What are the rules for dungeons and dragons?

Question

i need to know what the rules for dungeons and dragons are. is there q site i can go to that has the complete rulebooks that i can print or download?

Answer 1

The complete rules, if there is such a thing, fill many hardcover books. As far as I know, you can't download them legally, although you might check the White Wolf website to see if they maybe have some of the older versions available.

Answer 2

Best you could do is www.d20srd.org. However, be aware that that is for edition 3.5. 4th edition just came out earlier this summer and the two are NOT compatible.

Answer 3

The essential rules for D&D version 3.5 are available in a series of downloads called the System Resource Document.  It has most of what are called the Core rules, but not all. It is available here: http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=d20...  A hyperlink version is available at http://www.d20.org

There is a similarly titled document for 4th edition, which was released in June.  However, it largely consists of lists of keywords rather than the actual rules of the game. It was announced today that it would be revised in the near future.

Version 3.5 has a wide base of industry support in the way of companies who publish additional products, other than the publisher of the Core Rules.  4th edition is new, and has not been embraced as widely by the third party publishers because the licensing terms are not acceptable to many of them; this is true to the extent that WotC, the publisher, announced today that they would be modifying it to make it more acceptable.  Version 3.5 is widely played, and many players have not made the transition yet; others are playing both.

There are hundreds of rule books for 3.5.  There are currently three rule books for 4th edition.  Many of these are available for legal download, with a fee from various websites, including DriveThruRPG.com

Finally, there are at least five other editions of D&D that have been published over the past 30-plus years.

Answer 4

email me at [e-mail] I have all the 3.5 books and would be happy to give you a hand with them.  I also know the rules for 2nd edition and have most of those books as well.  

You can buy the 3.5 and th edition books in pdf form at http://www.wizards.com/

Answer 5

Rule #0: DM is law. >.>

Beyond that, the rules are just insane. There are, as others have noted hundreds, maybe even thousands, of source-books with the rules over the half dozen or so version of D&D there have been.

If you want 3.5, there is the SRD (System Reference Documents), which are fully legal for anyone to download, you can find them on the WotC web-sight. ( http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=d20 )

It looks as though they may also have a 4E SRD out now, too. The problem with the SRD is it lacks things that are not within the OGL (Open Gaming License), which basically allows anyone to publish and sell anything they wish using the d20 system. The major thing missing is character creation rules.

If you just want the SRD, as someone else pointed out there's also the web sight www.d20srd.com for 3.5, VERY useful reference even if you have hard copies of all the books.

There ARE sources to get PDFs, legally or pirated, of the books on the internet. But I suggest if you want to get legal copies, go to your local Barnes and Nobel or Borders (or other such book store) and buy them. PDFs are annoying. The other option is to check eBay and Amazon to see if you can find bargains, if you're willing to wait on shipping.

Obviously, we're not going to be posting a sight that has the books available for illegal downloads anywhere. But torrents are a good place to start, as are particular Google searches.