D&D mindset in other games

[Ed_Laprade]

One way to break out of the rut of the so-called "D&D mindset" is to play a superheroes campaign, especially one that is "4-Color"/"Golden Age"/"Silver Age" as opposed to "Iron Age" or "Noir."

The reason is that the superheroic campaign simply doesn't reward the "D&D mindset" for the most part. Most supers don't improve by buying new stuff or taking others' gear, they improve themselves.

Usually. We played a DC Heroes game (I thik it was) where someone decided to be a ex sniper and had a good rifle. Turns out it was the best 'power' in the group! (But that campain went down in flames for other reasons pretty quickly anyway.)

For Call of Cthulu five gallon cans of gasoline with dynamite taped to them. If they don't stop the monster run away. And keep running until you're at least in the next state!

So the problem can creep into a game even if no one has any intention of allowing it to do so. It can be insidious, especially when your character's life is at stake.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Usually. We played a DC Heroes game (I thik it was) where someone decided to be a ex sniper and had a good rifle. Turns out it was the best 'power' in the group! (But that campain went down in flames for other reasons pretty quickly anyway.)

But see, that PC concept is not 4-Color, Golden Age or Silver Age- that's solidly a Noir or Iron Age concept.

The 4C/GA/SA comics didn't have dark heroic characters or storylines beyond the odd star-crossed romance. Those are strictly "White Hat"/"Black Hat" genres.

Which, of course, brings up the classic Western as a non-"D&D" game as well. Good guys like the Lone Ranger often didn't kill at all. Whatever demons they had usually didn't show up on the screen (exception: Branded).

 

[scourger]

Heck yes I've seen it. My buddies just about ruined Star Wars for me by turning it into D&D in Space. Smaller groups are usually better about getting into the groove of other games, but the players are usually looking for "power-ups" for the characters by picking up stuff that the bad guys "drop" (or hoard, hide or whatever). I think part of it is because they are mostly starved for resources in most games--or they think they are. Overall, we just don't play enough other games for my taste; so at this point I would welcome them ruining a non-D&D game by turning it into D&D.

 

[rgard]

<snip>

Which, of course, brings up the classic Western as a non-"D&D" game as well. Good guys like the Lone Ranger often didn't kill at all. Whatever demons they had usually didn't show up on the screen (exception: Branded).

That reminds me, 'Sidewinder'. Killed everything that moved, took their stuff; until somebody killed our characters and took our stuff.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

That reminds me, 'Sidewinder'. Killed everything that moved, took their stuff; until somebody killed our characters and took our stuff.

Again, that's more of a modern western thing: even in the Spaghetti Westerns of the '60s and '70s, there was lots of killin'...but generally, the only loot taken was bona fide loot. Gold. Cash. Horses, on occasion.

Guns, when taken, were frequently discarded...tossed in some river or ravine where they were unlikely to be recovered.

 

[delericho]

Do you find this? Do you see the D&D mindset in Players regardless of the game and setting?

I've only ever seen this problem with d20 games. It's as if there's a little mental switch in the heads of my players: if the rules system is anything other than d20, they adapt just fine, but if the rules are d20, then the game is D&D. It may be "D&D in space" or "D&D with Cthulhu", or "D&D with Mecha", but it's D&D all the same.

As an experiment, when my SWSE campaign returns from its "season break", I'm going to tell my players outright that they should just equip their PCs with whatever gear they feel is appropriate, because I simply don't want to deal with it. With luck, that might get rid of the "kill everything that moves, and then steal everything that doesn't" mentality.

 

[Mark Hope]

My co-host Vince on our podcast has a really funny story about his D&D-centric players in his WoD Inquisition game always wanting to know how many gp they get from looting the bad guys, and how many gp it will take to bump up their Resources dots . Drives him up the wall.

 

[Raven Crowking]

"Look, guys. This is baseball. You can't kill the other team and take their stuff!"

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

"Look, guys. This is baseball. You can't kill the other team and take their stuff!"

You alllllmost got it.

"Are you looting? Are you looting? ARE YOU LOOTING? There's no looting! THERE'S NO LOOTING IN BASEBALL!"

 

[Mathew_Freeman]

I play a lot of D&d, but occasionally I branch out with some other RPG friends and play some other stuff.

The thing that always gets me about these games isn't "Kill things and take their stuff" but "Don't split the party!". Other RPGs positively encourage individual players to go off and do their own thing, safe in the knowledge they're not going to get jumped by a large group of goblins and beaten to death.

They may, of course be arrested/trapped/negotiated into a promise they can't keep/offered as sacrifice/meet someone the rest of the group don't like/a million other possibilities, but they won't just die.