D&D General Playstyle vs Mechanics

[Imaro]

Heh, I've only ever run into one individual who refused to play anything other than D&D. Conversely, I've seen a lot of wide eyes when I introduce people who've never seen a non-D&D to another game system, and how differently it can treat activities (especially Vampire. If you ever want to break a minmaxer, introduce them to a politics-heavy Vampire game).

Dominate... max it out...

EDIT: To address another aspect of this post... I've introduced plenty of my friends and family that started playing with D&D to other systems... we've had fun and even gone back to a few but our staple and most requested game stays consistently 5e since it was released. Anecdotally and all that of course.

 

[Lanefan]

There's a difference between not knowing about something and not caring about it; and a further difference between a) knowing about something and still not caring and b) knowing about something and having an opinion about it.

To follow on @niklinna 's example above: I know surfing exists as a thing some people enjoy doing but I also don't really care to know any more than that: I'm neutral on the topic, and someone saying "Try it, you'll like it" will probably just get "Meh" in response.

Contrast this with an activity such as trophy hunting, which I know exists is a thing some people enjoy doing while also thinking it should be banned outright, worldwide. I'm not at all neutral on the topic, and someone saying "Try it, you'll like it" isn't going to enjoy my reaction.

 

[Lanefan]

Heh, I've only ever run into one individual who refused to play anything other than D&D. Conversely, I've seen a lot of wide eyes when I introduce people who've never seen a non-D&D to another game system, and how differently it can treat activities (especially Vampire. If you ever want to break a minmaxer, introduce them to a politics-heavy Vampire game).

As for this "D&D is everybody's second RPG choice," I treat it somewhat like the 3E "humans are everyone's second best friend". Everybody I know ends up homebrewing some portion of D&D, and doesn't run it RAW. That's where the second-best comes in, because YOUR tweaked version of the game is the best.

Indeed, my tweaked version of the game is the best. Thanks for that.

 

[TwoSix]

You didn't know... (sarcasm)that's why there were so many empty tables of D&D 5e at Gen Con this year (sarcasm)... it's clearly because the convention is populated with a majority of people who just don't know other ttrpg's exist (Or maybe a vast majority of people actually like playing D&D over the other games on offer). That's got to be it right?

People at Gen Con are pretty far from the “apathetic towards the TTRPG hobby” people I’m talking about.

That would be pretty much the opposite, actually.

 

[TwoSix]

There's a difference between not knowing about something and not caring about it; and a further difference between a) knowing about something and still not caring and b) knowing about something and having an opinion about it.

To follow on @niklinna 's example above: I know surfing exists as a thing some people enjoy doing but I also don't really care to know any more than that: I'm neutral on the topic, and someone saying "Try it, you'll like it" will probably just get "Meh" in response.

Contrast this with an activity such as trophy hunting, which I know exists is a thing some people enjoy doing while also thinking it should be banned outright, worldwide. I'm not at all neutral on the topic, and someone saying "Try it, you'll like it" isn't going to enjoy my reaction.

Yep. My wife has been playing D&D at one of our tables for 20 years. We have numerous other games at home, which are literally sitting on our shelves.

I just asked her to name another RPG besides D&D, she could not. And we’ve played some of those games before!

 

[Imaro]

People at Gen Con are pretty far from the “apathetic towards the TTRPG hobby” people I’m talking about.

That would be pretty much the opposite, actually.

That was my point. Switching gears we have people who are probably the most invested and most knowledgeable subsection of people who play ttrpg's... who have spent money to go to a convention where 1,000's of rpg's are available to play and it's 5e the vast majority choose. It kind of pushes against the... If they played other games or knew about other games thay would like them better than 5e... or the... 5e is everyones second favorite game narrative.

 

[Imaro]

Yep. My wife has been playing D&D at one of our tables for 20 years. We have numerous other games at home, which are literally sitting on our shelves.

I just asked her to name another RPG besides D&D, she could not. And we’ve played some of those games before!

So she tried other games and none of them made an impression on her like D&D did?

 

[Micah Sweet]

So she tried other games and none of them made an impression on her like D&D did?

I would have to know the proportion of play dedicated to games other than D&D 5e before any answer would be meaningful.

 

[MichaelSomething]

If a person enjoys D&D, why go somewhere else? You're already in a good spot!

I only dislike people who only play D&D if they come to this forum and complain a lot about D&D. You should know there are other options!

 

[Jefe Bergenstein]

I strongly disagree! We jumped from 1E to 4E and played the two the same way. If anything I think 4E is more flexible in place styles traditional 1E, 3E, or 6E. People just got hung up on some things and somehow it squashed the creativity. That was not a problem for us.

This was largely my experience as well. I ran 1st edition modules in 5E. I adjusted the math early on, as many critters in the 1st monster manual were pillow fisted HP blobs (unfortunately repeated in 5E), but afterwards it was D&D as usual for our group, who almost all started with 2nd edition. No one died to a house cat's claw/claw/bite, but I'm not sure if that's so integral to the D&D experience.