D&D General How has D&D changed over the decades?

[Laurefindel]

One thing I've found, which may just be the groups I've played with...

But when I started in 2E games, they were less campaign oriented. Not that it didn't happen, but it was more like an episodic TV show where you'd play a module, (or play through a dungeon crawl written by the DM) and then just move onto whatever came out (or was written) next. There was no real over-arcing plot.

These days the groups I've played with, there is an emphasis on the campaign from the start being more cohesive and planned.

Perhaps this is due to the modern trend of full campaign adventure paths vs shorter modules from the 2E era?
I can't really speak to how this evolved over time as I stopped playing pretty early on in 3E and didn't come back to 5E. It's more a direct comparison between now and then.

I think it's mostly how we describe or what constitutes a campaign that changed. Our AD&D 2E games were also a loose progression of smaller adventures, some with modules, some without, with characters (or series of characters) that would last for years upon years without any obvious conclusion. That, was the campaign.

Nowadays, the campaign I put-up are much shorter in scope, much more focused, much more thematic, typically with a clear conclusion in mind. These campaigns last a year or two before we finish it and pass onto a new one.

But semantics aside I agree; the structure of a D&D campaign has changed significantly over the years.

 

[Guest 7034872]

The dice used to be much bigger.

Or at least once upon a time my hands were smaller. I do remember that.

 

[Micah Sweet]

The dice used to be much bigger.

Everything seems so much smaller after you've grown up.

 

[TerraDave]

Aesthetically, olden D&D was more of an explicit sword and sorcery/historical earth paestich, with a medieval euro bent. But the whacky, wild, and anachronistic (to the extent that meant anything) was always there.

Not just the art. In the rules or adventures, there was sort of of this surface quality, a kinda fantasy 1400 Europe, until the bullettes attacks, or a trap changes someone's gender. Or until the 500 year old chest--with laser pistols--is discovered.

In the 80s there was tendency to tone this down to a more Tolkien+Renfaire approach. This also had some influence on words and not just pictures. But in the 1990s planescape, darksun, etc came out and things were wide open.

Now its all part of a sort of generic fantasy, itself heavily informed by D&D. I like much of the current art, but there is certainly a lack of grounding and often attitude that made the earlier work notable. And again, this is reflected in the rest of the games style.

 

[HammerMan]

I seem to recall someone saying that this was just a temporary shift in focus, and we weren't going to see stuff like Witchlight and Strixhaven as the standard from now on. WotC wouldn't call something out as optional, then immediately turn it around and say they are going the "optional" way as standard moving forward. Would they?

i mean... that is a hard one.

also I don't need every mod to be like that... but more then 1 every 10 years would be nice

 

[HammerMan]

Tasha's was billed as optional for an eyeblink. I wouldn't put it past them.

it's now as optional as you want to ignore everything going forward... like an edition change

 

[Jer]

From playing the game back then, it was like "we need the thief to open locked chests and doors and detect traps, we need the cleric to heal (or we're screwed), we need the magic user to cast spells and fighter to protect everyone" (though clerics could too as they could wear plate))

Right - what I meant by "original game" was the table that Gygax ran for his friends. From descriptions it sometimes sounds like they all had wizards and also each commanded small groups of henchmen and approached the dungeon playing multiple characters at once. (And to be fair, when I first started playing the game I was introduced to did work like that where we each would run 3-4 characters into a dungeon - it's only later that we decided that the game was "meant" to be played with a single character rather than a cadre of characters at one).

 

[Paul Farquhar]

Sounds like you're implying that a focus on combat is a sign of immaturity.

All I'm saying is I've changed over the decades. I'm pretty sure all the other older players here have too.

 

[Rikka66]

One thing I've found, which may just be the groups I've played with...

But when I started in 2E games, they were less campaign oriented. Not that it didn't happen, but it was more like an episodic TV show where you'd play a module, (or play through a dungeon crawl written by the DM) and then just move onto whatever came out (or was written) next. There was no real over-arcing plot.

These days the groups I've played with, there is an emphasis on the campaign from the start being more cohesive and planned.

Perhaps this is due to the modern trend of full campaign adventure paths vs shorter modules from the 2E era?
I can't really speak to how this evolved over time as I stopped playing pretty early on in 3E and didn't come back till 5E. It's more a direct comparison between now and then.

There's probably a correlation that can be mapped out with the same thing having happened in television.

 

[HammerMan]

One thing I've found, which may just be the groups I've played with...

But when I started in 2E games, they were less campaign oriented. Not that it didn't happen, but it was more like an episodic TV show where you'd play a module, (or play through a dungeon crawl written by the DM) and then just move onto whatever came out (or was written) next. There was no real over-arcing plot.

These days the groups I've played with, there is an emphasis on the campaign from the start being more cohesive and planned.

Perhaps this is due to the modern trend of full campaign adventure paths vs shorter modules from the 2E era?
I can't really speak to how this evolved over time as I stopped playing pretty early on in 3E and didn't come back till 5E. It's more a direct comparison between now and then.

my 1st game I ran (early 90's 2e) was more in line with how I later ran end of life/stage 4e games. However I did find MORE of the episodic adventures in 2e, my first campaign I ran (with a group that was learning as we went) was a little bit sandbox, a bunch of railroad, and very focused on the campaign and RP with not so much combat.

Spoiler

in game 1 they met a wizard that sat on the Mage Counsel (kind of a UN in the world) in fact he was the single most powerful member of said counsel. he how ever had found out the 5 (in theory) More powerful wizards (the sorcerer supreme counsel) had been corrupted by his own older brother, and became demonic (the fact that the older brother looked like a 20 something model, and the younger brother looked like an old man who just survived chemo was a bit of a give away something was up) and want the 1st level PCs to help him.
they were chosen because they were NOT powerful, but they had just (this was the end of game 1) helped save a small settlement form kobold raiders... they were potentially powerful but weak enough to go un noticed.
over the course of two years of playing they learned more about the 15 kingdoms (some just small towns, only 4 were really large enough to use that title) were all being manipulated by the 5 'powers' of the world (Mage Counsel Sorcerer Supreme Counsel(in theory that was supposed to be 1 with lessers getting promoted but they ened up in this shadow war) the free city of the Holy land an alliance of Demon worshipers, and a cult to a dead god/great old one... oh and that old mage they met game 1, he wasn't a good person either... in fact he manipulated the PCs into working together by paying the original kobold raiders to attack the town to see who would rise to the occasion.
On;ly 1 kingdom of the 15 (and yes one of the big 4) wasn't under the sway of one or more of those forces... and it had it's own circle of paladins that were slightly more crusaidery then heroes. (with 1 exception a young wizard/paladin duel classed human who was a major NPC they befriended.
98% of the game was in 1 way or another a manipulation and most came back to the Sorcerer Supreme Counsel (that ended up after 2 deaths having a 4th level wizard who was dating the leader, and a corrupted druid promoted over everyone on the mage counsel) and it's chaotic evil leader (the original older brother)... and they THOUGHT he was the end boss... until they realized the demonic thing he sold his soul to for more power, was the deadgod/great old one the cult worshiped, and he was a follower not a leader in the cult.
Every PC but 1 ended up having political power (some of them were like 14th level by the end...and not 1 of them could claim to have not been level drained at least once) and families (in 1 case children and grand children due to a weird planar time thingy) but they never actually stopped the bad guys... the game petered out JR year when we started doing other things and had multi games running at once.