Dungeons & Dragons: Is anything essential?

[Doug McCrae]

There have been several threads recently, some serious, some humorous, asking if different aspects of the game are essential or just sacred cows.

Is any one aspect of the game essential? Obviously if enough aspects are changed at once, it would cease to be D&D. But what about a single element? Are d20s to hit essential? What about a particular class? Do we need wizards? What about the class system as a whole? Levels? The plethora of monsters and magic items? What if there were no monsters, or no dungeons. Would the game still work?

 

[Angel Tarragon]

If levels went bye-bye with the next edition I'll be done with support for the game. If the game used the generic classes from Unearthed Arcana, that might be neat.

 

[crazy_monkey1956]

As long as you have "dungeons" and "dragons" it could still qualify to be Dungeons & Dragons. Anything outside of those two parameters is essentially optional.

 

[Doug McCrae]

As long as you have "dungeons" and "dragons" it could still qualify to be Dungeons & Dragons. Anything outside of those two parameters is essentially optional.

Are dragons all that important? They're just another monster among many aren't they? Dark Sun has only one so technically it's Dungeons & Dragon.

Personally I don't like dragons very much so I never put the PCs up against one, but I think the game I'm running is still D&D and it still works (more or less).

 

[Angel Tarragon]

As long as you have "dungeons" and "dragons" it could still qualify to be Dungeons & Dragons. Anything outside of those two parameters is essentially optional.

Heck, GURPS fantasy has dragons, and any world has dungeons.

So, you'd be fine if Steve Jackson hopped aboard for the next edition of dnd?

 

[crazy_monkey1956]

Heck, GURPS fantasy has dragons, and any world has dungeons.

So, you'd be fine if Steve Jackson hopped aboard for the next edition of dnd?

Actually...well, not just SJ alone...I wouldn't want to see Munchkin D&D or GURPS D&D, but some of the design concepts behind GURPS could make for some interesting twists to D&D as we know it.

 

[Arnwyn]

There have been several threads recently, some serious, some humorous, asking if different aspects of the game are essential or just sacred cows.

Is any one aspect of the game essential?

Classes, IMO. D&D has to remain a class-based system, AFAIC. (Maybe even levels, too.)

 

[gizmo33]

Strangely enough, for a game that uses real world mythology for it's monsters, there are no actual sacred cows in DnD - I guess a Gorgon with a Celestial template is as close as you can get.

 

[TheYeti1775]

There have been several threads recently, some serious, some humorous, asking if different aspects of the game are essential or just sacred cows.

Is any one aspect of the game essential? Obviously if enough aspects are changed at once, it would cease to be D&D. But what about a single element? Are d20s to hit essential? What about a particular class? Do we need wizards? What about the class system as a whole? Levels? The plethora of monsters and magic items? What if there were no monsters, or no dungeons. Would the game still work?

There is only one essential thing.

PLAYERS

Without them, the game ceases.

 

[JDJblatherings]

character classes,ability scores, levels, HP and armor class.