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Message: <blockquote data-quote="ExploderWizard" data-source="post: 6251252" data-attributes="member: 66434">The concepts of multi-racial parties of adventurers, gaining levels and facing more dangerous threats are certainly a staple of D&D the brand. Other fantasy rpgs make liberal use of these concepts but they largely come from D&D. As far as combat being pre-eminent as a form of conflict resolution, that is more game dependent and will vary based upon both the mechanics used and the rewards system in place for a particular game. Likewise with regard to missile vs melee combat. The game as originally designed, featured adventurers seeking wealth & power and going on dangerous adventures to aquire it. The actual mechanics encouraged clever thoughtful play. Right out of the gate, engaging in head to head straight up combat with evenly matched foes was a recipe for frequent PC death. On average a PC or a monster could be killed in a single hit. Clever players figured out that trusting survival to what amounted to a coin flip wasn't such a great idea, and thus developed ideas for obtaining treasure that had somewhat better than 50/50 odds. Developing and implementing those player created ideas was the game. The combat system was designed that way on purpose. If toe to toe fighting was the all around best path to victory then the dice could handle playing the game and the players contributions would be minimal. As far as melee combat being favored over missile fire, the mechanics don't bear that out. The only possible bonus to attack rolls (per standard OD&D rules) for beginning PCs was a +1 to hit for ranged attacks due to a DEX of 13+. Aside from that, short range missile fire provided an additional bonus to hit. Flaming oil was also a very effective weapon. The combat mechanics did thier best to hint that engaging in melee was a last resort. It was what happened when plans went to crap. When you think about it, who would really want a 50/50 chance to survive being plan A? So, specific mechanical constructs aside, the game involved trying to survive and grow more powerful and wealthy at the same time. You can change little mechanical bits here and there without significantly changing the game. The actual game can also be changed while largely keeping the mechanics very close. For example, assuming the PCs are heroes and primarily rewarding characters for facing pre-defined challenges instead of for aquiring wealth & power by designs of thier own changes the game tremendously on a fundamental level. So does making combat one of the most attractive ways to succeed by making it far more survivable when approached head on. Many fantasy rpgs have adopted features of the D&D brand. Very few fantasy rpgs have adopted features of the D&D game including later versions of D&D itself. There are still some fans (myself included) who love both the D&D brand AND game, and would be happy to see them both as a single entity again.</blockquote>

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