Cool Idea [Archive] - Wizards Community - Pages Merged by Solauren

Cool Idea [Archive] - Wizards Community

Post/Author/DateTime Post
Digitaldude745
08-16-05, 01:24 PM Call me crazy, but I think that all the rules, classes, skills, feats, etc. should be combined into 3 gigantic books. True, they would be huge, but think about having all the monsters in one book, and not having ti flip through your Monster Manual Monster Manual II, Monster Manual III, Fiend Folio, etc. before finding a monster. Also, when looking up a feat description, you wouldn't have to go searching through the various "Complete ...." books before finding the right one. All the classes and prestige classes would be right there so if a character is playing a fighter/Paladin of Freedom variant, he won't have to go look up what the Paladin of Freedom's stats are every time he levels up or needs to reference it. Stores could sell these gigantic yet thorough books for around $75- $100. I, personally, would buy them. Please tell me whether you think this is a good idea, (not that I could do anything about it, but it's a cool idea).
Board_Rider
08-16-05, 02:17 PM I would love that idea. A D&D Encyclopedia would make everything so much easier.
Orayn, Elvish Blademaster
08-16-05, 02:23 PM Something like that deserves an accompanying CD/DVD so it can be readily searched for specific information.
GreyLord
08-16-05, 02:27 PM I know I would like something like that, but I don't know how well it would sell. A lot of people don't like a lot of the supplemental rules that come in the accessories, so they might not look too favorably upon that.
a_psh
08-16-05, 05:04 PM The beauty of the system is that it's modular. Things are grouped in fairly nice chunks that can be added or removed at will.

Remember the first rule of encyclopedias: you have to buy new ones every year. So, okay, they publish this now... what happens when Complete NPC Class, Races of Brick, Magic of Faerun 2, The Ultra-Mature Book of Morally Ambiguous Twinkitude, Spacewrack, Libris Flumphus, and a year of Dragon magazines come out next year? Do you buy a whole new "Encyclopedia"? And the year after?

Also, would you really wait until all books in a particular production cycle are done, spending agonizing months *not* using their content, all so they can be in a big book later? If you're really interested in a book that could, say, come out in February, would you really wait 'til it gets put into the Encyclopedia in December? If you wouldn't wait, would you effectively spend twice the cash to get the same book twice?

How do you keep track of errata for this thing?

Does setting-specific stuff get in there, too? If not, is there going to be a separate FRpeadia to facilitate similar stuff in FR? There are a lot of FR books and a lot of FR-specific feats and PrCs and spells, after all.

Do you really want 50 core classes, 500 PrCs, and 1000 feats in your campaign, anyway?

Using bookmarks. Using the table of contents. Using the index. Heck, just writing down a page number next to a weirdo feat or spell that you lifted from some obscure splatbook if you know you have to always reference it anyway. Easy.

And far better than paying $150-200 (and, yes, it would be more like $150 than $70) for a book filled with everything you could possibly use, 95% of which you never will, sounds like a pretty bad idea.

Especially since you'd have to flip madly through that one book as you go from topic to topic. (Example: It's round four of a big battle and the PCs have gotten out of melee range, so now your big ground-pounding balor or dragon is going to cast some magic on them instead. It has a *lot* of spell-like abilities. Some are obscure. You want to look them up to see which one is best for this situation. Every time you flip the page to look for a spell, you have to scroll through a thousand other spells. Sure, they're in alphabetical order, but the "S" spells alone take up 30 pages. Then you have to flip back to the monster entry.)
anarco_rata
08-16-05, 09:11 PM a_psh is right, an d&d encyploedya would be pointless. What i did was reunite all my freind's and my own books and write on my pc the most usefull things, and print them, that way we don't have to bring a hundred books to play. Of course, we only got 6, so its not that much really ^^
weasel fierce
08-17-05, 12:54 AM Sort of like the Rules Cyclopedia for Basic/Expert D&D, way back.

Of course, now, there's a LOT more rules material, much of which have little in common.
Joe Khol
08-17-05, 05:17 AM Call me crazy, but I think that all the rules, classes, skills, feats, etc. should be combined into 3 gigantic books. True, they would be huge

You're crazy :) You couldn't make practical books that big. That's why encyclopedias, major dictionaries and roleplay rules are broken in to seperate volumes.

Stores could sell these gigantic yet thorough books for around $75- $100.

Not if they wanted to stay in business!

Post/Author/DateTime	Post
Digitaldude745 08-16-05, 01:24 PM	Call me crazy, but I think that all the rules, classes, skills, feats, etc. should be combined into 3 gigantic books. True, they would be huge, but think about having all the monsters in one book, and not having ti flip through your Monster Manual Monster Manual II, Monster Manual III, Fiend Folio, etc. before finding a monster. Also, when looking up a feat description, you wouldn't have to go searching through the various "Complete ...." books before finding the right one. All the classes and prestige classes would be right there so if a character is playing a fighter/Paladin of Freedom variant, he won't have to go look up what the Paladin of Freedom's stats are every time he levels up or needs to reference it. Stores could sell these gigantic yet thorough books for around $75- $100. I, personally, would buy them. Please tell me whether you think this is a good idea, (not that I could do anything about it, but it's a cool idea).
Board_Rider 08-16-05, 02:17 PM	I would love that idea. A D&D Encyclopedia would make everything so much easier.
Orayn, Elvish Blademaster 08-16-05, 02:23 PM	Something like that deserves an accompanying CD/DVD so it can be readily searched for specific information.
GreyLord 08-16-05, 02:27 PM	I know I would like something like that, but I don't know how well it would sell. A lot of people don't like a lot of the supplemental rules that come in the accessories, so they might not look too favorably upon that.
a_psh 08-16-05, 05:04 PM	The beauty of the system is that it's modular. Things are grouped in fairly nice chunks that can be added or removed at will. Remember the first rule of encyclopedias: you have to buy new ones every year. So, okay, they publish this now... what happens when Complete NPC Class, Races of Brick, Magic of Faerun 2, The Ultra-Mature Book of Morally Ambiguous Twinkitude, Spacewrack, Libris Flumphus, and a year of Dragon magazines come out next year? Do you buy a whole new "Encyclopedia"? And the year after? Also, would you really wait until all books in a particular production cycle are done, spending agonizing months not using their content, all so they can be in a big book later? If you're really interested in a book that could, say, come out in February, would you really wait 'til it gets put into the Encyclopedia in December? If you wouldn't wait, would you effectively spend twice the cash to get the same book twice? How do you keep track of errata for this thing? Does setting-specific stuff get in there, too? If not, is there going to be a separate FRpeadia to facilitate similar stuff in FR? There are a lot of FR books and a lot of FR-specific feats and PrCs and spells, after all. Do you really want 50 core classes, 500 PrCs, and 1000 feats in your campaign, anyway? Using bookmarks. Using the table of contents. Using the index. Heck, just writing down a page number next to a weirdo feat or spell that you lifted from some obscure splatbook if you know you have to always reference it anyway. Easy. And far better than paying $150-200 (and, yes, it would be more like $150 than $70) for a book filled with everything you could possibly use, 95% of which you never will, sounds like a pretty bad idea. Especially since you'd have to flip madly through that one book as you go from topic to topic. (Example: It's round four of a big battle and the PCs have gotten out of melee range, so now your big ground-pounding balor or dragon is going to cast some magic on them instead. It has a lot of spell-like abilities. Some are obscure. You want to look them up to see which one is best for this situation. Every time you flip the page to look for a spell, you have to scroll through a thousand other spells. Sure, they're in alphabetical order, but the "S" spells alone take up 30 pages. Then you have to flip back to the monster entry.)
anarco_rata 08-16-05, 09:11 PM	a_psh is right, an d&d encyploedya would be pointless. What i did was reunite all my freind's and my own books and write on my pc the most usefull things, and print them, that way we don't have to bring a hundred books to play. Of course, we only got 6, so its not that much really ^^
weasel fierce 08-17-05, 12:54 AM	Sort of like the Rules Cyclopedia for Basic/Expert D&D, way back. Of course, now, there's a LOT more rules material, much of which have little in common.
Joe Khol 08-17-05, 05:17 AM	Call me crazy, but I think that all the rules, classes, skills, feats, etc. should be combined into 3 gigantic books. True, they would be huge You're crazy :) You couldn't make practical books that big. That's why encyclopedias, major dictionaries and roleplay rules are broken in to seperate volumes. Stores could sell these gigantic yet thorough books for around $75- $100. Not if they wanted to stay in business!