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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Guest&nbsp; 85555" data-source="post: 9447549">I would say this isn;t the case at all. We are free to design RPGs however we want and people all over are doing so. I don't even make d20 games myself. Plenty of people are experimenting with different concepts and ideas in RPGs. There is no limit whatsoever to design and the bar to entry is incredibly low with POD and platforms like Drivethru and Itch.io. What is true is D&D is a very mainstream game and appeals to a broad swath of the hobby so for it to remain so, it must cleave to certain concepts so it expands while not losing people. Some experiments have worked well for them. I am not a big fan, but adding skills and feats to the game was hugely popular and a big change from how it operated before. Other changes haven't gone over as well and they have had to backtrack. With each edition, they are able to test that out and see where they can go. One thing I will say about 'tradition' in D&D. I don't think most of us who are praising the 1E DMG or classic D&D are worshipping tradition for its own sake. There is plenty in classic D&D I ignore. But what we recognize is there is something about D&D that works well. We can debate what it is. I just notice when I break from other games and go back to D&D it is reliable in terms of you sit down with the books to prep and it works, and a long term campaign is very easy to sustain. I don't pretend to know exactly why, or to know which aspects of the tradition of the game are responsible but I suspect things like a character creation system built around simple choices like Class and Race, around the mini game of rolling stats (admittedly this may be less the case now), levels, having a vast tome of monsters and magic items, conceits like the dungeon and wilderness, etc are all a big part of it.</blockquote>

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