the other.-z</blockquote>

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