Dungeons Dragons Core Rulebook Gift Set (Version 3.5 editions of the Players Handbook, Monster Manual, and Dungeon Masters Guide) by Jonathan Tweet

Dungeons Dragons Core Rulebook Gift Set (Version 3.5 editions of the Players Handbook, Monster Manual, and Dungeon Masters Guide) Reviews

• 
  C.

  I was never a D&D player (every other RPG, yes; D&D, no), so I could look at 3E a bit more objectively than many of my friends, who thought the world was going to end. It did sadden me, simply because 2E was THE classic RPG that change of any kind seemed wrong, and when I found out they did away with THAC0 I almost cried, as that must be the most infamous nerd acronymn EVER. That said, I don't see 3E as any worse than 2E. D&D has always been too simplistic and generic for my taste, with character creation too quick, classes too restricting, magic too limited (you forget the spells after you cast them? What?), and far too centered around the old hack-n-slash dungeon crawl (for good reason, as it invented it, but still). The D20 system is brilliant in much the same was as McDonald's is - simple, user-friendly, the masses love generic, uninteresting fare. Me, I demand more from my RPGs.
  
  Besides, TSR was bought by Wizards of the Coast, and that's just wrong. That's like Darth Vader killing Obi Wan.
• 
  Waldo Varjak

  These books are not as well bound as the original books from 1979 sitting on my shelf. The binding glue is coming apart and the spine is expanding. This is a typical made in China product - the world renown catch phrase for products of inferior quality. And this is it.
  
  Where it got it right, by simplifying things like THAC0 to Armour Class, it got it wrong in so many more areas where rules were piled in for the game to be played uniformly by everyone.
  
  It is certainly not anything to promote a closer binding of strangers into a group and, through game play, get to know them as individual people better. It is made for players who want to "master" a game, an activity that requires the removal of all common sense and imagination from its system to be replaced with an ablution of rules minutia for the unwashed. In effect, this game has encumbered itself with nerds, as defined by its niche market size, more so than ever originally intended if the criticisms from the originators of the game are to be accepted at face value. It has become a board game, whereby rulebooks are religiously consulted and player agency relegated to decisions made at character generation, relying upon a systematized ability progression chart rather than what seems like a good idea to players at the moment they conceive it.
  
  In the days when we used to refer to examples of player ingenuity and group cohesion as we reminisce about our in-game player challenges, our engrossment, the new ideal is to discuss rules, and character builds, and system brokenness with the kind of trivial pursuit of an immersed cult follower.
  
  Gone are both the player skill and the player knowledge once brought to the gaming table, and with it the spontaneous references to bad Monty Python lines, general in-game literary references, and the player engrossment WOW factor. If you’re a Hammer films fan, for example, you must now roll on a build progression (ranks) of “Religion Knowledge” in order to be an effective player. No more does the individual player’s interest and thought shine through, which this modern iteration terms meta-gaming.
  
  The game has become a race to memorize rulebooks, which were once only Guides, Handbooks and Manuals at best. Gone is the classic D&D trope from the early 80s Saturday morning cartoon, the one where players find themselves inside the game, in favour of a game where player interaction is limited to decisions made on a statistical block not unlike a low-tech video game.
  
  Devoid of the necessary player camaraderie of AD&D 1e, now every home game can be run like a convention game with the player engagement level of Solitaire.
  
• 
  Stuart

  Started playing with 3.5, and at first blush I enjoy it. After a year and a half of DMing, though, the flaws bring it down to neutral territory.
  
  In one word, the system is baroque. That's both positive and negative.
  
  SYSTEM PROS: The OGL and d20 system were innovative and certainly produced a lot of great material, rulesets, modules, etc. Probably the best mix of core races and classes. Leveling up feels like an accomplishment, and the rules are certainly designed to accommodate and govern virtually anything the player wants to do. This can lead to very creative and exciting solutions to problems on the parts of the players. Huge, consistent cosmos can be very immersive. Lots and lots and lots of magic items, spells, feats and monsters. Great for new players in that it represents the "full tabletop experience" (but see below).
  
  SYSTEM CONS: Oh god so many rules. Allowing non-core material means the game can get very unbalanced very quickly. Actively rewards metagaming and powergaming. Combat at high levels grinds the game to a halt. Magic at high levels breaks the game. Lots of magic items means players can easily outfight encounters they shouldn't be able to. Rolling up characters takes approximately forever, meaning new players can get bored/overwhelmed.
  
  DM NOTES: Worth reading because it's a pretty good "baseline" for modern traditional RPGs. Not an encounter-based bonus-fest like 4e, and lots more forgiving and "fleshed out" at core than AD&D or earlier. Excellent contrast to OSR systems. Restrict to core and it'll be way more fun.
  
  
• 
  Beau Johnston

  I bought this long after my RPG group had disbanded (ie: we'd all grown up by this stage and had left home to find work), so playing the game probably wasn't going to happen. I wanted to see how the game had changed since the 1980s. I was glad I did.
  
  While I can't give an appraisal of how well the game mechanics work, I can say that the books were fun to read. Vivid descriptions of everything (races, monsters, spells.... you get the idea).
  
  The Core Rule books were so well written that I purchased another six of the expansion books, purely for the pleasure of reading them.
• 
  CK

  The newest and best incarnation of the Dungeons & Dragons game.
  
  Most of us picked it up it in our youth, but allow me to testify, brothers and sisters, the game is more fun as an adult. I'm in my thirties, and having a ball gaming weekly with my good friends. Beats going down the pub for me by a country mile.
• 
  Thane Armbruster

  well, this "book" (set) is not for everyone. however, D&D is the classic RPG and a good way to enter RPGs in general by providing a well tested rule-set that is fairly easy to learn but also extremely flexible and expandable.
• 
  C.V. Cook

  Really like 3rd Edition. It is complex enough to keep people interested, but not overwhelming. Also, 3rd Edition open-license opened the door to all kinds of wonderful stuff from smaller companies. Lots of that stuff was great.
• 
  David Chmelik

  It is poor compared to the first seven versions of regular and advanced Dungeons & Dragons. Unrealistic things such as feats were added, and important things such as most skills were removed.
• 
  Page Turner

  This version is great.