Doug McCrae
Legend
It keeps things interesting.If something doesn't really need to be changed, then why change it?
It keeps things interesting.If something doesn't really need to be changed, then why change it?
If I play in a Call of Cthulhu game I expect a certain amount of tentacled madness. If the gamemaster instead decides to do a game about teenaged girls and their romantic problems whilst in college, I'm going to feel cheated, even if the rules are new, innovative and extremely awesome.
All of which supports the view that "D&D" is not a rules set, it is a gestalt of tropes that can be experienced via different rules sets.
One could argue that there are certain unslaughterable cows within the rules--such as HP, AC, the six ability scores, certain classes, races, etc--but even then you'd find a lot of disagreement and varying degrees of flexibility. But everyone can agree that "D&D" includes certain tropes, and that in the end, every game is different, every DM creates his or her own unique hybrid of various factors.
OD&D, BECMI, AD&D 1E and 2E, 2E rules options, 3E, 3.5E, 4E, Essentials...it is all D&D. Pathfinder is D&D. I'd be curious to hear someone say that one of those is D&D and the rest are not, and explain why.
Let's face reality: "D&D" is whatever the owners of the brand name say it is. It may not be your (version of) D&D or my (version of) D&D, but it is D&D.
For me Dungeons and Dragons has Law vs. Chaos as a basic conflict, with Good vs. Evil being a subset of this conflict. (4e lost me with the drop of alignment among other things.)
It has dwarves, halflings, elfs, and humans fighting orcs, goblins, dragons and a host of other mythical creatures.
Meh, X isn't D&D is just another way of saying, "Your game sucks and mine is better."