160 pages, 2007, $26.95
Content	17
Organization	18
Consistency	17
Intelligibility	16
Overall 17 Solid Hit
Review Scoring

   With Wizards of the Coast transitioning their product line to Dungeons and Dragons 4th Edition some might wonder whether purchasing new items in the 3.5 Edition would be worth the money. Fortunately, the Rules Compendium is one product that will come in handy for many gamers, especially those playing and starting new campaigns that are unlikely to be converted to 4th Edition rules soon.

The Rules Compendium presents all the rules from Dungeons and Dragons 3.5 Edition in one book for easy reference. This includes the rules as originally presented in the core rulebooks and updates, revisions and new rules that were detailed in subsequent supplements. The book includes two table of contents: a standard table of contents and a topic index table. This second table of contents comes in handy for the few rules that are categorized under a subject other than the name of the rule. For instance, "attacking objects" is not under "Attacks and Damage," but instead falls under "Objects." There are several rules that fall under multiple headings like this, and having a second index next to the table of contents makes finding these additional entries much quicker.

A few things that are not covered by the Rules Compendium are most class features, feats, spells and other non-game mechanics. This omission is understandable, because to include these would have required ten times as many pages. The Rules Compendium might not replace the various core books and supplements when it comes time to create a new character or level up existing characters, but it is more than suitable to the task of reducing the clutter on the gaming table.