Rant about (lack of) info in new 3.5 conversion guide

[KenM]

I ask everyone this: If you were handed a booket that said 3.5 conversion guide, the persion handing it out said "if you don't want to by the books, thiss is all you need to convert your old characters over" and then when you looked at it, it did not have all the info you need to do that, what would you think? I don't have a problem with WOTC trying to sell as many copies of 3.5 as possible. But when they say one thing and do another, it's not right.

 

[ThirdWizard]

There's no way they could fit the conversion into a small guide. It would be about 300 pages long.

But, if they could, and you could convert an entire campaign to 3.5 without buying any books, would anyone buy the books?

 

[Ankh-Morpork Guard]

Actually...it IS a conversion guide. But *gasp* not for the Core books. I wonder why? Maybe because...*another gasp*...they've already been Revised! Amazing! [/sarcasm]

Look at it without trying to find something wrong with it, and you'll see that it is an extremely good guide for converting the OTHER books that were NOT Revised. Why would I want a Conversion guide for the Core books? If it was that, then I'd just be wasting my money to buy them when I could use the free guide. The general overview ofthe Core books is good anyway.

 

[Tarrasque Wrangler]

There's no way they could fit the conversion into a small guide. It would be about 300 pages long.

I could see it getting longish if you are including every spell revision and the text to every revised feat and skill and combat rule. I don't think anyone's talking about that though. Just something to the effect of "Bards get two extra skill points per level. Due to the changes in Perform, give yourself back all those points you've spent and re-buy them under the new system." Etc.

But, if they could, and you could convert an entire campaign to 3.5 without buying any books, would anyone buy the books? [/B]

Once again, not to put words in KenM or anyone's mouth, but I don't think the idea was to replace the 3.5 books. Just something you could use as a quick reference to converting your characters. As it stands, the document doesn't really do that, and I don't think it would have been that much work for WOTC to write such a thing.

Maybe a third party could write something like this. Would there be OGL issues?

 

[Tarrasque Wrangler]

Actually...it IS a conversion guide. But *gasp* not for the Core books. I wonder why? Maybe because...*another gasp*...they've already been Revised! Amazing! [/sarcasm]

Look at it without trying to find something wrong with it, and you'll see that it is an extremely good guide for converting the OTHER books that were NOT Revised. Why would I want a Conversion guide for the Core books? If it was that, then I'd just be wasting my money to buy them when I could use the free guide. The general overview ofthe Core books is good anyway.

Well then, why did they put out a 2nd Edition-to-3rd Edition conversion document? Do you think they really lost a lot of sales of 3rd Edition PHBs because of that? I wasn't a 2nd Ed. player, but I thumbed through that conversion doc, and it was certainly no replacement for the 3.0 PHB. It accomplished exactly what it set out to: it showed you how to make your PC 3rd Ed. compliant, and what you'd need the PHB for. I'd be willing to bet they sold a few extra PHBs to paranoid 2nd Edition fans as a result of its release, when they saw how 3rd Ed. wouldn't change their 17th Level Paladin-with-a-kit into a 4th level Bard.