After a bit of a dry spell I’ve decided to dig into this vintage gaming piece of roleplaying. Introduced first to the old AD&D book by my new (on-line) roleplaying group, I started to get interested in the old D&D books. The sticking point… they’re fun to read! Who would have though about that?
One book to rule th... I hate Tolkien.
The idea of reading this book came to me from an old RPG.net forum thread. Apparently the forum goer wanted to use this product to focus his reading and try to avoid a sort of roleplaying focused ADD and this 300+ pages behemot was his tool to get a good three months of laser beam like focus. My selection has only partial ties with his reasons: I don’t have roleplaying ADD (in his form at least, I’m not -currently- jumping from game to game… I’m devoting hardly any time to rpgs at all) but I do believe that I have this inconvenient problem in other areas of life. The goal is to devote more time to a hobby that has been recently been neglected and what better way to do so than with a really old and non-mainstream (although really cherished from what I’ve been reading) book from the old D&D times?
Well… yeah, maybe it’s not the perfect idea but let me repeat this: the book is fun to read! Specially when compared with 3rd and 4th edition. For some reason (hey the 4th edition book is sitting there gathering dust for a reason) it feels like such a terrible drag to read the bloody tomes! This book (and prolly this style of play) is like a breath of fresh air to my eyes.
While this book might not be for you, for a lot of the lads and lassies of the RPG Bloggers Network I feel that this might be the case, I believe it will be both an entertaining experience to go through it and also a big learning opportunity. And for that, I thought it’d be a hell of an idea to hold you hostage to the process. Wohoo! My goal with this is to have a few games (prolly one shots, so I don’t scare my usual rping group with the proposal) in about mmm… a month or two down the line. I believe that should be quite enough time to get everything ready, have some interesting locales fleshed out and hype the fuck out it in order to brainwash my friends into playing a roleplaying game again.
Send your ideas, cheers and flames! Also, check out the char sheets!
A minimalistic flavor for the modern age.
drop the dice 
The RuleCyclopedia? Huzzah! I bid you good luck on your endevor to run the game for your players. I got into D&D and grew up with that book’s predecessors, the 5 box sets.
Also, If the rules/setting interest you, you might want to check out
http://pandius.com/
A whole site dedicated to Mystara.
Are there fun tables for random treasure/encounter/dungeon generation?
The Rule Cyclopedia does have random Monster Encounter charts. but I don’t recall any Random Dungeon Roller. But something Like the GM Toolbox works well for that.
As for the treasure, I actually prefer the basic/2nd Ed treasure charts compared to 3/4th ed methods.
Simply the best version of D&D, ever. Each page contains something new, fresh and exciting – unlike a certain other Edition I could mention that contains more of the same on every page *cough* 4e *cough*.
Oh, and random dungeon generation starts on page 260. you draw the map and the tables will help you fill it. I’ve used it to populate a dungeon several times. It rocks 😀
Hmmm, been a while since I cracked open that book. Kinda nice to hear.
I’d have to say, my only problem I ever saw when I ran the old classic was no one played Halfling since they had nothing special about them.
@everyone
Thank you very much for your support. To be honest when I wrote this topic I was feeling like: “Good god, who’s going to care about this anyways…” So thank you very much for that warm and fuzzy community feeling. I hope that I can bring you entertaining news from the Rules Cyclopedia front soon =)
@Bob
Welcome and thank you for your blessings! Also, for answering the questions of another poster you get the “you’re one cool dude” award. The races do seem a bit iffy, but I’ll probably change whatever feels out of place prior to running the game. Of course I’m interested in keeping the ‘feel’ of the game… what’s cool is that this “molding the game to your tastes” IS the bloody feel of the game.
Would you (and the rest) like me to post ideas as I go along?
@Tommi
Glad to see you lad! The book does have a number of fun tables for a number of things (and I’m already thinking of those randomizer -forgot the name- sites you told me about… post coming soon) that I’ll be using to run the games. I’ll post anything that comes up as really cool (hopefully the copyright gods of D&D won’t mind.)
@Greywulf
I can’t being to tell you how interesting this books are to read compared with the new books. I feel like a pillager for good ideas and creative hooks… while the new ones make me feel like an accountant. It was sort of depressive to try and write something entertaining for my 4th Ed reviews when I reached the classes and powers chapter… I mean really, what’s there to say?
Thanks for posting!
See you guys later,
Fred.
“you’re one cool dude” award? Thanks! ^_^ Always glad to help out fellow gamers.
And yeah, I’d love to hear how things go with the classic system. I may not use it aymore m’self, but it does bring back many fun-filled memories.
The Rules Cyclopedia is an amazing book, far and away one of my favorite RPG books. Mine still sees fairly frequent use, although I haven’t run a game in that system in some time.
This is probably the best version of the game even though we haven’t played it in a while. (Though I did run a couple of one shots at a convention last year.) My whole group has decided that we will switch to the Rules Cyclopedia if 4e doesn’t work out for us.
@Bob
You’re welcome. Also I’ll be posting tonight/tomorrow (have to turn in some work for university today) about some recent developments with my journey with the RC.
@Scott & sverbridge
I keep getting all these compliments about the Rules Cyclopedia thrown at me. I’m getting really glad I found that forum thread about this book. Hopefully it will end up suiting my gaming style (I kind of think that the RC and I are going to get along just fine.)
Also, sverbridge. Why don’t you let me know what kind of things (if any) are on 4th Ed that made it less fun compared to the RC and vice versa? It’d be great to hear back from you. Also welcome!
See you guys later,
Fred.
The cyclopedia is like your favorite fantasy novel you re-read over and over just for fun. I still love looking at the maps and getting ideas.
I found a copy of this book today at a yard sale for $1. I am one lucky gamer. 🙂
I look forward to giving it a read. Even though I love 3.5/Pathfinder.
It’s in fact very complicated in this busy life to listen news on Television, thus I only use internet for that reason, and take the latest news.