#rules cyclopedia

The D&D Rules Cyclopedia is, in my opinion, the best-ever edition of D&D, for a few main reasons.

First, because it is a single book that contains all the rules you'll ever need to play. It's a Players' Handbook, Dungeon Master's Guide, and Monster Manual all in one.

Second, because it was a consolidation of the Basic, Expert, Companion, and Master rulebooks (which, along with the Immortals expansion, are referred to as the "BECMI" edition of D&D). This edition of D&D focused on being easy to learn and play (hence being released in five different sets, allowing a group to add more advanced rules only once they're ready), putting simplicity first while still allowing for lots of character customization with the skills and weapon masteries you could gain as you leveled up.

And third, the BECMI edition had a very strong focus and core identity. Namely, it was a game about dungeon crawling (and hex-crawling) first and foremost, with rules designed to support that style of play. While 5th edition tried to make dungeon crawling possible, it's really not designed for that playstyle at all (while also having slow and clunky combat rules that make tactical fights less fun to play than in a game like 4e).

Add in the many helpful bits like the morale and NPC reaction rules (providing solid mechanics for roleplaying NPCs), rules for retainers (giving players the ability to spend their hard-earned gold on recruiting NPCs to accompany them on adventures), and rules for building strongholds and attracting followers (giving PCs another excellent "gold sink" and the ability to expand the scope of the campaign to domain-level play if desired), and this version of D&D succeeds in creating the specific flavour of fantasy it aims for to a degree never reached by any other edition (except maybe 4th, though that game aims for a completely different genre).

Meanwhile Mystara fans are in the fucking trenches of the vaults of Pandius. "Okay, now tell me something canon" I say to it, but alas, it is all in vain, since it only exists to archive people's feelings about the place.

It's either shill out to WoTC on DTRPG or get bad/middling quality pdf scans.

The character, Zolfatara, is related to one of my favorite characters in another game, a homebrew system called I͟g͟n͟o͟t͟a. The character in that system in named Kratr. This is the "Red Sonya" to my "Conan," not that either character is modeled on either of those two. The background was only supposed to be a few paragraphs but I got carried away!

Art is not mine and is being used for a personal game only. The oc tag only reflects the story and personality. Art is for reference.

Have you ever tried to play the Mentzer version of Basic Dungeons & Dragons? I don’t mean just the red Basic Box. I mean like a mid-level game that requires at least two or three of the five boxes. If you have, you know what kind of nightmare that is. It would be one thing if you had to just navigate two or three players booklets, but if those booklets are each poorly organized? Ugh.

The Rules Cyclopedia (1991) corrects this by collecting the four main D&D boxes (Basic, Expert, Companion and Master) into one nicely organized and indexed hardcover. Everything you need — player or DM — to play D&D in one book. When has that ever happened, before or since? Until Old-School Essentials superseded it, this would be my go-to for running a basic game (and, as much as I love the cleanness of OSE and B/X, there is so much weirdness in BECMI that it will always be my true fave).

Though it isn’t branded as such, the Cyclopedia is the foundation of the Challenger line. The big box basic sets I covered last month released in parallel and were the new on-ramp, with those players graduating to Challenger and the Thunder Rift adventure series. In a couple years, when the line was shuttered, Challenger players would be absorbed into AD&D Second Edition version of the campaign world, Mystara. It’s kind of confusing!

See, in early d&d, there was a big focus on domain management once you hit your 9th, or name level. Fighters and demihumans could become lords, building a keep and gaining lands and followers, or continue on as a wandering fighter. Thieves could establish a guild, clerics a temple, and so on, or remain itinerants. Magic-users, however, built a tower and a dungeon, to which monsters would wander into or be manufactured by the wizard, as the owlbear was. Which brings up the sinister notion of PC wizards esentially building "roach motels" to lure/drive monstrous tribes into for magical experimentation. No wonder the orcs are so pissed.