What "IS" the Dungeons & Dragons Brand?

[Simia Saturnalia]

Why is the poll closed so soon ?

2 months after the second-to-last post, you mean?

 

[Angel Tarragon]

D&D is what each player makes it. I think that first impressions are important with it as with dating as well. If I met a new DM that had a DMing style similar to first year of experience, but played under 4E, the rules or the setting wouldn't matter.

 

[Stone Dog]

The D&D brand is the mark burned on the cows that let you know which ones are stolen.

 

[YourSwordIsMine]

D&D is about killing things and taking their stuff...

when you boil it down that is.

 

[cougent]

1) System - If D&D is the system then at what point is the system sold by WOTC no longer D&D. There has been a lot of talk of slaying several "sacred cows" but by doing so wouldn't that make the game "NOT" D&D? IMHO the alignment system, the magic system, and the classes are all things that make the game D&D. Lose those components and I might as well be playing Palladium, Rolemaster, or any number of other fantasy RPGs because the game isn't D&D anymore.

That pretty much covers it for me, which is why I keep referring to 4E as a "whole new game" that I will evaluate just like any other "whole new game" that comes out. It may be great, it may suck, but D&D it is not.

 

[dcas]

That's not my understanding. The original version has been revised at least a couple of times, according to several Internet sources.

I'm sure the rules have been revised multiple times, but here's how they stood in 1933:

http://tt.tf/gamehist/games/mn-todd/mn-1933-rules.html

Very similar to today's Monopoly game.

 

[DestroyYouAlot]

I think the important distinction to be made is that the brand is NOT the game. Any moron can pony up some cash and pick up the brand; what they've utterly failed to do for almost a decade has been to capture the game.

The game itself, though - I'd say that both system and setting are pretty vital, in that the game assumes certain things about its setting to make its system work the way it was intended. You can only change one so much without making adjustments to the other. This is, unfortunately, MORE true in the supposedly-more-open-and-flexible d20 version of the game than in the real article.

 

[Ika]

I have to agree with several people that wrote on this forum.
I think it is a combination of system, settings and experience. DnD has a specific system, although it can take place in numerous settings, the most common settings have similar features and regarding experience....players and the dungeon master make the game what it is...

 

[Doug McCrae]

The D&D brand is the mark burned on the cows that let you know which ones are stolen sacred.

FIFY

 

[GammaPaladin]

I don't understand the people who vote setting. If that were the case, Eberron would not be D&D (And I'm aware that there are any number of players who hold to that opinion...). I guess you can make the case that setting and flavor are D&D, but in that case I'm not interested in playing D&D.

What I am interested in, is Eberron, with the D20 3.5 system, and things like the Tome of Battle (Which, if they had stuck with as a model for 4.0, I'd probably be first in line to buy the new edition).