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<blockquote data-quote="Korgoth" data-source="post: 4279101" data-attributes="member: 49613">The problem with it is that the DM is what makes a game of D&amp;D go beyond mere &quot;theme mechanics&quot;.I played Arkham Horror with my friends last night.&nbsp; It's a great game and always a lot of fun.&nbsp; However, if you wanted to sit down and do the work, you could keep exactly the same game mechanics but strip away all the Cthulhoid theme elements.&nbsp; A board game is a set of mechanics with a &quot;paint job&quot; of theme.&nbsp; Sometimes the mechanics cleverly support the theme (like Knizia's Lord of the Rings game, which rewards self-sacrifice and punishes selfishness just like Tolkien) and sometimes the mechanics simply run independent of the theme.&nbsp; But any board game could be &quot;stripped of paint&quot; and re-themed.&nbsp; You could change the names of all the skills and powers in Arkham horror and rewrite all the flavor text and make the game about whatever you want.You can't do that with D&amp;D because the DM determines how things react based upon their meaning.&nbsp; D&amp;D incorporates semantics into its mechanics, you might say.&nbsp; As a DM I know that the players will do things I don't expect, and that if I know the NPCs then I can react appropriately.&nbsp; There's no way to strip the theme from the NPCs and have them still behave in the same way, because a character from a medieval fantasy milieu will react differently than one from a modern spy thriller or a science fiction tale.&nbsp; The things that in a board game we would call &quot;theme elements&quot; are bound up with everything we know about the individual milieu, setting and all the other particulars that go to making up our deliberations.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Korgoth, post: 4279101, member: 49613"] The problem with it is that the DM is what makes a game of D&D go beyond mere "theme mechanics". I played Arkham Horror with my friends last night. It's a great game and always a lot of fun. However, if you wanted to sit down and do the work, you could keep exactly the same game mechanics but strip away all the Cthulhoid theme elements. A board game is a set of mechanics with a "paint job" of theme. Sometimes the mechanics cleverly support the theme (like Knizia's Lord of the Rings game, which rewards self-sacrifice and punishes selfishness just like Tolkien) and sometimes the mechanics simply run independent of the theme. But any board game could be "stripped of paint" and re-themed. You could change the names of all the skills and powers in Arkham horror and rewrite all the flavor text and make the game about whatever you want. You can't do that with D&D because the DM determines how things react based upon their meaning. D&D incorporates semantics into its mechanics, you might say. As a DM I know that the players will do things I don't expect, and that if I know the NPCs then I can react appropriately. There's no way to strip the theme from the NPCs and have them still behave in the same way, because a character from a medieval fantasy milieu will react differently than one from a modern spy thriller or a science fiction tale. The things that in a board game we would call "theme elements" are bound up with everything we know about the individual milieu, setting and all the other particulars that go to making up our deliberations. [/QUOTE]

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