D&Disms Outside D&D

[DMZ2112]

Hard disagree.

Whedon, despite being a man of many sins, is merely a whipping boy for the sins of others here. He didn't start the fire, it was always burning - and you can see that all the way back to the 30s (perhaps even the 1600s - the Rude Mechanicals etc. - but I think that's stretching it) in various forms. He just was particularly influential briefly in the '90s, but the reason he was influential was that we were already talking like that - as is easily seen by looking at game-related comic-strips from the era.

I mean, sure, that's true. Nothing's new under the sun, as they say. I have difficulty believing that the authors of the MCU do a lot of reading from the '30s.

Whedon also had relatively good judgement about it - when to use it, when not to, and so on, and that cannot be said for the majority of his imitators.

You think so? Can't say I share that opinion, but it's a matter of taste, I suppose.

I agree that his imitators are worse.

 

[Eyes of Nine]

I haven't yet seen D&D-isms outside of nerd-landia; except perhaps the concept of "levelling up" entering corporate speak briefly - "We've got to level up our game here people, company Z is out-competing us!" or to that effect. I'm never sure if they mean go up a level in the dungeon, or in my spell slots, or my character class - or are they saying I should Multi-class?!? Maybe that's why I got laid off

 

[GMMichael]

. . . I am curious what sorts of D&D-isms you see in other, non-D&D TTRPGs and related media (like CRPGs and card/board games). Along with the question: do you like seeing these things, or are pervasive D&Disms a bad thing to you?

For example, the notion of "classes" extends broadly beyond D&D. They are usually categorized into something like Warrior, Rogue and Wizard (with some fuzziness in the lines and the possible inclusion of a Priest category). Even some "point buy" or "skill based" TTRPGs embrace the categories and archetypes if not the classes.

Of course many TTRPGs use D&D races (usually with one or two stand out exceptions like faeries or lizard people). The Tolkien+ list is a pretty pervasive part of the landscape in modern fantasy gaming beyond D&D.

D&Disms. I doubt they can be avoided - like you can't avoid the board in board games.

So I wrote a game, and I think I did a pretty good job of avoiding classes and races, for starters. But don't get me wrong - I still stepped in some cold, dry pies dropped by the sacred cow. For example, the spell list is based on spells from Final Fantasy, which were likely based on spells from D&D. The game has PCs and NPCs, which, despite having universal application, probably originated with D&D. And you can probably guess what an "Initiative Contest" determines, despite its less restrictive application.

I like seeing these things, because a lot of them are practical and nostalgic. Some of them are welcome to rot in an elf-lich's tomb of horrors.

 

[TerraDave]

Well there is this:

Levelling Up the United Kingdom

Levelling up is a moral, social and economic programme for the whole of government. The Levelling Up White Paper sets out how we will spread opportunity more equally across the UK.

www.gov.uk

 

[Ruin Explorer]

You think so? Can't say I share that opinion, but it's a matter of taste, I suppose.

In Buffy/Angel? Yes. He was also capable of toning it down massively for entire shows, like Dollhouse, which was problematic as hell, but didn't have the same approach to banter and so on, because the characters weren't silly teenagers.

Firefly yeah I think he took it up a notch too high, but Firefly had a lot of issues.

I mean, sure, that's true. Nothing's new under the sun, as they say. I have difficulty believing that the authors of the MCU do a lot of reading from the '30s.

You say that, right, but a lot of the MCU writers are ultra-educated elite types (bizarrely, I admit), from Harvard and the like. So I'm sure a lot of them, maybe most of them, are familiar with art from a much wider range than the audience (or me!). And they're mostly in their late 30s through 40s too, so not kids. Also at this point the primary influence on the MCU is the MCU - and Marvel comics of the Claremont era onwards tended to feature a fair bit of banter/sarcasm too.

 

[Blue Orange]

The endless quippery I started noticing in cartoons about the 90s, with the first show I saw it in being Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. The Transformers, GI Joe and Cobra, and He-Man and Skeletor were all pretty serious about their (not quite) life-or-death struggles. The Ghostbusters quipped around quite a bit, but that was based on a comedy, and it was limited to less serious characters like Ray and Peter--Winston and Egon didn't do it much. Seinfeld was the first show that was supposed to be 'about nothing'. So, maybe in the 1990s and it stuck?

D&Disms I've noticed in everyday life and non-geek contexts:

People I doubt have ever touched a twenty-sided die will talk about 'levelling up' their accounting skills or whatever.

I hear people talk about things being 'lawful good' or 'chaotic evil' without any real connection to RPGs.

In general it's hard to tell if things came from tabletop directly or through MMORPGs such as World of Warcraft first. A lot of common MMORPGs have D&D's fingerprints all over them--most of WoW's character classes and races can be traced back to D&D origins for instance.