D&D General D&D 3E Style Guide Peeks Behind The Scenes

Alex Kammer of Gamehole fame, the convention and the wonderful museum of every TSR D&D product and game room also has a copy of the D&D 3.0 Style Guide!

Interesting parts include the 3 million active monthly players, the primary and secondary target audiences, the list of "do's and don'ts" and cursing!

The primary audience was college students ages 18-24, with a secondary audience of young people form 13-16 and adults 25+.

"Dos and Don'ts" include "do show monsters as fearsome, evil creatures. They're not misunderstood--they're EVIL!", and "don't show the game being played by children or pre-teens".

​

 

[Charlaquin]

“Mentally challenging” as a driving element is interesting, and seems especially characteristic of 3e to me.

 

[Burnside]

Super interesting stuff.

 

[GMMichael]

And it shares the Monstrous cover. I can't unsee some of those bullet points

Great find though!

 

[Hexmage-EN]

"Do show monsters being fearsome, evil creatures. They're not misunderstood--they're EVIL!"

The fact this was the second "Do" implies this was something they were really emphasizing then, possibly due to prior internal friction over the matter.

 

[Lyxen]

It's interesting how tastes change. I used to love those books, the art, etc. And now, I find the style heavy and hard to read, cluttered, etc. Stil beautiful, but so much less compelling to use...

 

[Nikosandros]

I'm perplexed by the fact that one of the driving elements of D&D products was: Competitive. What did they mean by that?

 

[pukunui]

Their primary target market was 18-24 year-olds, with secondary markets of 13-16 and 25+. That means D&D 3.0 wasn’t being marketed to 17 year-olds.

 

[Professor Murder]

I can't speak to what is better or worse in terms of internal layout, but I did enjoy the covers of 3/3.5 at the time, made to look like proper tomes.

 

[Olaf the Stout]

Thanks for that. Very interesting to read.