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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Ariosto" data-source="post: 5081892" data-attributes="member: 80487">Back in the late 1970s and early 1980s, I gave the matter some serious thought. In the very religious context in which I had been raised, the issue of violence was much more significant than the magical elements that got so much attention in certain quarters.The "killing things and taking their stuff" line is of more recent vintage, as is the emphasis on the former in experience-point awards. Back when it would have taken beating 200 orcs to gain second level ... and a hit had almost a 60% chance of killing a character ... well, successful players could do the math.Nonetheless, D&D -- and the vast majority of other commercially successful RPGs -- emulates the kind of "action adventure" fiction in which the main action is combat. It has plenty of company in comic books, movies and television shows.Conflict is drama, and violence is conflict in easily appreciated -- unsubtle, visceral, instinctive -- form.A 'Euro game' designer could take the mathematical abstractions of D&D and repackage them as a game about farming yams, or managing a bicycle racing team, or being a 'Euro game' designer, or ... pretty much anything at all.The trappings of slashing swords, blazing guns, and so on just happen to be more appealing to the target demographic.</blockquote>