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For example, I have the following answer: https://rpg.stackexchange.com/a/45270/9058. When I wrote the answer, the only official material available was the Basic Rules, so that's obviously where I quoted from. That's not the case anymore, and I could quote from either the Basic Rules or the Player's Handbook, as the text is available in both.

If the supplementing text is available in both the Basic Rules and the Player's Handbook, where should we quote from?--do we care?

Should we proactively edit references from one to the other?

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4 Answers 4

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It might be helpful (I know I do this when I do 4e cites from the compendium and include the book ref), when available, to cite both. However, citing whichever one is more convenient should be fine.

In general, it's sounding like the PHB and BD&D don't conflict at all with BD&D simply being a subset of the MM/DMG/PHB. So it shouldn't matter which one you quote as long as you tell us which and where you found it.

It could actually be better overall to quote BD&D when you can, simply because that's more verifiable, but like I said, and as mxy said, in general it really doesn't (and shouldn't) matter.

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    \$\begingroup\$ I agree with this, but I'd like to add that it's important, when quoting basic, to be clear which version of basic you're quoting from -- we already have more than one version, so let's avoid people having to try to guess which version you used. \$\endgroup\$
    – GamerJosh
    Aug 19, 2014 at 12:10
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    \$\begingroup\$ @GamerJosh good point, though its worth noting that there have not been textual changes between v.1 and v.2 at this time. Only some small additions. \$\endgroup\$
    – wax eagle
    Aug 19, 2014 at 12:21
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    \$\begingroup\$ @waxeagle 0.2 is 115pp versus 0.1 being 61pp. Any reference needs to be noted for edition because the pagination is very different. Version 0.2 is almost twice as long. That's a LOT of addition. \$\endgroup\$
    – aramis
    Aug 19, 2014 at 20:00
  • \$\begingroup\$ Prior to the update I made a point of editing answers to say "v0.1" so that they'd be clear after an update. I can't guess anymore which one someone's using if they don't mention it, so we should poke answerers to clarify any cites they use. \$\endgroup\$ Aug 19, 2014 at 22:01
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    \$\begingroup\$ @aramis v.1 of the player book was 111 pages. The DM book v.1 is 61 pages. \$\endgroup\$
    – wax eagle
    Aug 19, 2014 at 22:52
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We don't care. No need to prefer one or the other. Just cite your source.

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Both.

If the answer is in both, cite both, and quote from both as needed. If they're the same text, quote once, give both citations.

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Quite a bit of the text in the PDF is directly quoted from the Players Handbook.

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