d20 and 3.5, what is the relationship?

[Causality]

Hi,

So I inherited a bunch of 3.5E books, and a bunch of d20 books. I'm not sure what the relationship is between them? Can I use the 3.5 books with no hesitation with a 3.5 campaign? Or are there some adjustments to be made?

Thanks for the clue,

C

[Halae]

3.5 works on the D20 system. Thus technically, any game that runs on D20 rules works with Dungeons and Dragons 3.5 as well. It's not suggested to take things from outside the game your playing, however, as different systems have widely varying levels of power

[holywhippet]

3.5 is version 3.5 of the Dungeons and Dragons ruleset. It uses the d20 system which means that attacks, skill checks and other things rely on a d20 being rolled - generally speaking if you want to know if you succeed or fail you roll a d20 and add modifiers. How well you succeed/fail is determined by rolling other dice.

d20 includes other systems though like d20 modern and star wars. Generally speaking you would only want to use books that are specific to the setting you are using. However, 3.5 books could include third party sources (ie. ones not done by wizards of the coast). These might have badly broken things in them (of course, standard 3.5 books, even core only, have broken stuff in them already).