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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Ahnehnois" data-source="post: 5644077" data-attributes="member: 17106">Extra Long PostSo many posts in this thread have been devoted to defining art, I think it's time to look at defining D&D.I'd like to posit two scenarios:#1: A group of people who have never met before walk into a room at a gaming convention. The DM hands the players a set of pregenerated character sheets, and after a few introductions, they begin playing D&D. The DM takes the players through a preselected published adventure that is based on a simple, fairly linear dungeon. The players fight several battles against miscellaneous monsters, occasionally stopping for simple dialogue relevant to their quest, or for random chatter and snacks. At the end of the four-hour session, the players fight a BBEG, kill it, and high-five each other. They thank the DM for a good time and move on to shopping and seminars.#2: A group of people who've known each other for years convene at one of the players' home. The DM asks to see their character sheets, checks them for accuracy and comments on their choices, and returns them. He begins desceibing a scenario for one player, and gradually introduces the other two, intercutting between them as appropriate. The players meander through a complex set of dialogue scenes establoshing their characters' personal lives, punctuated by a small battle for one of the PCs, used as a plot device to introduce an NPC. The DM layers allusions to his favorite fictional works throughout the session, and begins foreshadowing the skeleton of the epic plot he has constructed to appeal to the tastes of his friends and obliquely reflect details of their real lives. At the climax, the DM creates a seemingly unwinnable situation, deftly adding new challenges at the exact moments the players seem least ready to hear them. When the session ends, the intercutting stops and the players' characters are almost in contact, and the DM concludes the night by describing a mystic omen. Four hours have passed, and the players say their goodbyes while the DM returns home to begin narrativizing the session before he prepares for next week.***I'd say example #2 is pretty definitely a form of dramatic art, and example #1 probably isn't by most people's definitions. Which group is playing D&D? Obviously they both are, but their experiences are very different. In some sense, the poll question is asking whether your individual game has more in common with the first example or the second (obviously these two examples don't describe everyone's experiences with D&D-that's beyond what I can do).Hopefully, I haven't reaching artistic levels of pretentiousness in attempting to generically describe the first session of my last campaign in example #2.When I think of playing D&D, I think of playing with people you know, and creating a game that is inspired by their personalities and your interactions with them, while including enough different elements to avoid allegory (see Tolkien's comments on allegory). I think of both a DM and players making decisions during the game to elicit particular emotional reactions from the other participants. I think of the result as being something like the first draft of a collaboratively created novel.*To me*, this is the normal baseline, and anything less intimate or less dramatic is a lost opportunity. I make choices to intercut between characters the same way an editors cuts film. I make references to books, movies, and fairytales, as so many artists reference each other. I design a campaign with a conclusion in mind, and I use that conclusion to say something about life.Example #1 is something I've never experienced, but is my attempt to describe experiences of D&D that others on the boards have posted about. A dungeon crawl. To me, that type of game is completely foreign, and it's not at all what I think of when I think of D&D. Others, however, might see my example as equally foreign.There isn't really a question here; I'm just trying to articulate points of view of the "yes" and "no" responders to this poll in the hopes that each can see where the other is coming from. Playing D&D means different things to different people. If anyone would like to supplement (or criticize) my examples, feel free.</blockquote>

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