Should there be 3 core books?

[Virtue]

You Have Got To Be Kidding

is it needed? no. But they would have to either turn out a pretty big single book or cut a lot of the stuff out.

I'd like to see them do it as one book. They can start by cutting the PHB down. They don't need all 11 core classes, or better yet have a flexible class system. Also, they don't need to goto level 20 in the core book. Level 10 is great, anbd it cuts out many of the high level stuff, especially spells. Equpment can be simplified as can spells.

DMg could be cut down as it would need less magical items (only 10th level and below), no planar stuff, no epic stuff, fewer prestige classes. It would still take up most of the book though.

Monster manual would be more about designing your own monsters then having all those examples.

WHAT YOU DONT RUN GAMES ABOVE 10TH LEVEL
THE CORE CLASSES IS WHAT MAKE IT DND NOT ANOTHER GAME LIKE DANGEROUS JOURNEYS
I LIKE ALL THE SPELLS AND EVERY THING I WISH THE THREE BOOKS WERE EVEN BIGGER AND MORE INDEPTH
BUT THIS IS FROM A GUY WHO OWNS DAMM NEAR EVERY 3 AND 3.5 BOOKS FROM WIZARDS SWORD AND SORCERY FANTSY FLIGHT AEG MONGOOSE NECROMANCER AND MALHAVOK GAMES (WELL NOT ALL THERE MODULES)
SO THE MORE BOOKS THE BETTER AND HAPPIER I AM
G.F.L. OUT

 

[Mercule]

Yeah. I like the three-book format. Of course, it all depends on what's in the books.

D&D is so monster-heavy, that I feel a separate MM is pretty much a necessity. Of course, that means you need at least one other rulebook to, well, contain rules.

So, why would I want a separate DMG? Well, I like having some of the basic world-building stuff in there. Moreso, though, I like the old 1E DMG. I want my three pages of NPC personality stuff, a two-page spread on mystic properties of gems, another five pages on herbs, wandering harlots, random fiends, random dungeon generation (the 3.5 has no room generator), and -- by golly -- I want a list of odd colors.

Oh, and a 10-level PHB would bite. And I'm the guy who never willingly ran adventures above 8th in previous editions.

 

[s/LaSH]

To my mind, the DMG is more of a list of odds and ends than a coherent book. It requires some savage game-pruning, but I could concieve of trimming the book line in the following way:

PHB cuts out setting-specific stuff, possibly including races and alignment, definitely including gods. Maybe simplify the class order (allowing for more intuitive creation of unique concepts through multiclassing). Include PrCs in PHB if they're still necessary. Include magic items in the PHB. Include a chapter in the back about world-building basics. Maybe include a CD with generator programs on it, for NPCs and cities and so forth. PHB is now perhaps 100 pages thicker.

Cut the DMG and MM completely. Instead, provide 'world books'. A world book provides all the detail necessary for a world: deities, monsters, and maybe races and the alignment system, as well as all the other stuff a worldbook should provide. The MM is currently the thinnest of the three books, I believe; simply making a 'Core Fantasy World' book with all that stuff, plus artifacts, etc, would make it generic enough to still be a worthwhile purchase, but not essential enough that someone can't come along and provide another Worldbook with a completely different worldview, where (say) orcs are ten feet tall, dragon is one statblock, and alignment is based on points.

Presto, you've just made gamers' lives easier and cut your profit margin (three books become one essential and one less-essential) considerably. Which perhaps is the reason it hasn't happened...

 

[Acid_crash]

I find the DMG very lacking in what it's supposed to be, which is a book that is supposed to show how to DM a game. This book doesn't show HOW to do anything. It gives a very small amount of suggestions, then provides lists of many different things but no real HOW to guide to do anything well. It gives a small amount of advice on prestige classes, but not HOW to really make a prestige class. It gives lists and lists and lists of magic items, but not HOW to actually go and make your own magic items. It gives lists and lists of basic NPC stats (some of which are wrong), but not really HOW to create your own npc's and how to do it well. It has no room generators, no real town generators, basic npc information, basic wilderness options, but no HOW to design real encounters.

The book sucks, and the main reason why people 'need' it is for the magic items anyways, and the prestige classes come a distant second. It's pathetic.

The PHB has too much in it and doesn't even explain how to be a player in a roleplaying game. It does assume you have previous experience, but for newbies, it doesn't give any kind of clue whatsoever on what to do, or how. It doesn't teach HOW to create a character, or what kind of advice would go into making a good character, or even anything as far as backgrounds are concerned (the background generator and alignment questionaire in the Hero's Guidebook should have been in the PHB, and WotC is pathetic and stupid for not putting those twenty pages in the PHB. Those would have saved a LOT of headaches getting new players into the game).

One Rules Cyclopedia is all WE need. We don't NEED more than that. Feeling that we NEED more is falling into the trap that we NEED more all the time, about everything.

 

[S'mon]

One limit fo the 10-level idea is sometimes players start out at higher than 1st (or 10th) level.

I'd only advocate it for an introductory one-book game, no more than 128 pages total.