D&D General Did anyone ever "win" D&D?

[Li Shenron]

My question is, has anyone ever done that?

Not even remotely. I am of those few who think that divine ascension is a trite boring cliché.

As I get older and more experienced of RPGing, I tend to rather go the opposite way, and (just as an example) I am even interested in having encounters where the monsters cannot be killed and "winning" the encounter equals saving your ass. More Indiana Jones and less superheroes, so to speak...

 

[Deuce Traveler]

The exception here - one of the only exceptions in almost forty years of D&D history, seems to be characters in Basic D&D that - as laid down in the Immortals set, and again later in the Wrath of the Immortals boxed set - become "double immortal," as I call it. That is, the characters become Hierarch Immortals (the highest tier of the Immortal ranks), and then give up their immortality to become a 1st-level mortal character, and then manage to become a Hierarch Immortal a second time.

At that point, the material indicates that the character is immediately brought through the Dimensional Vortex (e.g. the edge of the multiverse) to become one of the Old Ones (no relation to anything by Lovecraft), and so is beyond the scope of the game.
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My question is, has anyone ever done that?

I know exactly what you are talking about, as I am a huge BECMI fan. The answer as far as I know is 'no'. I believe I even asked Frank Mentzer this at GaryCon years ago and he also didn't know of anyone who pulled it off. Maybe it could be done with a DM dedicated to try with some equally dedicated players, but it would take decades of constant play, and some luck. Have you asked over at Dragonsfoot where the grognards hang out and ask Frank and company Q&As?

 

[randomwizard]

There are some rough estimates about the amount of time it would take to win BECMI here.
http://randomwizard.blogspot.com/2012/10/winning-at-dungeons-and-dragons.html

I can't see anyone putting in this amount of investment.

 

[pemerton]

The exception here - one of the only exceptions in almost forty years of D&D history, seems to be characters in Basic D&D that - as laid down in the Immortals set, and again later in the Wrath of the Immortals boxed set - become "double immortal," as I call it. That is, the characters become Hierarch Immortals (the highest tier of the Immortal ranks), and then give up their immortality to become a 1st-level mortal character, and then manage to become a Hierarch Immortal a second time.

At that point, the material indicates that the character is immediately brought through the Dimensional Vortex (e.g. the edge of the multiverse) to become one of the Old Ones (no relation to anything by Lovecraft), and so is beyond the scope of the game.

I think 4e PCs who achieve their Destiny Quest and end up attaining the immortality that is described in their Epic Destiny have "won" in your sense - the PC moves outside the scope of the game.

 

[GX.Sigma]

From Wikipedia:

Robilar was also the first to enter Gygax's Temple of Elemental Evil, and trashed it from top to bottom, even freeing the demoness Zuggtmoy from her prison at the centre of the Temple. Kuntz later related that Gygax was very dismayed that his masterpiece dungeon had been destroyed by a single adventurer, and as punishment, Gygax had an army pursue Robilar all the way back to his castle, which Robilar was forced to abandon.

The lesson: even if you win D&D, the DM can still wreck all of your .

 

[ImperatorK]

I win every time I play.

This.

 

[Kasbark]

I guess it depends on how you look at it. Have I ever seen anyone win in the manner OP described? nope. But I've seen plenty of players win or loose a campaing based on the story.

We play heavily storydriven games, and there are always an overarching goal the players are attempting to achieve. Sometimes they succeed, and sometimes they fail. And failing a d&d campaign can be even more memorable than winning it, sometimes.

 

[Mad Hamish]

Waldorf clearly won D&D

 

[Alzrius]

I think 4e PCs who achieve their Destiny Quest and end up attaining the immortality that is described in their Epic Destiny have "won" in your sense - the PC moves outside the scope of the game.

Hm, interesting point. I'm not sure if I'd include that in the sense of "winning" as "using an in-game method to move beyond the scope of the game" if only because becoming a deity (or otherwise being retired and becoming an NPC) still has the character in the setting itself - and so they can later "come back" without any sort of explanation or cognitive dissonance about their appearance. Becoming one of the Old Ones and moving beyond the Dimensional Vortex removes the character from the game-multiverse altogether.

 

[Tequila Sunrise]

Nobody has ever won my campaign, because Io is my end boss.