Why do D&D players put such an emphasis on rules and tactics?

Now this is not a bash. If you get a kick from the game in any way, for whatever reason, then good luck to you….but…

If you look down all discussions in the forum, the most common theme we get from most of them is deconstructing the mechanics behind various Classes to see which one is the most effective in combat situations, or what have you.

Now, I may be old-fashioned here but I do take some solace from the ‘old school’ aspects in the new edition of the game, that attempts to simplify rules and re-emphasise narrative aspects of playing characters in interesting stories (and spectacularly imaginative worlds!). So maybe I’m not that old fashioned after all!

When I look at the character classes, what I look for is how well they’ll fit with a particular character I have in mind, or how cool they would be to play (in a narrative alter-ego way). The last thing I really care about is the best combo of abilities or what mechanical advantage they may or may not have over the other classes. I do recognise that combat and strategic play have their place in the game, but it isn’t the be-all-and-end-all of how you can have fun with it.

I’m not claiming some sort of superiority in all this - I’m just a gamer like everyone else here - but what gives?

Part of it is that we're on a forum.

Rules are the most objective part we can discuss, so that's what we do.

Narrative is more of an art, and dissecting art is harder.

TrippyHippy said:

I’m not claiming some sort of superiority in all this - I’m just a gamer like everyone else here - but what gives?

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I don't play, I just run games. So, for this exercise, I'm going to try to channel the myriad players I've GMed over the years. I suspect they would say:

Picking a D&D class (etc) is like car-buying.

When you purchase a vehicle, you don't just look at the aesthetic "those lines are way awesome." You don't just get the best out the door number possible. You might want to see what's under the hood, or open the door and get inside, or open the boot/trunk, or research metrics online or in a magazine. Things like its power to weight ratio, max horsepower:RPM value, or torque might matter because you want speed, power, or quickness. You might care about turn radius, wheelbase, stiffness of suspension. You might care about cubic volume in the boot/trunk, head/legroom in the cab. You might care about its MPG, brakes, side/front impact crash testing, and overall safety ratings.

A car is more than just its looks, its more than just its brand, and its more than just its OTD cost. You're going to be using it a lot for a lot of stuff that doesn't involve (a) looking at it, (b) feeling good about owning a car that says x on the label, and (c) marveling at your elite skills at getting a good deal. So, hopefully it does all that stuff (commuting in the city, hauling (people or things), Sunday drives, highway driving, etc) to your satisfaction! That is a big part of what you paid the engineers for afterall.

Actually, when I buy a car I just look at practicalities like……how cool it looks….

MichaelSomething said:

Part of it is that we're on a forum.

Rules are the most objective part we can discuss, so that's what we do.

Narrative is more of an art, and dissecting art is harder.

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This.

Plus, the rules represent common ground - we can all go look them up in the books to find out what they say.

But to discuss the intricate details of my campaign, I'd first need to write out a long screed about how things came to be the way they are, and then people would need to read all that. And, frankly, it's probably not very interesting for most people - "let me tell you about my character" writ large.

That's why the boards will always have an over-representation of threads about rules. Well, that, Edition Wars, and cloud-watching to see what WotC are going to do next.

Well, maybe there would be some purchase into threads like ‘help me write this adventure storyline’ or ‘help me build this character’ or ‘help me create this world’?

I, for one, would be interested in them.

TrippyHippy said:

Well, maybe there would be some purchase into threads like ‘help me write this adventure storyline’ or ‘help me build this character’ or ‘help me create this world’?

I, for one, would be interested in them.

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"Help me build this character" - well, that's going to require rules expertise to make a character that, under the rules set in question, does or can approach doing what they're supposed to.

I've seen a few "Help me create a world" threads, but they're often asking about a set of rules that will create a world to work in a way that's already in the designers' mind. Or adapting the rules you want to use so that they give results that make sense in the world you want to use.

"Help me write the adventure storyline" is the only one of those where I'd think would be primarily rules-agnostic, and even there some rules assumptions are going to bleed over - D&D games usually have very rapid healing especially through magic, whereas Pendragon games make healing of injuries much slower, and that plays a part in the sort of adventures that make sense.

Because we just plowed through practically half a dozen iterations of D&D that put a heavy emphasis on positioning and inch by inch movement. It's going to be in the group psyche for a while.

2.5 (if the group used Combat and Tactics)
3.0
3.5
3.75 {Pathfinder]
4.0
4.Essentials

They don't, it's only us the vocal minority on the forums who realy care to argue about it.

Warder

I think most players emphasise rules and tactics because the game does. Not only does the D&D descend from a war game in the form of Chainmail but every edition has tons of monsters - whole manuals in fact - but not the same weight on social or exploration. So D&D campaigns without a combat focus are certainly possible but there is not the same grist (at least compared with other rpgs). The costs on having your PC sucking in social or exploration situations are less than sucking in combat - indeed sucking at social or exploration situations actually often leads to combat. So when I create a character, while the story comes first, such as story will not include incompetency in combat!