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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Jester David" data-source="post: 7161723" data-attributes="member: 37579">Or a Pathfinder game. Or a 13th Age game. Or World of Warcraft for that matter... (Ashbringinger is totally a holy avenger.)I agree to a point. The math and the numbers and the rules happening behind the screen don't matter. Especially damage numbers, hit points, odds of hitting, etc. So many D&D elements - wizards, clerics, fireball, warriors, rogues, shapeshifting druids, holy warrior paladins - are generic enough that lots and lots of non-D&D RPGS (both PnP and digital) make use of them. It takes more than that to make something a D&D RPG. If that's all it took, then we already have really excellent D&D RPGs.Similarly, there are a lot of D&Disms that are hard to get away from. The six main stats, with 18 being "good" for one. Terms like "armour class" and "hit points". Certain classes and races. The sacred cows. As the general rejection of 4e showed, there's only so far you can branch away from the core elements of D&D before the fans start rejecting the final product.As I said before, it takes more than D&D branding and images to make something a D&D game. As was shown by Arena of War. And while I had a hell of a fun time playing Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance for the PS2, I wouldn't say that the "D&D connection" was strong, despite taking place in Baldur's Gate and featuring things like a beholder. It was just a well done isometric hack-and-slash RPG. On the main page there's some fun charts showing how well ALL current RPGs compare to the sales of the entire hobby gaming industry, and then compared to movies and video games. It's ridiculous how small D&D's sales are compared to video games. Bottom Line: A D&D is just not going to compete against every other fantasy RPG on their turf. If can't have as polished mechanics and story as a AAA game. Or even an A game. For a D&D game to have a chance it really needs to focus on being a D&D game. That's the selling feature. That's what makes it stand out.</blockquote>

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