Why do you choose D&D?

[pdboddy]

Unless they totally ruin D&D somehow, make it so horribly complex to understand or suck the life out of the different D&D worlds, I will probably pick up and play 4e.

Why?

For a number of reasons.

D&D was the first roleplaying game (aside from "Lets Pretend" and similar kid games) I played. The boxed one. So, there's a certain amount of nostalgia there, in the many years I've played it.

I also tend to play whatever game is being run by the GM. There are fairly few games that I won't play, due to system mechanics or backgrouind story or whatever. If the GM wants to play 4e, I'll play.

I don't have any vices. So, there's got to be something that sucks away my play money.

 

[AnonymousOne]

1.) It's what was available, I started with 3.5 in college and I don't plan on switching any time soon.

2.) I love choices. I love ton's of alternate class abilities. I love prestige classes. I love having tons of material to draw from to build exactly the kind of character I want to play.

3.) I like high power games. I want to play in a world that allows the PCs' actions to literally change the future and the outcome of conflicts rather than just "kill X, take his " kinda play (though DnD works well for both of those).

4.) I want to play PCs whose build reflects how they are role played. D&D does this pretty damn well.

5.) I can find people to play it.

 

[scourger]

It's the lowest common denomiator for our group. Everyone knows it & will play it.

 

[Vigilance]

The system is really good.

I like classes.

Yes, that's what I said.

I think classes are a fantastic mechanic that other systems shy away from in a vain attempt to be different and allow "infinite" player choice.

But the fact is, classes make building characters easier, and most importantly of all, make it easy to tell at a glance if you have a balanced party.

That's a lot harder in other systems I've ran, such as GURPs.

 

[Psion]

I like classes.

That's a really good point.

For all of D&D's failings or the nice features of other fantasy offerings, I think the rush to dump classes is one of the most ill-founded. I totally understand that you can do different things without classes. That doesn't make classes a poor design choice, just one that has specific strengths. But the number of people who discard them out of hand is really stunning to me.

 

[Will]

Yeah. I used to be really into the idea of point buy systems (BESM, M&M, etc). And while I still kinda like them, I'm finding the benefits of a class system are huge -- particularly if you aren't a hard-ass and let people tweak them.

 

[Warren Okuma]

With the advent of D&D 4e, I'm seriously considering switching to Runequest as my fantasy game of choice. I have various reasons, which I won't go into here, but it got me to thinking. I've been with D&D since the basic set and I was pondering the reasosn for this and thought it would be interesting to hear other posters reasosn for why D&D is their go to fantasy game rather than the multitude of other games available now or in the past.

So tell me...why D&D?

Change of pace.

 

[Li Shenron]

I always found it kind of surprising. I've simply never had a problem finding players, but it seems to be endemic.

Same here. The last thing I care of is what the masses play. If I want to play a game no one else knows about, I've got plenty of friends I'm going to harass until the join

 

[Li Shenron]

• Vancian magic

• 
  
  I'm not a strenuous defender of the vancian system, but I am impressed by the attitude, the balance and the wisdom of your website.
  
  You, sir, are someone who looks at the rules of the game and sees, rather than the problems, the opportunities within
  
  Plus, Diaglo must be in love with you

 

[CleverName]

With the advent of D&D 4e, I'm seriously considering switching to Runequest as my fantasy game of choice. I have various reasons, which I won't go into here, but it got me to thinking. I've been with D&D since the basic set and I was pondering the reasosn for this and thought it would be interesting to hear other posters reasosn for why D&D is their go to fantasy game rather than the multitude of other games available now or in the past.

So tell me...why D&D?

First of all, this is kinda' a false choice. I play D&D and a "multitude of other games." I see no reason to stop playing D&D to be able to run RQ.

D&D has done a good job ladling out rewards via leveling. It provides knowable archetypes via classes and races, and has huge industry support and a huge fan base.