Is it still D&D?

[diaglo]

Yeah, but if you don't already like OD&D, it's harder to jump on that bandwagon...

Just A Thought,
Flynn

not at all.


OD&D(1974) is the only true game. All the other editions are just poor imitations of the real thing.

 

[Philotomy Jurament]

Yeah, but if you don't already like OD&D, it's harder to jump on that bandwagon...

I didn't find that to be the case. I never played OD&D(1974), back in the day, but it's become my favorite version of the game.

 

[francisca]

To me 3rd edition is a game that, although similar to AD&D and closer to it than any other game from another company, is a different game. This has not, for me, a negative connotation... it's a game that I enjoy and play.

That's about where I am as well, with the emphasis added. I play 3.5, but I'm done with DMing it. It just isn't an enjoyable experience for me. Meanwhile, my 1e AD&D game that I do DM is moving along quite well.

In the bigger picture, I game with people, not rulebooks. The folks I'm chucking dice with have more to do with my enjoyment of the game than edition.

3e didn't and 4e won't sneak into my house at night, burn my AD&D stuff, crap in my Moldvay Basic boxed set, melt my Grenadier minis, or grind my Gamescience dice into dust. YMMV.

 

[wedgeski]

Nothing out now not even the same game of D&D you started with will be the D&D you remember. I wouldn't chase down a phantom of your past you'll never catch and learn to enjoy the current games for what they are.

Words of wisdom there from the oft-posting one.

I've never felt for one second that 3ed or 3.5ed wasn't D&D, and yes, I have played since pretty much the beginning. Every iteration has applied its own paint to the bodywork, but the engine remains the same: high-powered medieval fantasy that is as far away as possible from real life.

 

[Wombat]

I started in 1975 with D&D.

I left in about 1978 with RuneQuest.

I didn't return to D&D until 2000with 3e.

I left it again in early 2006, having mangled the rules so much that they bore little resemblance to D&D anyway.

In 30+ years of gaming, I have 3 years in which I did not game. In 30+ years of gaming, I never found a single system I wanted to be loyal-unto-death to.

So, no, current D&D is not like the stuff I originally played, not by a long chalk. And that's fine. All that matters is whether you enjoy playing or not.

For me, D&D is old hat. I prefer other systems. But I know a lot of people who love various editions of D&D -- good on 'em!

It's all about gaming.

 

[mcrow]

I used to have a beef with 3e not being D&D until I realized that infact it was all of the things that D&D was just with new rules. In the end I was confusing the experiences in a different time with actually being D&D, not the actual feeling of the game itself.

So, yes 3E was D&D and 4E as it sound now will be D&D.

 

[Bagpuss]

As long as its a bunch of mates killing monsters in a fantasy setting with STR, DEX, CON, INT, WIS, CHA it's D&D for me, certainly the steps between 3.0 to 4.0 don't seem anywhere near as big as the ones from 2 to 3.

 

[Jhaelen]

To me 3rd edition is a game that, although similar to AD&D and closer to it than any other game from another company, is a different game. This has not, for me, a negative connotation... it's a game that I enjoy and play.

Same here. And when I started playing 3E it was soon clear to me, I'd never look back. I definitely wouldn't want to play with an earlier incarnation of the rules ever again. I had a blast playing 1E and 2E. But the things I enjoyed back then are not necessarily the same things I enjoy now.

I guess it'll be the same with 4E. People change, so editions should definitely change, too.

 

[Flynn]

OD&D(1974) is the only true game. All the other editions are just poor imitations of the real thing.

I thought that was Classic Traveller... yeah, I'm sure of it. Classic Traveller is the one true game, as the quote often goes. Just ask any (Classic) Traveller fan.

Hasta,
Flynn

 

[Jackelope King]

I posted this on another forum:

Star Trek Aliens Approach to Races- Elves are humans with pointy ears. Halflings are short humans. Dwarves are stout and tough humans. Orcs are brutish strong humans. It’s not a cantina filled with bizarre morphologies or strangeness. That’s for later suppliments (which includes even the races I really like, the warforged, the changeling, and critters from the XPH). Your party can and will include creatures of colorful races, but they’re basically just humans with funny ears. The rules will give you a basis, and you go from there. Your elves are different than mine. My dwarves are abstinent, serine Tibetan monks. Your halflings are dinosaur-riding nomads. Awesome! All we need to be able to do when someone mentions a “dwarf” or “halfling” is get a picture in our heads anyway. Everything else can be explained at the table or in the campaign setting.

Heroic Fantasy- D&D started as a descent into the wierd and wonderful with oldschool dungeons. That’s fine and dandy. Keep true to the idea that it takes place in a wierd and wonderful world and we’re all good.

Classes & Levels- I don’t much care for them, but they’re D&D. D&D is about the common point of everyone knowing what you mean when you say you’re playing a 10th level rogue.

Random Factors via Dice- Conflict resolution may have become more structured with the d20 System (a good thing, in my mind), but the random element of resolving a challenge will come from polyhedral dice.

A Dungeon Master At the Table- For all the talk about 3.Xe “emmasculating” the DM, it’s still the case that D&D is run by a Dungeon Master. Remove this figure and then we’ll consider whether or not it’s still D&D.

Monsters to Kill and Loot to Steal- You find monsters/monsters find you. You fight them. When they die, you take their stuff. “Looting the corpse” and “searching the bodies” are absolutely a part of D&D, even if I don’t particularly find them “heroic”.

That's the essence of D&D as far as I'm concerned. Start cutting those out and you start getting away from D&D into "something else". Not that this sort of thing would particularly bother me.