Is D&D stifling your creativity?

[Haltherrion]

I don't find the rules causing problems but it is easy enough to get into a rut for other reasons. We went to a complicated PC creation method some years ago partly because we just have fun doing it but also to help nudge players out of ruts (it's worked wonders).

The refs in my group try hard each new campaign (every 18 -24 months or so) to come up with something new and different to try to keep things fresh. On a session to session basis, there is also an attempt to do something fun and different.

For me, I always remember feedback after my first college campaign where a player told me the game was dull. Ever since then, I've been very cognizant of the fact that players have other forms of entertainment and try to keep things interesting.

Specifically regarding rules and D&D, we also move with the editions. On the downside, that does mean some time mastering new rules but as the new editions re-imagine D&D to lesser or greater degrees, it helps keep things fresh.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

D&D stifles my creativity when I can't create the PC I want.

D&D stimulates my creativity when I try to create PC different & unusual things within the ruleset.

But I can say that of any RPG, including my personal face, HERO (though it's hard to find a PC concept you cant do within that system). And essentially the same could be said of any "toy."

LEGOS, for instance, is a lot like HERO in that it is seemingly only limited by your imagination. However, the very structure of the individual bricks introduces limitations: they're not very tolerant of heat, for instance.

 

[Silvercat Moonpaw]

....they're not very tolerant of heat, for instance.

Hot new item for next Christmas season: Vulcanized LEGOs.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

That's great until they go through pon-farr...

 

[Ycore Rixle]

I don't think any RPG I know of can stifle creativity. Even the worst of them can still give me ideas - perhaps ideas of what not to do - and those ideas contribute constructively and creatively to games that use another system.

No-rules "Let's Pretend" is just a different version of creativity than rules-heavy "60 Minutes per Combat Round and No You Can't Climb an Ankheg's Mandible with Slippers of Spider Climbing." No more or less creative, just different, imo.

 

[Sartredes]

I don't find that D&D stifles my creativity, but I do find that my sometimes my interest in the fantasy genre fluctuates. When my interest is at a low, I'm definitely less creative with play or DMing.

However, I have found that as I investigate/read other genres and/or systems, when my imagination gets sparked, my creativity increases across the board. For instance, lately I've been reading Savage Worlds Explorer's Edition, Deadlands: Reloaded, and Slipstream and most of the adventure ideas I've been thinking up or reading in those contexts could fairly easily be re-skinned to be D&D fantasy.

 

[Ulrick]

I felt constrained by 4e, which is one main reason I don't play it.

Creating stat blocks for high level 3.5e main NPCs can certainly be a chore. My problem is that I like trying out all the options available for 3.5e. I feel like I haven't explored that system thoroughly enough.

I would like to run 2e or earlier forms of D&D, when there wasn't a rule for nearly everything and DMing was by fiat (for the most part). But its difficult to get players.

 

[NN]

Any ruleset can only cover a small part of roleplaying gaming possibility.
So, if you only know one game, and try to force all your roleplaying ideas into that rule system, then yes, it will stifle your creativity.

 

[Ulrick]

I realized something: this thread touches upon the Great Paradox of RPG rules.

Rules Lite RPG = "There's not enough rules/options for everything!"
Rules heavy RPG = "AH! My creativity is constrained!"

And so the cycle continues...

 

[pemerton]

A lot of people have commented on character build rules. I think action resolution rules also connect to creativity pretty intimately.

I like action resolution rules that let the players at the table (including the GM) inject their own sense of what is happening in the gameworld, and which encourage building on one another's contributions to reach an outcome that no one predicted at the start of the encounter.

Open-ended encounter/adventure design also helps.

Different rulesets approach these matters in different ways. For my purposes 4e D&D does the job well, but other versions can also, I'm sure.