D&D 5E Is D&D 90% Combat?

In response to Cubicle 7’s announcement that their next Doctor Who role playing game would be powered by D&D 5E, there was a vehement (and in some places toxic) backlash on social media. While that backlash has several dimensions, one element of it is a claim that D&D is mainly about combat.

Head of D&D Ray Winninger disagreed (with snark!), tweeting "Woke up this morning to Twitter assuring me that [D&D] is "ninety percent combat." I must be playing (and designing) it wrong." WotC's Dan Dillon also said "So guess we're gonna recall all those Wild Beyond the Witchlight books and rework them into combat slogs, yeah? Since we did it wrong."

So, is D&D 90% combat?



And in other news, attacking C7 designers for making games is not OK.

D&D 5E - Doctors & Daleks - Cubicle 7 Brings Doctor Who to D&D 5E

Cubicle 7 -- makers of the official Doctor Who roleplaying game -- has announced that the Doctor will officially be coming to 5E soon under the name Doctors and Daleks. There are no dates or details yet, over than that the Doctors and Daleks Player's Guide will launch 'soon'. A NEW COMPANION...

www.enworld.org

 

[Maxperson]

wow... okay color me surprised.

edit @Maxperson if 24% of the country admits openly to breaking a law (way worse then a game rule) and 12% think it is okay... I am starting to think that people who think rules of games are sacrosanct may not hold the majority you think they do.

Almost everyone commits felonies every day without even being aware of it. Plus, you are engaging in another false equivalence. People hold different things to be sacred. A person can view working under the table as okay, but cheating at a game as horrible.

 

[Guest 7034872]

Your post 1430 chess example where your better friend spots you a rook is a house rule, nobody is arguing against houserules. An example that was more comparable to someone deciding to bend the rules of d&d would be secretly flipping extra tile(s) while making a valid move in Go or Shogi & having your oponent not notice or not call you on cheating this time

The analogy with chess is an analogy. Wittgenstein's larger point is about languages, and his point--which applies to both games and languages--is that there is no central conceptual core to them around which an exhaustively adequate set of necessary and sufficient conditions can be given. The terms live and die by what he calls "family resemblances," not core defining criteria (because there is no such core, he thinks).

Especially over the past two weeks I've noticed something in EN World: people get into awfully acerbic and even personal quarrels over things where there simply is no fact of the matter for what they're quarreling about. Which makes me wonder: why the quarrel?

 

[tetrasodium]

The analogy with chess is an analogy. Wittgenstein's larger point is about languages, and his point--which applies to both games and languages--is that there is no central conceptual core to them around which an exhaustively adequate set of necessary and sufficient conditions can be given. The terms live and die by what he calls "family resemblances," not core defining criteria (because there is no such core, he thinks).

Especially over the past two weeks I've noticed something in EN World: people get into awfully acerbic and even personal quarrels over things where there simply is no fact of the matter for what they're quarreling about. Which makes me wonder: why the quarrel?

The exampleanalogy is fatally flawed for this purpose because it is a mutually agreed upon change. Your friend decided to spot you a rook & you accepted, you didn't spot yourself a rook when you thought the friend wasn't looking close enough.

 

[Guest 7034872]

The exampleanalogy is fatally flawed for this purpose because it is a mutually agreed upon change. Your friend decided to spot you a rook & you accepted, you didn't spot yourself a rook when you thought the friend wasn't looking close enough.

What do you suppose languages do?

 

[HammerMan]

It's my moral obligation to report what I observed, not make a judgment about it.

She's not entitled to steal. Period. People with the mindset that the poor should be allowed to steal from stores got 6 CVS stores closed because it got so bad. A bunch of poor people who needed jobs lost them because of those thieves. A bunch of people who used those local stores suddenly didn't have them to shop at any longer. The elderly who couldn't travel far and poor without vehicles got screwed.

this is crazy... I (and neither did anyone else) force 6 CVS store to close (I am assuming that was the place law enforcement changed things so at best you can argue about the law there) and no it is NOT my (or your) obligation... it IS your CHOICE.

i will not now nore will I ever stand with 'stealing a loaf of bread to feed my sisters child' being something I 1) need to stop 2) need to report or 3) have an OBLIGATION one way or another too

It invalidates those who work within the rules like they are supposed to.

how... you are saying it will but HOW? what does if I hit or miss or if Jonny hits or miss matter?

You're spitting on me and the work I do to kill something within the rules,

I am not spitting on you and neither is anyone else... I wonder how many people cheated you didn't catch, and how many times you have been spit on and no noticed... I bet 1 is more common.

since you just declare you hit for max damage with each swing? Whether you view it as spitting on me(metaphorically) or not isn't relevant, that IS what you are doing to me in a game that I am playing in if you cheat. When I join a game, I have the reasonable expectation that the rules mean something and will be followed.

why? you have no answeredWHY you feel this way just that you do.

 

[HammerMan]

Almost everyone commits felonies every day without even being aware of it. Plus, you are engaging in another false equivalence. People hold different things to be sacred. A person can view working under the table as okay, but cheating at a game as horrible.

wait... I thought you were MR LAW AND ORDER just a moment ago... you are okay with tax evasion but not fudging a die roll in a game...

 

[HammerMan]

cheating at a game as horrible.

I may finally have understood... Its been months of you saying things that didn't make sense, but in another thread someone said something to someone else and I think it may be it...

I get it now. You believe you are at war with your players and to give them any inch is a sign of weakness or surrendering your DM authority. Without tight rigid control the first thing players do is stomp over the DM. Players cannot be trusted to do what is best for a game and cannot be reasoned or compromised with. They can only know hard restrictions and they must earn their right to have fun.

now the full thing is a bit hyperbolic, but the concept is what hit me. I said in another thread I used to think like you as a teenager (and you thought I was calling you immature) but this is a MAJOR turn in how I dm today compared to 30 years ago.

I trust that my players and I (and my DMs and I) are all working togather. So if the DM fudges things, or a Player fudges things, it's okay as long as it all ends up fun.

War Vs Sport

does this make sense to you? are you seeing what I am?

You are at war...every choice is serious, every ruling must be perfect...or you lose the war.
I am playing a sport... it's just a game, if things don't go smoothly we can adjust them, but in the end it's just a fun time with friends...

 

[Maxperson]

wait... I thought you were MR LAW AND ORDER just a moment ago... you are okay with tax evasion but not fudging a die roll in a game...

Dude. I never even came close to saying that tax evasion was okay. ROFL

 

[HammerMan]

Almost everyone commits felonies every day without even being aware of it. Plus, you are engaging in another false equivalence. People hold different things to be sacred. A person can view working under the table as okay, but cheating at a game as horrible.

Dude. I never even came close to saying that tax evasion was okay. ROFL

almost everyone commits felonies every day (not sure that is true or testable) and then you said people hold 2 different thing sacred...

a person can view (Tax evasion) as okay but cheating at a game as horrible.

a crime is okay, fudgeing the dice isn't

 

[Maxperson]

I may finally have understood... Its been months of you saying things that didn't make sense, but in another thread someone said something to someone else and I think it may be it...

now the full thing is a bit hyperbolic, but the concept is what hit me. I said in another thread I used to think like you as a teenager (and you thought I was calling you immature) but this is a MAJOR turn in how I dm today compared to 30 years ago.

I am not now, nor have I ever been, at war with the players. My games are not adversarial in the slightest. You really need to stop assuming. You're bad at it.

I trust that my players and I (and my DMs and I) are all working togather.

Yep. I trust them not to cheat, since cheating violates the social contract and compromises the integrity of the game.

does this make sense to you? are you seeing what I am?

Not even close. I have no idea how you got to war and being adversarial from what I have been saying.