Rules Compendium - Worst timed release ever?

[Felon]

You know, if I were a really suspicious sort, I'd think the release of a rules compendium almost amounts to a reverse-psychology marketing campaign.

"Yep folks, 3e D&D is so bloated and cubmersome that we're actually providing you with a compendium that will allow you to flip to any page and see how many elements are overwritten with too many steps, and in dire need of clarification."

Curious about what the size of the release will be.

 

[CaptainTrips]

Curious about what the size of the release will be.

From the link supplied sbove, this will be a 160 page hard cover book.

 

[Aus_Snow]

Perfect timing if you are not changing editions though..

Exactly.

I think this will be rather useful, actually.

 

[Plane Sailing]

From the link supplied sbove, this will be a 160 page hard cover book.

Which makes me wonder what exactly they are going to be able to fit in there.

 

[amethal]

Which makes me wonder what exactly they are going to be able to fit in there.

No doubt it will include swift and immediate actions. Every other 3.5 book I own from WotC does.

Fortunately, it will mean they won't have to re-print them in any later books. Of course, it appears the later books won't have any crunch in them anyway.

Explaining polymorph would be nice - should only take up about 10 pages.

Grappling, feinting, tripping, and bull rushing could maybe be stretched to a page each.

A couple of pages on skills - when you can take 10, when you can take 20 and when you can re-try.

I'd appreciate a re-cap of the spot rules, both vs things that are and things that aren't hiding. They might even clear up the "take 20 on hide checks" question once and for all, and also state the blooming obvious - if you don't have line of sight (e.g. there's a wall in the way) then you don't get a spot check.

It would be handy to include blindsense and blindsight in that; our group can never remember what they do, or which is which.

 

[Jolly Giant]

I think this the perfect time to be releasing a rules compendium, because from now on there won't be any new rules added to 3.5 ed.

I'll probably get it; if it looks to be as useful as the Spell Compendium, since our group has already decided to stick with 3.5 yet a while. Oh, we'll probably get around to trying out 4th ed. eventually, but I doubt it'll happen next year. We'll give the new edition time to expand a bit first.

What I hope to see in it is (among other things; most of which have already been mentioned in other posts) a collected overview of the many skill use rules from the various 3.5 expansion books, including the skill tricks from Complete Scoundrel. A complete list of all the weapons and other equipment from various books would also be cool. Having all the rules for class/racial substitution levels collected in one chapter would also be cool.

Oh well, we'll see what's in it soon enough.

 

[DMH]

I wonder if this is to be like Unearthed Arcana and 95-100% OGC. It would be the last "update" of the 3.5 SRD if so.

 

[Odhanan]

Unsupported, sure. But that's not the same thing at all.

That's not even sure, since the OGL cannot be revoked. Sure, a lot of publishers will make the transition to 4E with its own OGL, but, just like we've seen OSRIC, C&C and all sorts of rebirth/treatments of old editions providing new support for them, it's perfectly possible, beyond the possible continued support to 3.5 from a few publishers, to actually see a return of 3.5 some time down the road.