NOW LIVE! Today's the day you meet your new best friend. You don’t have to leave Wolfy behind... In 'Pets & Sidekicks' your companions level up with you!

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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Charlaquin" data-source="post: 8265774" data-attributes="member: 6779196">(...)You know, I’ve observed that a lot of people who express similar sentiments also focus on the dungeon crawls thing. And like... I don’t think it’s really in dispute that D&D can do things other than dungeon crawls? I mean, sure, a lot of D&D is geared towards that, but I think when people say “D&D doesn’t do other genres well,” they’re not saying D&D can’t do mysteries, or politics, or survival/horror, or scifi or whatever. They’re saying that D&D does those things in a way that is very particular to D&D, and that if you’re looking to do something that isn’t so particular to D&D, it is often better to look elsewhere.Right, so this is kinda what I’m getting at. Yes, you can run a game in a modern setting with strong Lovecraftian horror elements using D&D’s system. But it’s still a fundamentally different sort of game than, say, Call of Cthulu, due to the way the different systems are designed to create different play patterns. D&D characters start relatively weak and accumulate power as they overcome challenges and gain experience, whereas CoC characters start at their strongest and are continually worn down through physical and psychological trauma until they can no longer keep going. You say the insanity-death spiral mode is your least favorite part of CoC, but that, far more so than the setting or the particular dice mechanics, is what makes CoC, CoC. And it’s something D&D doesn’t really do well. For someone who does want that kind of play, CoC is going to suit their needs better than D&D does.It’s interesting to me that your focus seems to be heavily on general RPG systems rather than highly specific ones. GURPS, BRP, d20, they’re all big-tent systems designed to be usable for a wide variety of different settings and genres. Even CoC is basically a Lovecraftian BRP hack. I believe what’s being discussed here are the far more specific systems made to do one particular thing very well.</blockquote>

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