D&D General Disentangling D&D from D&D Fantasy

[Reynard]

Mine, if i may, is Sw5E and Neon Odyssey. "Spells" can be tech devices being used, software being run on a digital reality thst overlaps with reality, etc.

I havent seen anyone use them for special moves in a game where you play mystic martial artists, like if you made a Soul Calibur TTRPG, but it would work beautifully IMO.

Just to reiterate from the OP, the question isn't about doing other genres with D&D, it is about doing different kinds of fantasy beyond "D&D Fantasy."

 

[doctorbadwolf]

Just to reiterate from the OP, the question isn't about doing other genres with D&D, it is about doing different kinds of fantasy beyond "D&D Fantasy."

All the games i mentioned are fantasy.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

so I guess ‘like D&D’ is just another way to say ‘a TTRPG’ then

There are plenty of tabletop RPGs that don't have similar game play loops to D&D. Star Wars D6 is not one of them (a dungeon that is inside a space station the size of a small moon is still a dungeon). But one of the main ways it does differ from D&D is it doesn't have "choose one option from menu A and one from menu B" character creation.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

Just to reiterate from the OP, the question isn't about doing other genres with D&D, it is about doing different kinds of fantasy beyond "D&D Fantasy."

This is impossible, since D&D has always included all types of fantasy (and quite a lot of pulp SF as well).

 

[Tonguez]

Just to reiterate from the OP, the question isn't about doing other genres with D&D, it is about doing different kinds of fantasy beyond "D&D Fantasy."

Roll D20 + bonuses > DC is so basic that it works for lots of different genre. I've done a one shot Bi-Planes and Dragons using vehicle rules

 

[amethal]

Just to reiterate from the OP, the question isn't about doing other genres with D&D, it is about doing different kinds of fantasy beyond "D&D Fantasy."

Adventures in Middle Earth is obviously Fantasy but it isn't what I think of as D&D Fantasy.

But I still think of it as D&D, unlike The One Ring.

 

[Staffan]

It certainly can. I've certainly had some interesting 'if you can't systematically define Jazz music (in a way that doesn't exclude something you know to be Jazz), how do you know when something is experimental Jazz, and when it is a new genre?' style discussions. It also can devolve into a selective-True-Scotsman-esque 'this is D&D and without it it can't be D&D but that other thing is just something you always see with D&D but can be jettisoned' head-butting.

This reminds me of a video I saw recently, which talked about how scientists usually use language in a very different way from lay people. In science, words are used as boxes: we create strict definitions and say that a foo is anything that fulfills that particular definition. For example, a "dinosaur" is any animal descended from a particular ancestor, and since birds are descended from the same ancestor that means birds are dinosaurs. But in common parlance, words work as "magnets". When we say a particular word, we usually have a particular archetype, or set of related archetypes, in mind, and we evaluate other concepts based on how closely they match that archetype. So a lay person would probably consider a pterosaur a dinosaur, but not a crow, while the scientific definition is the opposite.

Are humans the dominant species of Eberron? I would argue not. A number of the powerful Houses are non-human, and there are powerful non-human nations as well.

Humans are definitely the dominant species of Khorvaire, which is the focus continent of the setting. They are probably dominant to a lesser degree than in Forgotten Realms or Greyhawk, and other species are locally dominant (e.g. halflings in Talenta) but Khorvaire was ruled for a thousand years by the Kingdom of Galifar, which was ruled by humans, and even before that the previous Five Nations were dominant in their respective regions.

 

[Reynard]

Humans are definitely the dominant species of Khorvaire, which is the focus continent of the setting. They are probably dominant to a lesser degree than in Forgotten Realms or Greyhawk, and other species are locally dominant (e.g. halflings in Talenta) but Khorvaire was ruled for a thousand years by the Kingdom of Galifar, which was ruled by humans, and even before that the previous Five Nations were dominant in their respective regions.

The status quo as presented in the Eberron setting guides is not one where humans are the dominant species in any meaningful way.

 

[tetrasodium]

Just to reiterate from the OP, the question isn't about doing other genres with D&D, it is about doing different kinds of fantasy beyond "D&D Fantasy."

That was kind of the vibe I got from the OP but also pretty sure that there's something being interpreted differently or a missing common experience.

Isnt that bolded bit something that has already happened in the gamelit/litrpg/dungeon core/etc grenres though? A few titles from those are

Spoiler: long list of mostly recent titles

so I'm a spider so what
That time I got reincarnated as a slime
Overlord
Goblin slayer
.hack/sign
Far away paladin
The unwanted adventurer
Skeleton knight
Solo leveling
Rising of the shield hero
Re:monster
Re:zero starting life in another world
The lazy dungeon master & other dungeon core stories that tend to not often jump from light novel/web novel to anime

I think that the biggest hurdle is something that you see in all of those titles that differs wildly from 5e. Either A there is more focus on things that 5e designed against and/it B the title took the d&d class chapter and threw it out the window into a bonfire. Usually C"the system" too. When the system allows the character to personally see the kinds of mechanical stuff that d&d fantasy might lean on from the core rulebooks it allows the author to make up skills powers and abilities that suit the plot rather than needing to make the character a 2-3 class high level gestalt like so many of mystara's chosen were.

That combo means that you can have stories like warlock of the magus world that is unquestionably set centuries after at least two of the official settings merged in a war they both lost but never really name drops anything or anywhere specific and even has the MC exploring the mechanics that the story creates rather than relying on d&d ones.

Or maybe I misunderstood something

 

[Reynard]

That was kind of the vibe I got from the OP but also pretty sure that there's something being interpreted differently or a missing common experience.

Isnt that bolded bit something that has already happened in the gamelit/litrpg/dungeon core/etc grenres though? A few titles from those are

Spoiler: long list of mostly recent titles

so I'm a spider so what
That time I got reincarnated as a slime
Overlord
Goblin slayer
.hack/sign
Far away paladin
The unwanted adventurer
Skeleton knight
Solo leveling
Rising of the shield hero
Re:monster
Re:zero starting life in another world
The lazy dungeon master & other dungeon core stories that tend to not often jump from light novel/web novel to anime

I think that the biggest hurdle is something that you see in all of those titles that differs wildly from 5e. Either A there is more focus on things that 5e designed against and/it B the title took the d&d class chapter and threw it out the window into a bonfire. Usually C"the system" too. When the system allows the character to personally see the kinds of mechanical stuff that d&d fantasy might lean on from the core rulebooks it allows the author to make up skills powers and abilities that suit the plot rather than needing to make the character a 2-3 class high level gestalt like so many of mystara's chosen were.

That combo means that you can have stories like warlock of the magus world that is unquestionably set centuries after at least two of the official settings merged in a war they both lost but never really name drops anything or anywhere specific and even has the MC exploring the mechanics that the story creates rather than relying on d&d ones.

Or maybe I misunderstood something

I am not sure what LitRPG has to do with this. Can you clarify?