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Message: <blockquote data-quote="JamesonCourage" data-source="post: 5646882" data-attributes="member: 6668292">As far as I can tell, the basic question isn't necessarily, "are D&D rules about combat?" While that's one legitimate interpretation (the original poster wanted knee-jerk reactions to the poll question) as rules undoubtedly inform the style of game, I don't feel my games have ever been defined by combat. So, my knee-jerk reaction to "is D&D about combat?" is no.If the question instead became, "are the D&D rules about combat?" I might be close to saying "yes" but I'd still find it hard to say yes. The majority of the rules are about combat, yes. Are the rules as a whole about combat? No.I think it just comes down to what you personally feel defines the game. If it's mainly the rules, your input makes sense to me. The rules don't define my game, and I doubt they ever will (no matter the system). So, the rules don't make the game "about" anything to me. The feel of D&D has always been something that transcends combat, to me. It's deeply ingrained in the fantasy genre, and fantasy genre loves combat. However, I would be hard-pressed to name books or series that are "about combat" within the fantasy genre. Sure, they use it extensively, but I don't think any story I've engaged in has been about combat, in my mind.That's where I'm coming from, I guess. Arthurian legend wasn't about combat, but it features it extensively. The LotR trilogy isn't about combat, even though the movies play it up (it is visually appealing). For me, D&D successfully inserted itself into the fantasy genre, which, from my limited personal experience, has never been about combat.Again, though, if the game is defined by the rules, and the rules mostly deal with combat, I do understand where you're coming from. I guess the fantasy genre feel of the game trumps the rules for me.As always, though, play what you like <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /></blockquote>

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