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So what exactly is the root cause of the D&D rules' staying power?
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<blockquote data-quote="GrahamWills" data-source="post: 7342948" data-attributes="member: 75787"><p>D&D has staying power independent of the rules. The rules have been changed and modified all the time -- huge changes from THAC0 to BAB; random rolling to point buy; XP for gold vs just monsters vs per session.</p><p></p><p>D&D is successful because it allows a group to run in pretty much any fantasy world without the rules getting in the way. Even more so, it allows you to mix elements. You can play a party with a Chinese-style martial artist, a Native American plains Indian, A french troubadour, An Arthurian plate-mail knight and a gothic magician and absolutely no-one will see a problem with that. You will happily jump from fighting a Greek water-spirit to a Norse angel to a Christian demon. You will travel from 17th century London to 12th century Edo to Pirates of the Carribean overnight, and no-one will bat an eyelid. You cast vaguely medieval spells, use psionic mid-powers or use Chinese traditional medicine. No worries.</p><p></p><p>That for me is why it lasts so well. It can encompass a very wide variety of fantasy elements with very little friction. And, most importantly, it has been evolved over the years to best support exactly those elements people like to play. Look at the classes that were added over time -- no sense of reason, plan or need to fill a conceptual whole. They were brought in because people want to play them. Ditto for the races. They recently added dragon-people to the list of races, not because people looked at the realms and said "it is logical to expect dragon-kin in some form". It was because players said "I want to play a dragon-person"</p><p></p><p>D&D is and will remain #1 because:</p><p></p><p>• More people want to play fantasy than any other genre</p><p>• D&D supports the vast majority of play styles people want in fantasy</p><p>• D&D allows you to mix play styles, allowing more diverse groups than other systems</p><p></p><p>I love GUMSHOE and will run it all the time, but it's never going to be as popular because it requires a certain style of play. It's not that D&D is better -- in fact its success may be *because* it is not as "good" as other systems. Good systems are often opinionated, or model something really, really well (as GUMSHOE does investigation), but D&D, with a weak framework for investigative adventures, allows the player who just wants to kill things with an optimized barbarian/fighter/exotic weapon master to play week in, week out with someone whose idea of a good game session is working out which of the three sisters is a better long-term match for the chieftain's second son. That's why D&D based Living campaigns are highly successful, and non-D&D based ones aren't. </p><p></p><p>D&D allows diverse players to have fun together. More so than any other system.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="GrahamWills, post: 7342948, member: 75787"] D&D has staying power independent of the rules. The rules have been changed and modified all the time -- huge changes from THAC0 to BAB; random rolling to point buy; XP for gold vs just monsters vs per session. D&D is successful because it allows a group to run in pretty much any fantasy world without the rules getting in the way. Even more so, it allows you to mix elements. You can play a party with a Chinese-style martial artist, a Native American plains Indian, A french troubadour, An Arthurian plate-mail knight and a gothic magician and absolutely no-one will see a problem with that. You will happily jump from fighting a Greek water-spirit to a Norse angel to a Christian demon. You will travel from 17th century London to 12th century Edo to Pirates of the Carribean overnight, and no-one will bat an eyelid. You cast vaguely medieval spells, use psionic mid-powers or use Chinese traditional medicine. No worries. That for me is why it lasts so well. It can encompass a very wide variety of fantasy elements with very little friction. And, most importantly, it has been evolved over the years to best support exactly those elements people like to play. Look at the classes that were added over time -- no sense of reason, plan or need to fill a conceptual whole. They were brought in because people want to play them. Ditto for the races. They recently added dragon-people to the list of races, not because people looked at the realms and said "it is logical to expect dragon-kin in some form". It was because players said "I want to play a dragon-person" D&D is and will remain #1 because: • More people want to play fantasy than any other genre • D&D supports the vast majority of play styles people want in fantasy • D&D allows you to mix play styles, allowing more diverse groups than other systems I love GUMSHOE and will run it all the time, but it's never going to be as popular because it requires a certain style of play. It's not that D&D is better -- in fact its success may be *because* it is not as "good" as other systems. Good systems are often opinionated, or model something really, really well (as GUMSHOE does investigation), but D&D, with a weak framework for investigative adventures, allows the player who just wants to kill things with an optimized barbarian/fighter/exotic weapon master to play week in, week out with someone whose idea of a good game session is working out which of the three sisters is a better long-term match for the chieftain's second son. That's why D&D based Living campaigns are highly successful, and non-D&D based ones aren't. D&D allows diverse players to have fun together. More so than any other system. [/QUOTE]
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So what exactly is the root cause of the D&D rules' staying power?
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