Rules for the Bold - a handy reference for Fighters, Barbarians, Paladins and all those who rush headlong into battle.

* Currently selling at a special launch price *

The mighty wizard stands at the precipice his hand upraised, holding the blackened staff that could mean the end to our adventurers' quest and destruction for the town that they defend. The knight rushes forward bravely, shining armor reflecting the lights of arcane power, and …

- Jim asks, "How do the rules work for sundering objects?"

That's right - at the climax of the story Jim has chosen to do something smart and exciting and worthy of reward, but at the same time he's robbed the other players of the drama of the moment. It might take ten minutes to consult the rule books: first you need to find the special combat action rules for sunder, then in the exploration section you need the substance hardness table, then Andy says he remembers something about magic items having greater hardness so you need to check that. Meanwhile, Tony has started asking if people prefer tea or coffee. Just when you think you have everyone settled down and restored the dramatic mood, Rachel suggests that the disarm maneuver would be a better choice.

We all love the OGL rules but they are not the most thoughtfully presented set of rules in existence. There are apps for the iPhone that contain the entirety of the rules and they are great - they can cut down those ten minutes to seven. But with a little thought about which rules stop the game in the middle of the drama we have cut that time down further.

Your story is worth the effort. It's great to run games for creative players.

So What Is It?

The rules given in this app are edited with the goal of making them available as a quick reference. They are an edited version of the Revised (3.5) System Reference Document. The RSRD is a comprehensive toolbox consisting of rules compatible with Edition 3.5 of the most popular fantasy role-playing system in history. It is Open Game Content under the Open Game License.

You won't need to wade through the spell descriptions to get to the Sniping rules, because the spell descriptions are not in here. You can rely on the player of the cleric to have written down the rules of any spell he's planning to use in combat.

This app contains only the rules for: Bull Rushes, Charges, Cover, Defense, Disarms, Grapples, Off-hand attacks, Overruns, Splash Weapons, Sunders, and Trips.

With such a small list you'll be at the section you need within seconds.

Take a look. It's not expensive and it could save your scene.

Sources

As I put this app together I noticed that there were some questions that the RSRD didn't answer directly. Fortunately the RSRD isn't the only source of rulings, and I tracked down an official answer (or near-answer) to each question posed. In the Sources section I reference where I found them.

The commonly used sources are:
• The Revised (v.3.5) System Reference Document (RSRD) itself
• The Official D&D Game Rule FAQ v3.5 (FAQ)
• Articles by Skip Williams (co-designer of Dungeons & Dragons 3rd Edition) published at Wizards of the Coast website
• Answers from "The Sage" - Andy Collins (co-author of Dungeons & Dragons 4th Edition)

What You Need to Know

The rules have edge cases and exceptions. There is a risk that you could memorize all the rules but still not see how they combine to affect the outcome of common situations. With this app, I've added sections titled "What You Need To Know" which explain the implications of the rules.

What I Need to Know

Please do drop me a line at duncan.forsyth@crystalclearrules.com to tell me if you've found a more authoritative source for a rule.

And Finally

By popular request Rules for the Bold now stores relevant modifiers for the die rolls referenced and contains a die roller too!