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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Mark CMG" data-source="post: 5775155" data-attributes="member: 10479">D&D has been a quasi-wargame/roleplaying game hybrid since its inception and its emphasis on roleplaying grew through the Eighties and early Nineties.  With the 2E "Player's Option" books through 3.XE, and on through 4E, elements were added that could easily suggest its emphasis on wargaming and boardgames had grown.  Some would say that the roleplaying elements were increasingly outpaced in the RAW in those periods.  It's hard as someone who plays all manner of tabletop games, thousands of them since the early Seventies, not to recognize this. Sure, any particular aspect of the game be emphasized more fully than others through playstyle choices regardless of the RAW, but the objective focus of the RAW remains what it is based on page/word count for each element, mitigated only somewhat by text that would suggest a favoring of one playstyle or another in any given release.What I would like to see for a D&D roleplaying game going forward is a greater than 50% focus on roleplaying in any game/release that wishes to flat out call itself a roleplaying game.  That seems reasonable.  I'm also comfortable with a game that wishes to include more of some other element owning its base design by being labeled as a hybrid.  It seems somehow false to me for a game to label itself as one type of game if it is being designed primarily as some other type of game, and I don't mean that it need be done so falsely in a purposeful manner.  I'm cognizant that it is just as possible that a designer believes they are designing one type of game but then presenting another because of some misconceptions about what makes one type of game what it is.  With the release of several D&D boardgames over the last year or so, it certainly seems like that philosophy is being embraced.  I'd also love to see a more formalized D&D wargame come to the fore again, like DDM or Chainmail.  I'm hoping that all types of D&D games expand and revitalize the tabletop gaming hobby and bring in new players that freely crossover from one type of game to another.  The important thing is to be clear in how games are presented and labeled, to not confuse the marketplace, if you want satisfied customers and a community that can interact across types of gaming platforms.  We will see what happens next.</blockquote>

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