Snarf Zagyg
Notorious Liquefactionist
Long time, no big post! I've been ruminating about a planned two-part post regarding D&D that has been informed by some recent conversations I've had, the first dealing with narrative authority, and the second dealing with rules, but before going into the weeds I thought I'd start what is now a trilogy with an essay about the single greatest advantages that D&D has in the world of TTRPGs- the Campaign.
We all know that D&D is the 800lb gorilla in the TTRPG market. D&D and the various other D&D-derived games (from PF to older versions of D&D to various OSR clones) command a disproportionate share of the market, mindshare, and, for that matter, the conversations on Enworld. But why is that? I mean, there are a lot of very good and valid reasons that play into it- the sweet sweet Hasbro money backing D&D. The fact that D&D was the first major mover in the field. Path dependency- people play D&D, because they invested in D&D, and they will continue to play D&D. There's also everyone's favorite- network effects. People play D&D because other people play D&D so when you're looking for a game, you always know you can play D&D.
But today, I'm going to examine another, less-lauded, aspect of the success of D&D. The persistent character, the advancement of levels, and (to sum it up) the Campaign.
1. The Early History- The Persistent Character, Experience, and Leveling Up
Well, let's see: First, the Earth cooled. And then the dinosaurs came, but they got too big and fat, so they all died and they turned into oil.
The great innovation of D&D that most people talk about is that the game allowed you to take control of a single character (an alter ego) and play as that character. But Arneson had already done this before- in Braunstein, he had "won" the game, which then ended. So simply having an alter ego was interesting, but the problem faced by Arneson was similar to one we all dread-
"Okay, the game ended. Now what?"
If you're having fun, you don't want it to end. And if your character rocks, you don't want to give that character up after a single session! So the idea of a persistent character, going from game session to game session, arose.
But ... then what? That would get boring after a while. The character might rock, but you'd want some new challenges. Something different. Why does the character keep doing that? What's the point of this new-fangled game, anyway? And that's the moment of inspiration. From a Wired Article:
There was another aspect of the game he wanted to tweak: the fact that it ended. Arneson's group was having too much fun playing these specific roles to want to part with them after a single game. Outside of the individual games, Arneson created an experience system for characters. Your character would earn experience points based on their success from game to game. After a certain number of points, a character would "level up."
This is also what Arneson stated in Different Worlds #3. Importantly, when Arneson showed his creation to Gygax, the things that made the biggest impression on Gygax were the dungeon (ahem) and the experience system. Gygax quickly adopted these two aspects of the game- a dungeon to explore, and XP to gain to provide characters the ability to "level up" and get more powerful. In fact- he combined them, by rewarding the characters for going into the dungeon and getting gold by providing them XP for that gold.
Whether knowingly or not, D&D had hit upon the basis for sustained success-
Create a character
The character is persistent in the world
The character gains experience over time
Through the experience, the character "levels up" and gets more powerful, allowing the character to take on even more difficult challenges
More difficult challenges = more XP = more leveling = more abilities = more difficult challenges etc.
2. Why We Love the D&D Reward Loop
Blood keeps drifting your way, certain of its destination, driving through New Orleans at night, gotta find a destination, just one fix
At its most basic, D&D is providing you the sweet, sweet rewards that your brain craves. There is a reason that the D&D reward loop was copied and refined endlessly when it came to computer games. From the dark pre-history of computer games (Wizardry, Bard's Tale, Ultima, Might & Magic etc.) to the straight-up "shoot it in my veins now and give me the dopamine rush" of Diablo and its successors, we see the same psychology at work-
Character starts as a zero.
Character gains (magic items, gold, XP) over time.
Character "levels up" and gains more abilities.
Character can handle more difficult challenges, which provide more magic items, gold, XP.
Rinse, repeat.
We can even see this love of advancement, of seeing the "leveling up" in other games as well; famously, the Civlization games have the "One More Turn" to see what happens- what new tech, what new wars, where will the Civilization go?
This same quality is present in D&D. The chargen mini-game is not just about the options you get at the beginning- it's about projecting what you might do with that character in the future. The group will get together, not just to see the individual "mission" through, but the whole sequence of missions, the whole ... campaign. From the beginning, to the end.
3. The Reward Loop as the D&D Differentiator.
If trees could scream, would we be so cavalier about cutting them down? We might, if they screamed all the time, for no good reason.
So what's the big deal? Why do I think that this fundamental reward loop structure has been so important to D&D's success? Well, because it's a feature that many other TTRPGs either don't have, or struggle to have. One easy way to think about this is as follows- there are many TTRPGs that you can play as a "one shot" and you wouldn't think twice about it. But for D&D, the default is the campaign, the long haul; this is such a norm that if you play a one-shot in D&D, you usually make sure to specifically say that!
Many people observe that it is remarkable that D&D, and fantasy, occupy the top tiers of TTRPGs. And yet, fantasy is particularly able to accommodate the campaign and the reward loop. Most other genres struggle in some way in capturing that feeling-
Superhero games struggle with the whole "gaining in power."
So do most games that traffic in "realism."
Science fiction games sometimes fare better, but find it difficult to keep pace with both the zero-to-hero of the Hero's Journey in fantasy as well as the ubiquity of magic items and other enhancements that are common in fantasy. One notable, and popular, exception- Star Wars- is essentially fantasy.
There are entire genres that make it difficult to run campaigns- FKR, recently discussed, is often better suited to one-shots or mini-campaigns than the multi-month or multi-year campaigns that typify D&D. Other games, such as Paranoia, explicitly play against the expectation that you will have a campaign.
Anyway, I thought I'd put this out there as a palate cleanser before the next two posts. I'm not saying that this is the sole, or only, or even necessarily the predominant reason that D&D is the big fish in the small pond of TTRPGs.
But I do think that the reward loop of D&D- the XP system, leveling up, and the persistent campaign- is a factor in the success of D&D in general, and 5e in particular (Adventure Paths!). What do you think?
We all know that D&D is the 800lb gorilla in the TTRPG market. D&D and the various other D&D-derived games (from PF to older versions of D&D to various OSR clones) command a disproportionate share of the market, mindshare, and, for that matter, the conversations on Enworld. But why is that? I mean, there are a lot of very good and valid reasons that play into it- the sweet sweet Hasbro money backing D&D. The fact that D&D was the first major mover in the field. Path dependency- people play D&D, because they invested in D&D, and they will continue to play D&D. There's also everyone's favorite- network effects. People play D&D because other people play D&D so when you're looking for a game, you always know you can play D&D.
But today, I'm going to examine another, less-lauded, aspect of the success of D&D. The persistent character, the advancement of levels, and (to sum it up) the Campaign.
1. The Early History- The Persistent Character, Experience, and Leveling Up
Well, let's see: First, the Earth cooled. And then the dinosaurs came, but they got too big and fat, so they all died and they turned into oil.
The great innovation of D&D that most people talk about is that the game allowed you to take control of a single character (an alter ego) and play as that character. But Arneson had already done this before- in Braunstein, he had "won" the game, which then ended. So simply having an alter ego was interesting, but the problem faced by Arneson was similar to one we all dread-
"Okay, the game ended. Now what?"
If you're having fun, you don't want it to end. And if your character rocks, you don't want to give that character up after a single session! So the idea of a persistent character, going from game session to game session, arose.
But ... then what? That would get boring after a while. The character might rock, but you'd want some new challenges. Something different. Why does the character keep doing that? What's the point of this new-fangled game, anyway? And that's the moment of inspiration. From a Wired Article:
There was another aspect of the game he wanted to tweak: the fact that it ended. Arneson's group was having too much fun playing these specific roles to want to part with them after a single game. Outside of the individual games, Arneson created an experience system for characters. Your character would earn experience points based on their success from game to game. After a certain number of points, a character would "level up."
This is also what Arneson stated in Different Worlds #3. Importantly, when Arneson showed his creation to Gygax, the things that made the biggest impression on Gygax were the dungeon (ahem) and the experience system. Gygax quickly adopted these two aspects of the game- a dungeon to explore, and XP to gain to provide characters the ability to "level up" and get more powerful. In fact- he combined them, by rewarding the characters for going into the dungeon and getting gold by providing them XP for that gold.
Whether knowingly or not, D&D had hit upon the basis for sustained success-
Create a character
The character is persistent in the world
The character gains experience over time
Through the experience, the character "levels up" and gets more powerful, allowing the character to take on even more difficult challenges
More difficult challenges = more XP = more leveling = more abilities = more difficult challenges etc.
2. Why We Love the D&D Reward Loop
Blood keeps drifting your way, certain of its destination, driving through New Orleans at night, gotta find a destination, just one fix
At its most basic, D&D is providing you the sweet, sweet rewards that your brain craves. There is a reason that the D&D reward loop was copied and refined endlessly when it came to computer games. From the dark pre-history of computer games (Wizardry, Bard's Tale, Ultima, Might & Magic etc.) to the straight-up "shoot it in my veins now and give me the dopamine rush" of Diablo and its successors, we see the same psychology at work-
Character starts as a zero.
Character gains (magic items, gold, XP) over time.
Character "levels up" and gains more abilities.
Character can handle more difficult challenges, which provide more magic items, gold, XP.
Rinse, repeat.
We can even see this love of advancement, of seeing the "leveling up" in other games as well; famously, the Civlization games have the "One More Turn" to see what happens- what new tech, what new wars, where will the Civilization go?
This same quality is present in D&D. The chargen mini-game is not just about the options you get at the beginning- it's about projecting what you might do with that character in the future. The group will get together, not just to see the individual "mission" through, but the whole sequence of missions, the whole ... campaign. From the beginning, to the end.
3. The Reward Loop as the D&D Differentiator.
If trees could scream, would we be so cavalier about cutting them down? We might, if they screamed all the time, for no good reason.
So what's the big deal? Why do I think that this fundamental reward loop structure has been so important to D&D's success? Well, because it's a feature that many other TTRPGs either don't have, or struggle to have. One easy way to think about this is as follows- there are many TTRPGs that you can play as a "one shot" and you wouldn't think twice about it. But for D&D, the default is the campaign, the long haul; this is such a norm that if you play a one-shot in D&D, you usually make sure to specifically say that!
Many people observe that it is remarkable that D&D, and fantasy, occupy the top tiers of TTRPGs. And yet, fantasy is particularly able to accommodate the campaign and the reward loop. Most other genres struggle in some way in capturing that feeling-
Superhero games struggle with the whole "gaining in power."
So do most games that traffic in "realism."
Science fiction games sometimes fare better, but find it difficult to keep pace with both the zero-to-hero of the Hero's Journey in fantasy as well as the ubiquity of magic items and other enhancements that are common in fantasy. One notable, and popular, exception- Star Wars- is essentially fantasy.
There are entire genres that make it difficult to run campaigns- FKR, recently discussed, is often better suited to one-shots or mini-campaigns than the multi-month or multi-year campaigns that typify D&D. Other games, such as Paranoia, explicitly play against the expectation that you will have a campaign.
Anyway, I thought I'd put this out there as a palate cleanser before the next two posts. I'm not saying that this is the sole, or only, or even necessarily the predominant reason that D&D is the big fish in the small pond of TTRPGs.
But I do think that the reward loop of D&D- the XP system, leveling up, and the persistent campaign- is a factor in the success of D&D in general, and 5e in particular (Adventure Paths!). What do you think?
