Rules Compendium - is it out yet?


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It should be at your FLGS now. Sorry, but I haven't been able to take a look through it yet, perhaps after work.
 

Just picked it up and have only had a chance to flip through it as I am at work right now. First off, the art is pretty good. There is some stuff that I don't recognize (although some certainly is recycled) and some are really, really good.

As far as the contents are concerned I've got mixed emotions. Some of the stuff is nice that they have added to the book and it is convenient that it is all in one location. Having said that, there is a lot that they left out. For example, I think hiding could use a better explanation (and in fact was completely left out of the book) as I have played in several groups and each group handles hiding differently. Another example is that they have a nice section on grappling and they discuss constrict and other abilities like that but no where do they talk about the attach ability that some creatures possess. This would have been really nice. Finally, the thing I think I hate the most is that they used many of the same grid and mini pictures from the PHB for things like flanking, charging and how a line works when casting a spell. I think the book would have been so much better if they used new pictures to illustrate some different examples. Many of these things are still played differently from table to table in my humble opinion.

In a nutshell, the book seems good and handy but the book fell short of resolving some of the rules questions that I have seen show up which really, really disappoints me. In fact, WotC called this a celebration of the rules but for the most part it felt like a regurgitation to me. Some stuff was new but not as much as I had hoped for or expected.

Hope that helps!
 

So what "rules" does it have? Character creation? Classes? It seems that it would be hard to fill a whole book with just the combat rules.


Aaron
 


See here for the contents:

http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/4ex/20071009a

I have it ordered from Amazon, but I was under the impression that it contained "all of the game's most important rules and presents them in a single comprehensive, easy-to-reference volume for players and Dungeon Masters."

Looks like that is not true and it is very combat and skill focused. Very misleading I believe.
 

I bought it today after giving it a read through. Keep in mind that I had a 20 dollar gift card burning a hole in my pocket, and if I was spending more than 8 dollars of real money for the thing I may not have gotten it. That said, this is why I got it:

I love little touches like environmental hazards and weather. I also like having obscure rules like overland movement. Additionally, I like tactical maneuvers like trip, sunder, etc. I don't like chasing down all those rules amid 600 pages of text spit between two books. This book presents it alphabetically, in big font and with an uncluttered layout style. That's worth at least 8 dollars to me.
 

hewligan said:
I was under the impression that it contained "all of the game's most important rules and presents them in a single comprehensive, easy-to-reference volume for players and Dungeon Masters."

Looks like that is not true and it is very combat and skill focused. Very misleading I believe.
Aren't most existing D&D rules combat and/or skill focused?
 

Chris Sims has communicted on several occasions that this book would not contain character options such as classes and feats, but it would contain rules that come up during gameplay specifically, which is why you won't find rules for things that are typically referenced away from the table.

I assume the reason for reusing the existing images for tactical movement and combat on a grid was to stick to the purpose of compiling existing rules referenced in one book rather than present additional rules references and still have to reference other books.
 

Well, I read halfway through the book and I am pleased to say that they do discuss hide in the book. I still think they could have been more thorough (see post above) but it is a pretty handy book all in all.
 

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