Post/Author/DateTime	Post
#1 Moonflower_Seed Jul 25, 2014 14:55:39	I don't know if you can relate, because I'm the only person I know who has ever really had as much trouble understanding the rule books as I do. I bought the 3.5 rule books some years back, and for some reason, the way the authors explain the rules leave me absolutely confused. I feel the sentences are much too densely written, and don't methodically explain how to go about applying the rules, and they don't give enough examples. It seems they just assume you already know what they're talking about, and don't really go into detail as to how the rules work, or WHY the rules are the way they are. I have a bachelors degree, and I cannot recall any of the textbooks being as poorly written and confusing as the D&D rule books. I've kinda given up learning from the books and just ask a fellow player, because I'm wasting my time otherwise. So... can you relate? Does anyone else have trouble understanding them? If so, why are they so badly written? Didn't Paizo care about their product at all?
#2 Grazel Jul 29, 2014 23:50:11	This is probably not the best location for this thread as this is for the D&D Insider tools which are being sunsetted sometime in the future. Also Paizo didn't do the 3.5 rules, they did Pathfinder. WotC did the 3.0 and 3.5, 4e, and now 5e rules. I think you'll find the basic rules pdf (free download) a better writeup than the 3.5 rulebooks were. Even the 4e books were better written. WotC has learned since 3.0/3.5 days and gotten better about formatting and layout. TSR 1e (AD&D) was hard to navigate at times as well and some of the pre 1e days (yes as silly as that sounds but 1e refers to the fist hardbound edition rather than the original rules from the 70s or the BECMI boxed sets of the 80s that released side-by-side with 1e for the most part). were true nightmares because they were written by minitature wargamers (think hobbyist engineers). It's a flaw you see in many math textbooks as well.