D&D 3E/3.5 New D&D 3.5 FAQ at Wizards!

[reiella]

Pax, what I meant is that even if the books are the official reference, what can we do when the author of the book himself says that the book is wrong? I am thinking for example at the famous topic about magic items caster level: the books said one thing but mostly everyone at WotC said they didn't mean it.

By official rules, you're to follow WotC's say, regardless of the designer.

Of course, official rules such as that really are only significantly important for RPGA. And following the 'designers intent' may be a good reason to justify a house rule.

The designers are quite often out of the loop once a book is published, and CRG or whatever that silly think tank is decides on the 'intent' for the world. They, do after, get one of editorial cuts before it goes to press (to maintain rules consistancy in theory).

 

[jgsugden]

Personally, I wish the Sage would just get a direct answer from the game designers. Send an e-mail to Collins, "Hey, Collins, the table and Text in the PHB don't agree on what type of action Sunder is, what type of action did you intend Sunder to be?" That would be great IMO. Collins could give it a look, think it through, then give a definitive answer with perhaps some more concisely written text.

WotC has the designers design ... period. They have been discouraged from doing rules support that takes away from the time they could spend pumping out new material. (Gotta love Hasbro ...)

We can lament that Andy no longer is answering questions about the rules that he wrote/rewrote/oversaw, but we pretty much have to accept that in most instances, Andy, and other designers, will not be there to answer our questions ... or, apparently, Skips. They certainly do not answer questions for custserv anymore. When I pointed three conflicting custserv answers (harvested from the internet) out to a custserv agent and suggested that he ask the designer, the response was something along the lines of, "The rules are unclear. There is no single right way to handle it." The subtext was clear ... they don't ask questions of designers, even when nobody has a clue on what to do.

 

[jgsugden]

There is somehow an attitude in this thread... sounds like we are talking about one rule as it was some sort of universal law, and that the designers have "discovered" it rather than invented. We are basically saying that the designers are wrong or unaware of the real thing, but there is no real thing. Their very indecision and the fact that two of them can hardly tell the same about the rule, shouldn't drive us crazy, but rather let us consider that in either way we play it still make sense.

Don't get confused on who is who in the WotC world. There are people that design the game. Then, there are other people that handle the product once it is out of the hands of the designers. Once the designer hands his product off, he has little to do with it anymore. This revelation comes from Andy Collins.

So, a designer (or set of designers on a team) creates a product. He understands how the product is suppose to work. There will probably be a few accidental inconsistencies in the rules (writing that something works one way in one place in the book and then using an alternative rule elsewhere in the book), but they will be relatively minor.

Then, the book is edited by an editor. The designer still probably has some input at this point, but the editor will make changes that the designer doesn't like. Eventually, a finished product for the shelf will be hammerred out.

Once this product is shelf ready, the designer goes on to focus on other products. Then, other people step in to help us understand the parts of the rules that were not perfected. The Sage and custserv are our primary rules supporters. They have very limited access to designers, who are busy working on their next project for Hasbro. In the end, they basically have at their disposal what we have - books, time and intellect.

They have the same tools as us, except I fear that they tend not to use them as well as many people on the internet. I've lost count of the times I've seen a custserv answer that violates the books directly. I wouldn't want to count the number of times that I've seen a Sage ruling where the Sage missed an obvious issue in the books that should have impacted his answer. I die a little inside each time I see the poor deductions made by the 'official rules team' to arrive at a completely illogical ruling.

Their job is to make the written rules clear. In some instances, they do their jobs. In others, they fail to reach their goal through a lack of effort and care. I don't expect perfection from them, but I do expect them to be professional and give a good effort.

 

[Marshall]

Their job is to make the written rules clear. In some instances, they do their jobs. In others, they fail to reach their goal through a lack of effort and care. I don't expect perfection from them, but I do expect them to be professional and give a good effort.

Hear, Hear!!