D&D 5E Is D&D a Story or a Game? Discuss.

[robus]

"Make believe" is neither a game nor Dungeons and Dragons.

Let's try this again.

The rules provide a common language for the players and DM to navigate the make believe worlds of D&D.

The game is the application of said rules when the players via their characters navigate the make believe world.

The story is the emergent narrative of said navigation in that make believe world.

Too many "make believes" perhaps?

 

[Magil]

Let's try this again.

The rules provide a common language for the players and DM to navigate the make believe worlds of D&D.

The game is the application of said rules when the players via their characters navigate the make believe world.

The story is the emergent narrative of said navigation in that make believe world.

Too many "make believes" perhaps?

I disagree on a fundamental level. There is no world except that which the players and the DM create. That's a setting. It informs the game. The story is what you call the game after the fact. The story is what does happen. The game is all that could happen. Dungeons and Dragons is a set of rules that tells you what could happen.

 

[happyhermit]

To me, D&D is about role-play. Not just in the "talk funny" sense but the activity of trying to accurately portray characters, their interactions with others, and the world. D&D gives me a system for resolving things like combat that are unsatisfactorily resolved through RP alone. I don't like it much as "a way to tell stories", there are better games for that IMO. We do tell a lot of stories after the fact and often a campaign can be retroactively divided into story arcs, but in my favorite games we didn't try to create those stories, we just tried to play our characters and the GM tried to play the world. There are better games for tactical combat too, imo, so when I want to play a game focused on that, I do.

 

[robus]

I disagree on a fundamental level. There is no world except that which the players and the DM create. That's a setting. It informs the game. The story is what you call the game after the fact. The story is what does happen. The game is all that could happen. Dungeons and Dragons is a set of rules that tells you what could happen.

Huh - I read the quote above as quite similar in spirit to my summary! But yes let's agree to disagree then.

 

[lysrinn]

It depends on the focus. If you are a person that likes rolling dice and succeeding or failing on the chance of the roll, I'd say for that person its a game with a story attached to it. If you play for the characters, the exploration, and the discovery of the world your character inhabits, I'd say it is a story with game elements.

 

[Fleetwood C. DeVille]

Its a game that often creates a story as it progresses. Usually a story worthy of an Ator movie but a story nonetheless. I don't approach it as a storytelling exercise, aka that characters have plot immunity or X must happen. Sometimes the story is quick and painful, some schmucks leave the farm behind and die horribly from an ooze in a dank pit. Sometimes its saving the universe. I focus on the game and the story flows out of that.

This describes our campaign to a T. We play the game and afterward I transcribe what happened as a narrative story.

I run a Mad-Libs written by George R.R. Martin where no one is safe.

 

[Krachek]

Delete the words "about storytelling", and "THIS".

I have never, ever seen a D&D game go well when the DM or one of the players comes to the table with a "story" they want to tell, and just tells it regardless of what the other players at the table are doing. When the DM does it it's called "railroading", and everyone resents it. When other players do it, they often get booted or at least a talking to.

But obviously the game of D&D contains many colorful characters going on outlandish adventures. When you pause and look back, it can make for a great story. "Remember when we pretended to be a hobgoblins and infiltrated the fortress of the necromancer ..."

I think there is confusion about what Story Telling is about.

When the DM describe the world, describe through an NPC that the Orcs attack the nearby village, it is "Story Telling".
How the PC react to this, how they attack or not the orc camp is more the game play.
And we switch to "Story telling" when the DM describe the consequence of players actions.

 

[Irda Ranger]

I'm glad you clarified your statement that the Basic Rules are "wrong," by adding that this is just your opinion rather than assert it as a fact.

This is a D&D forum discussion. 99.99% of everything posted here is a personal opinion. Writing "in my opinion" in everything isn't necessary. You should already know that.

I'm going to side with the people who wrote the book though while at the same time not interpreting "storytelling" through the lens that you do.

Okay

 

[Irda Ranger]

I think there is confusion about what Story Telling is about.

When the DM describe the world, describe through an NPC that the Orcs attack the nearby village, it is "Story Telling".
How the PC react to this, how they attack or not the orc camp is more the game play.
And we switch to "Story telling" when the DM describe the consequence of players actions.

I'm using the same definition that Fleetwood C. DeVille and Flexor the Might! are using.

 

[iserith]

This is a D&D forum discussion. 99.99% of everything posted here is a personal opinion. Writing "in my opinion" in everything isn't necessary. You should already know that.

In your opinion.