Sacred cows: Where's the beef?

[Rechan]

Str Dex Con Int Wis Cha
Race, Class, Level
AC, Hit Points and Initiative
Kobolds 'n' Orcs

 

[Keefe the Thief]

Polearms. Lots of polearms. Easiest way of identifying D&D is looking how many polearms the PHB contains.

First, you have to find the page-to-polearm-ratio. There has to be at least one individually-named polearms per 100 pages of corebook to make it D&D, and one polearm with a compound name (like Guisarme-Voulge or Gygax-Guisarme) per 50 pages of corebook to make it D&D.


Hint: If you find humor in this post, you may keep it.

 

[Darkness]

In essence...

...
* Longswords and Plate-mail
...
* Goblins, Kobolds, Orcs, Undead and Giants
* Color-Coded, Elemental-Based Dragons
...

I realize scores of other games uses many if not all of these, but D&D stops being D&D when they lose these elements.

No Dark Sun for you, then? On a strict reading, Dragonlance is also out, as it doesn't have orcs. (I forgot whether or not it has kobolds.)

Just curious if you really don't consider these settings D&D; Dragonlance was the first D&D setting I encountered and I've always liked Dark Sun.

 

[pvc]

It need a Dungeon Master.

Only D&D can and should.

Mechanics changes, the Gygax & Arneson game was more a platform' concept in my eyes than a well rounded game, and no game colud be perfect. It has to change, to refine, to appeal different generations.

But it needs basics concepts carved in. Like a Dungeon Masters building a story with players. I can't think to other foundamentals.

Levels? Maybe, maybe not, its just a mechanics, it can change.
The six stats, alignment, classes, specific races, all the same with levels.
Magic? Definitely not!

The only thing i will miss in a D&D game that's totally arbitrary are dice, i love dice.

 

[Melan]

Vancian magic, Gygaxian monsters, and the points of light setting concept.

 

[Stalker0]

I'll go with classes, one of the big divides between dnd and every other system I've tried.

 

[rounser]

I don't know where the line in the sand is, but for me 4E has crossed it. There's a certain vibe and a required degree of suspension of disbelief in D&D worlds and rules which it lacks. I don't believe in the 4E milieu. The illusion is broken, and only a pumpkin and some white mice remain.

 

[Calico_Jack73]

1) Character stats not being based on a score between 3-18.
2) Classless roleplaying. If they got rid of classes and instead allowed players to choose abilities from a menu.
3) If to-hit rolls were no longer based on the roll of a d20.

Those things would pretty much tell me that D&D has gone the way of the dinosaur.

 

[Hunter In Darkness]

I don't know where the line in the sand is, but for me 4E has crossed it. There's a certain vibe and a required degree of suspension of disbelief in D&D worlds and rules which it lacks. I don't believe in the 4E milieu. The illusion is broken, and only a pumpkin and some white mice remain.

I was thinking up a list , but you hit it dead on there.

 

[Darkness]

I'll go with classes, one of the big divides between dnd and every other system I've tried.

Not sure what systems you tried, but quite a few other RPGs have classes in all but name. If you meant classes and levels, OTOH, I can't think of many either.