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<blockquote data-quote="Whizbang Dustyboots" data-source="post: 8801052" data-attributes="member: 11760">If you couldn't see the books or character sheets being used but just had to watch or listen to a game being played, you can immediately tell a D&amp;D-derived game, as opposed to something in the same dungeon-crawling genre like Dungeon World.The things that make a game &quot;D&amp;D&quot; for non-lawyers are a whole host of standards and sacred cows like level-based advancement, funny dice that are used to adjudicate actions in the world, armor class and hit points, etc. You don't have to have everything on the list (which is a pretty long list, if one sat down to create it) but once you lose too much of it, it becomes something different. But when you have most of them, the games are largely interoperable and all the players can speak the same language, even if they sometimes have regional accents and the like.I have never played 13th Age or even touched a rulebook for it. I am confident I could sit down at a table and play it more or less immediately. Likewise Pathfinder or Shadow of the Demon Lord or Adventures in Middle Earth. I wouldn't even have to open a book to create a character and start playing OSE.That's what I -- and the general public -- understand as a game being D&amp;D.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Whizbang Dustyboots, post: 8801052, member: 11760"] If you couldn't see the books or character sheets being used but just had to watch or listen to a game being played, you can immediately tell a D&D-derived game, as opposed to something in the same dungeon-crawling genre like Dungeon World. The things that make a game "D&D" for non-lawyers are a whole host of standards and sacred cows like level-based advancement, funny dice that are used to adjudicate actions in the world, armor class and hit points, etc. You don't have to have everything on the list (which is a pretty long list, if one sat down to create it) but once you lose too much of it, it becomes something different. But when you have most of them, the games are largely interoperable and all the players can speak the same language, even if they sometimes have regional accents and the like. I have never played 13th Age or even touched a rulebook for it. I am confident I could sit down at a table and play it more or less immediately. Likewise Pathfinder or Shadow of the Demon Lord or Adventures in Middle Earth. I wouldn't even have to open a book to create a character and start playing OSE. That's what I -- and the general public -- understand as a game being D&D. [/QUOTE]

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