Third Edition D&D (3e) is an exciting step in the continual evolution of RPGs. But one that we, in our campaign, do not take lightly. As a GM, I welcome 3e as innovative, balanced and refreshing. As the creator of an enjoyable on-going campaign, I find parts of 3e limiting and contrary to the vision of my particular campaign setting. In my opinion this is mostly due to certain assumptions on part of the 3e core rules design team as to what a 'generic' rules set should be that I find to be inconsistent with mine. Primarily, the base line for magic is higher in the core books than this campaign assumes. So one of the big changes will be fewer spells for casters and fewer items for all than is presumed by the core books.

Since, on the whole, I like 3e (especially the consistent mechanics), that will be the new starting point for this campaign's house rules. Parts of these rules are carry overs from previous additions, such as the Player's Option series and pieces of 1st edition AD&D. Other parts of these house rules are wholely unique to our campaign.

The two primary considerations when writing these house rules that I have are firstly, to maintain the consistency that the campaign has had to date, including the integrity of the PCs. And secondly, to be as true as possible to the core mechanics of 3e — which are quite flexible, thankfully.

Since much of what will be changed is material from the 3e Player's Handbook, I chose to follow that tome's format for this section. Chapters that are not links are those which there are no changes to as of yet, but I listed for the sake of completeness. As always, I will do my best to avoid quoting unnecessarily from copyrighted materials but where appropriate, I'll try to list relevant page or table numbers.

As a general rule, no material from other sources other than the 3ePH and the 3eDMG will be considered as part of this campaign's rules set unless it is specifically mentioned here. This means that all new classes, prestige class, skills, feats, items, spells and whatever else appears in such places as Dragon magazine, official WotC supplements such as Sword & Fist, official d20 sources such as Relics & Rituals and non-official sources such as other's websites and conversions of 2e materials will be reviewed and possibly modified before being allowed into the campaign. I anticipate that we'll be using much material that is outside the scope of the core rules, I just want to integrate it in a thoughtful fashion.