As many of you folks have likely noticed by now, I ran two polls here, on rpg.net, and on nine different D&D-related subreddits: "What makes D&D feel like D&D?" and "What elements does D&D need to keep?"
Before I step back from this for the foreseeable, I figured it might be interesting to take the final tallies from both polls (364 responses for "feel" and 389 for "keep") and compare them - to see want people feel is part of D&D, as opposed to what they want to keep in the game. (This also addresses the question that led to the second poll even happening.)
I'm using the same general tiers I used in every previous poll summary; however, this time, items in bold are in the same tiers between the two sets (you'll see why):
Observations:
Disclaimers:
1. I am not a professional pollster; I am only one person with few analytic resources at my disposal.
2. These polls were very simplistic and binary. As such, while the polls indicate affirmative support, they do not indicate what a lack of support means - it could be anything from "I don't care" to "I hate this". However, this information could be captured by different polls.
3. The polls do not reflect intensity of support, which could also be captured by more sophisticated polls. This means it's possible that support for an element may be weaker than it seems (if lots of people support it, but only weakly) or stronger than it seems (if fewer people support it, but very strongly). I don't know how much impact this would have on the high and low ends of the scale, where the very large or very small numbers of votes would be hard to override, but it could mean a lot for stuff in the middle.
4. I deliberately kept the descriptions of each element broad, because I didn't want to favor any one edition's approach to, say, saving throws. However, I am informed that this led some folks to not vote in favor of elements they might have otherwise supported. This is unfortunate, but it's too late for me to fix now.
5. The sample sizes for the two polls are small, especially considering how many people had the opportunity to answer (at least hundreds here and thousands on Reddit). So these results can really only be said to reflect the views of the respondents, might reflect the communities they came from, and only possibly suggest trends among online D&D fans, or D&D fans generally.
6. In short, these results shouldn't be taken as the final, definitive answers to the questions. But I still think they're interesting.
Before I step back from this for the foreseeable, I figured it might be interesting to take the final tallies from both polls (364 responses for "feel" and 389 for "keep") and compare them - to see want people feel is part of D&D, as opposed to what they want to keep in the game. (This also addresses the question that led to the second poll even happening.)
I'm using the same general tiers I used in every previous poll summary; however, this time, items in bold are in the same tiers between the two sets (you'll see why):
| What makes D&D feel like D&D? | What elements does D&D need to keep? | |
| Very important (80% and up) | Ability scores (Str, Dex, Con, Int, Wis, Cha): 302 [82.96%] Levels: 295 [81.04%] Distinct character classes: 293 [80.49%] | Distinct character classes: 350 [89.97%] Levels: 342 [87.92%] Ability scores (Str, Dex, Con, Int, Wis, Cha): 335 [86.12%] Using multiple types of dice: 328 [84.32%] Hit points: 326 [83.80%] |
| Important (60% to 80%) | Hit points: 266 [73.08%] Armor Class: 259 [71.15%] Using multiple types of dice: 249 [68.41%] Saving throws: 222 [60.99%] | Armor Class: 308 [79.18%] Distinct character races/lineages: 297 [76.35%] Saving throws: 280 [71.98%] Lists of specific spells: 267 [68.64%] Initiative: 265 [68.12%] |
| Debatable (40% to 60%) | Distinct character races/lineages: 203 [55.77%] Lists of specific spells: 188 [51.65%] Experience points: 181 [49.73%] Alignment: 168 [46.15%] Initiative: 152 [41.76%] | Lists of specific magic items: 227 [58.35%] Damage types: 219 [56.30%] Conditions: 200 [51.41%] Creature types: 197 [50.64%] Multiclassing: 196 [50.39%] Lists of specific equipment: 195 [50.13%] Feats: 189 [48.59%] Advantage/disadvantage: 187 [48.07%] Proficiencies: 185 [47.56%] Experience points: 184 [47.30%] Hit dice: 167 [42.93%] |
| Less important (20% to 40%) | Lists of specific magic items: 131 [35.99%] Hit dice: 114 [31.32%] Lists of specific equipment: 99 [27.20%] Creature types: 86 [23.63%] Damage types: 85 [23.35%] | Deities: 155 [39.85%] Backgrounds: 146 [37.53%] Surprise: 143 [36.76%] Alignment: 128 [32.90%] Challenge ratings: 100 [25.71%] Great Wheel cosmology: 80 [20.57%] |
| Not important (20% and below) | Deities: 69 [18.96%] Multiclassing: 56 [15.38%] Great Wheel cosmology: 56 [15.38%] Proficiencies: 52 [14.29%] Feats: 49 [13.46%] Surprise: 42 [11.54%] Challenge ratings: 38 [10.44%] Conditions: 36 [9.89%] Advantage/disadvantage: 33 [9.07%] Backgrounds: 26 [7.14%] World Axis cosmology: 23 [6.32%] | World Axis cosmology: 34 [8.74%] |
Observations:
- As you may have noticed, there's very little overlap as far as tiers. There are lots and lots of elements that respondents thought were not part of D&D's feel, but voted much more strongly in favor of keeping... though many of those low-ranking "feel" elements only rose to the "debatable" middle in the "keep" poll.
- I feel pretty confident in saying that ability scores, levels, and distinct character classes were strongly supported in general by respondents, considering they ranked at the top of both polls (though for whatever reason, in exactly the opposite order). I don't think I'd try making a version of D&D that lacked them, at least if I wanted the forums to support me. Armor Class and saving throws also seem to be solid runners-up in both polls.
- XP garners mixed opinions, whether it's a matter of feel or desire to keep. (Also, those vote counts are weirdly close.)
- Excepting the top-tier stuff, most of the generic elements shared widely by other RPGs (multiple dice, initiative, etc.) scored much lower on "feel", but were still desirable to keep.
- Only two things actually score lower in "keep" than "feel". One is XP, although only by a few percentage points, so not likely significant. More notable is alignment - almost half thought it was part of D&D's feel, but only about a third actively want to keep it. (I admit that's not a result I wanted to see, but it is what it is.)
- The Great Wheel cosmology rates higher in "keep" than "feel", although not by much. That seems counterintuitive to me, considering it's a lore element, but there it is.
- I want to give the World Axis a hug at this point.
Disclaimers:
1. I am not a professional pollster; I am only one person with few analytic resources at my disposal.
2. These polls were very simplistic and binary. As such, while the polls indicate affirmative support, they do not indicate what a lack of support means - it could be anything from "I don't care" to "I hate this". However, this information could be captured by different polls.
3. The polls do not reflect intensity of support, which could also be captured by more sophisticated polls. This means it's possible that support for an element may be weaker than it seems (if lots of people support it, but only weakly) or stronger than it seems (if fewer people support it, but very strongly). I don't know how much impact this would have on the high and low ends of the scale, where the very large or very small numbers of votes would be hard to override, but it could mean a lot for stuff in the middle.
4. I deliberately kept the descriptions of each element broad, because I didn't want to favor any one edition's approach to, say, saving throws. However, I am informed that this led some folks to not vote in favor of elements they might have otherwise supported. This is unfortunate, but it's too late for me to fix now.
5. The sample sizes for the two polls are small, especially considering how many people had the opportunity to answer (at least hundreds here and thousands on Reddit). So these results can really only be said to reflect the views of the respondents, might reflect the communities they came from, and only possibly suggest trends among online D&D fans, or D&D fans generally.
6. In short, these results shouldn't be taken as the final, definitive answers to the questions. But I still think they're interesting.
