D&D General WotC Asks What Makes YOU Play Dungeons and Dragons?

WotC has a new survey asking about what you want from D&D -- "Extra extra! The D&D team wants to know what makes YOU play Dungeons & Dragons! The open world? Character customization? Shared storytelling with friends? Iconic art? Take our survey and help shape the future of what we're working on at Wzards. Please share to help us spread the word and hear from more fans."

https://www.surveygizmo.com/s3/5231853/pas?sglocale=en

 

[Lanefan]

In my previous post, I was talking specifically and only about the survey items labeled "Motivations for Playing D&D". For me, these were presented as three pages with 10 items on each page. I suppose it is possible that they only presented a subset of those items to each participant, but that seems like a really weird way to structure that part of the survey. If you're asking about someone's motivations, you probably don't want to presume you (partially) know the answer and a priori exclude some possibilities.

However, it's abundantly clear some possibilities were excluded, mostly variants on (rate 1 disagree to 10 agree):

"I play D&D to do (or attempt) crazy things I can't do in real life" [i.e. how gonzo are you as a player?]
"I play D&D mostly for laughs and entertainment" [i.e. how seriously do you take the game as a whole?]
"I play D&D to simulate a world that is not the world I live in" [i.e. are you a simulationist?]

There's probably others, but these are ones I really noticed by their absence.

 

[aco175]

Kind of like the Army survey where they ask if you love your mother. Then they ask the same thing a few more ways.

 

[Ath-kethin]

I'm curious about what other people chose as their favorite sourcebooks of all time. I picked the Ravenloft Campaign Setting (red box) but there are at least 2-3 other 2e books that are also huge contenders for me.

I had to give it serious though, but ended up choosing Secrets of the Lamp. It's the only supplement that has seen use in literally every game I've run since I bought it back in 1995 or so.

 

[Tony Vargas]

More interestingly, a couple of WoTC's survey items broach a concept that isn't really covered by any of the 8 categories, but perhaps should have been - group leadership. The closest the 8 categories get is "Fellowship", but that is usually described as focused on desire to be part of a cooperative group; motivation based on being the group's leader is a bit different dynamic.

Yeah, that was a little weird. IMX, 'party leader' is at best a hot potato. The face may present as party leader in a negotiation, for instance, but no one really wants to take up such futile cat-herding as a regular responsibility.

 

[Lanefan]

Maybe they're testing the waters to see how popular a 'Captain America' type of leader archetype would be as a character design, not just with those who'd want to play it but tangentially with those who don't.

You'd think they'd have already learned that lesson with all the Paladin experiments over the years and editions, though...

 

[Harzel]

Yeah, that was a little weird. IMX, 'party leader' is at best a hot potato. The face may present as party leader in a negotiation, for instance, but no one really wants to take up such futile cat-herding as a regular responsibility.

'No one' might be a little strong. Kids often think that being in charge is cool. The futility of cat-herding seems to be something everyone has to learn for themselves. And then there are some people who really do like being in charge, although, sadly, most of them are people that you really don't want to have in charge.

 

[Tony Vargas]

'No one' might be a little strong.

"No one" IMX, so far. Who knows? In my upcoming 40th year of gaming, I may finally bump into someone jonesing to be "Party Leader."

 

[Lanefan]

"No one" IMX, so far. Who knows? In my upcoming 40th year of gaming, I may finally bump into someone jonesing to be "Party Leader."

Hell, sign me up - I'll do it.

Not being very good at it means I'll likely lead the party straight off a cliff and into their graves, mind you...

 

[Tony Vargas]

And then there are some people who really do like being in charge, although, sadly, most of them are people that you really don't want to have in charge.

Yeah, no I can't say I've seen any of that, ei-

Hell, sign me up - I'll do it.

Not being very good at it means I'll likely lead the party straight off a cliff and into their graves, mind you...

... nevermind.