TwoSix
Dirty, realism-hating munchkin powergamer
Is it me you're looking for?
D&D (2024) Pie in the Sky 6E
beancounter
(I/Me/Mine)
Cause I wonder where you are and I wonder what you do.
RangerWickett
Legend
The dream 6E system I was tinkering with started with the 4e-style "everything is an attack roll against a static defense" (instead of the mix of attacks and saves), but then gave PCs (and important enemies) a limited number of 'saves' per encounter, which work sort of like how Legendary Resistances work for monsters in 5e.
The idea is that each 'save' would make an attack miss you and would give you some brief benefit. Like the 'Basic Combat' save would let you make an attack miss you, and then you could also do a combat maneuver against the attacker, like to shove or trip or grab them.
The 'Basic Will' save would let you make an attack against your will defense miss, and perhaps give you immunity to emotion and compulsion effects for a round as you get a moment of lucidity.
And then advanced stuff like 'Enraged Defiance' might be a mid-level berserker save that lets you stop an attack and then give you a bonus to damage and let you shove people really well for a round or something.
So because it combines a defensive shield and an offensive boost, you usually want to wait for an opportune moment to use it, not simply spam saves against the first attack.
In this way, HP would be like a passive defense -- your character is just naturally ducking and weaving to make sure that attacks that hit are only grazes, rather than serious wounds, and when you run out of HP, you take a solid hit that drops you.
And saves would be your active parries -- your limited-use ability to avert disaster and possibly turn the tide in your side's favor.
Usability: look to products like Old School Essentials for how to make physical books useable at the table. Focus on layout: topics should be confined to one page or two page spreads. Important topics should not start in the middle of the page (I saw a flip through of the new starter set rulebook and the "combat" section started at the very end of a two page spread, continuing to the next page 
). Cross reference sections with page number references (that, yes, you have to update when you do a reprint. That's your actual job). Spell lists should have page numbers. Organize spells by level for ease of use. Make pdf "cheat sheets" available for free that can be printed out. Design a character sheet that teaches new players with an intuitive design. Instead of the backsplashes they put on every page, use color boxes to highlight important information. In terms of writing, look at your word count, and reduce it by 20%. No spell should need more than one paragraph of description.
Content: I too, would like to see all the core rules in one book. At least, combine the PHB and the DMG, and include a good handful of monster stat blocks in the book. Information about setting up a game ("session 0," etc) and "running the game" should be in one core book. The core can be simplified--perhaps material for levels 1-10. Later books can expand on this: levels 11-20, spells 6th-9th, books with optional rules for dungeon masters, a book for world building and adventure creation, etc.
In sum, they might look to what is their best product in my opinion: the Young Adventure's Guides! Nicely produced stitched-binding books with intuitive layout and good, succinct writing. Questing Beast review here:
). Cross reference sections with page number references (that, yes, you have to update when you do a reprint. That's your actual job). Spell lists should have page numbers. Organize spells by level for ease of use. Make pdf "cheat sheets" available for free that can be printed out. Design a character sheet that teaches new players with an intuitive design. Instead of the backsplashes they put on every page, use color boxes to highlight important information. In terms of writing, look at your word count, and reduce it by 20%. No spell should need more than one paragraph of description.Content: I too, would like to see all the core rules in one book. At least, combine the PHB and the DMG, and include a good handful of monster stat blocks in the book. Information about setting up a game ("session 0," etc) and "running the game" should be in one core book. The core can be simplified--perhaps material for levels 1-10. Later books can expand on this: levels 11-20, spells 6th-9th, books with optional rules for dungeon masters, a book for world building and adventure creation, etc.
In sum, they might look to what is their best product in my opinion: the Young Adventure's Guides! Nicely produced stitched-binding books with intuitive layout and good, succinct writing. Questing Beast review here:
I don't get what you are saying. Can you elaborate?
- Player's Handbook
- How to make a PC
- PC rules
- Monsters Manual
- Monsters
- Monster Templates
- Dungeon Master's Guide
- Stuff to be a DM
- Equipment Catalogue
- Exotic Weapons
- Magic items
- Tools uses
- Gadgets
- Maneuvers
- Spell Whatever
- All the spells
Vaalingrade
Legend
I am not paying for 5 books to Core any game.
That's why It's pie in the sky
I'm sure that spells being 25% of the PHB is why so many things are missing, shortened, weaken, or trivialized in the book.
Then the EEPC comes out to add the spells the PHB is missing.
Imagine if the PHB had 80 more pages to put most race, class, skill, equipment, and background stuff in it.
Are you somewhere feeling lonely?
Or is someone loving you?
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