Vaalingrade
Legend
But basically 'not D&D' is really just when the person doesn't like it anymore. Like when someone becomes 'not a True Scotsman'.
But basically 'not D&D' is really just when the person doesn't like it anymore. Like when someone becomes 'not a True Scotsman'.
the fact that people think that any D&D doesn't count... even if somehow WotC published a d6 only west end games style and called it 'basic D*D' it would STILL be d&D even if it was very differentBut basically 'not D&D' is really just when the person doesn't like it anymore. Like when someone becomes 'not a True Scotsman'.
Legally speaking, absolutely. But I prefer not to think exclusively in those terms. If I did, Level Up wouldn't be D&D, and to me it absolutely is.the fact that people think that any D&D doesn't count... even if somehow WotC published a d6 only west end games style and called it 'basic D*D' it would STILL be d&D even if it was very different
the fact that people think that any D&D doesn't count... even if somehow WotC published a d6 only west end games style and called it 'basic D*D' it would STILL be d&D even if it was very different
You know, I thought I smelled smoke coming from the "General Tabletop Discussion - Dungeons & Dragons" forum.Thinking about this more and more, and returning to prior ideas I've had (generated from other games), did get me wondering:
How much could you change D&D (5E as the current version) and still feel like it is D&D?
UPDATE: Given some of the responses... My question is focused on 5E, and changes to it, that would make the next iteration NOT feel like D&D? (So, references about prior versions isn't really the intended thrust.)
Spaceships, ninjas, ESP, shotguns, and robots don't really "feel like D&D" to me. I already have G.U.R.P.S. on my bookshelf, right next to Stars Without Number and Call of Cthulhu. I have no interest in a "comedy D&D," or a "sci-fi D&D," or a "horror D&D." These will always be separate games in my mind.
I think back to when I first started playing with the "red box" Basic: race and class were mashed together, there was no such thing as a "background" or a "feat," armor class was upside-down, and there were only 4 pieces of armor to choose from (leather, chain, plate, and shield).It's interesting that I focused on mechanics, but you focused on flavor, and I think you are absolutely right that there are things that D&D absolutely has to have if it is D&D and that there are also things tangential enough to being D&D that their inclusion in the base game would seem sketchy to me.
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But although I quibble about your particular choices, I do agree that if you changed enough flavor and removed enough of the things that we associate with the flavor of D&D that this would be a D20 game of some sort, but not D&D.
Wil Wheaton when asked if 4E was -real d&d- said:If you're playing The Keep on the Borderlands, it's D&D.