D&D 5E Is D&D a Story or a Game? Discuss.

[Magil]

Easy question. It's a game. Before it's anything else, at least, it's a game. You don't need a bunch of rules and numbers to tell a story.

Edit: To be more clear, you can certainly tell a story at the gaming table, in various ways. But Dungeons and Dragons itself? It's a game.

 

[iserith]

Then the Basic Rules are wrong.

Or the writers, who are telling us what the game they designed and published is about, don't interpret the sentence through the same lens as you do. Because you're definitely looking at it in a very particular way that appears to be colored by (bad?) personal experiences.

 

[Tony Vargas]

D&D is a game. Specifically a Role-playing game. There's a tendency to drift the concept of roleplay to acting or storytelling or to limit it to speaking in character. There's an even more problematic tendency to try to set up roleplaying and playing a game as antagonistic alternatives, when they're really quite complementary.

But 'a story' is neither. Hamlet is a story. A story could be told recounting any activity, including play in a game. You can have any number of D&D stories, but that doesn't make D&D a story instead of an RPG.

 

[robus]

Easy question. It's a game. Before it's anything else, at least, it's a game. You don't need a bunch of rules and numbers to tell a story.

You also don't need a bunch of rules and numbers to play a game, especially when the game is make believe...

 

[Magil]

You also don't need a bunch of rules and numbers to play a game, especially when the game is make believe...

"Make believe" is neither a game nor Dungeons and Dragons.

 

[robus]

"Make believe" is neither a game nor Dungeons and Dragons.

Wow, OK then

 

[Irda Ranger]

Or the writers, who are telling us what the game they designed and published is about, don't interpret the sentence through the same lens as you do. Because you're definitely looking at it in a very particular way that appears to be colored by (bad?) personal experiences.

Or the writers don't get to decide what D&D "is". They can only write it. We, the people who play D&D, decide what it "is". We each decide this for ourselves.

And, in my opinion, D&D is not "about storytelling".

 

[manduck]

D&D is a game. Though storytelling is a big part of that game. It's that blending of game and story that make D&D so unique (along with other RPGs). If you just want a game devoid of story you have boardgames, cards and so on. If you just wanted a story, you have books, movies, tv and so on. Or just sit around with your friends telling stories. You don't get that D&D experience and excitement until you combine them both.

 

[iserith]

Or the writers don't get to decide what D&D "is". They can only write it. We, the people who play D&D, decide what it "is". We each decide this for ourselves.

And, in my opinion, D&D is not "about storytelling".

I'm glad you clarified your statement that the Basic Rules are "wrong," by adding that this is just your opinion rather than assert it as a fact.

I'm going to side with the people who wrote the book though while at the same time not interpreting "storytelling" through the lens that you do.

 

[Oofta]

If I'm lucky it's a method of generating stories through cooperative game play.

No one person has control of the entire plot, no one person should predict what the ending will be although there may be goals and aspirations. Narratives and side plots will be generated by the group.

It is a story that grows and changes, often in unexpected directions. Much like life (or novels according to many authors).