The Soul of and Drama in D&D

[Vyvyan Basterd]

It is my personal opinion that 4E will not feel like D&D to me. There are too many changes with too little justification for those changes. Some of the same people that reported on the e-mail also spoke of comments from playtesters they knew (the same ones who received the e-mail who wouldn't post themselves becasue of the NDA) that it played very much like a minis game with no soul or drama. Obviously, you can take that commentary with a grain of salt. However, the pit fiend entry, which I believe reads a whole lot like the info on a minis card (even having ranges in squares instead of feet), tends to make me think that there may be something to this. I would like 4E to feel like D&D to me , and maybe it eventually will. At this point, howver, I am not at all convinced that it will be D&D for me.

*emphasis mine*

I found the bolded text very interesting. I know that D&D came out of miniatures battles played by EGG and others. I think most will agree on this origin of the game.

But it my contention that the real soul and drama of D&D evolved from the imagination of the DMs. That the core rulebooks of each iteration of the game to date had the main focus of providing a rules framework to play within, while it was up to the DM to provide the soul and drama. You did so through your campaign world. This is what made the game more than its miniature games predecessors. Some DMs got their worlds published to share their imagination with others. Some became designers who insert some of this soul and drama into the core rulebooks.

But to claim that 4E has no soul or drama because some playtesters (who are breaking their NDA by even telling anyone else who is not part of their playtest group anything of the sort asserted above) said it has none? First, they are supposed to be testing rules. Second, 4E should not be expected to feel any different without the effort of the DM (who is running a short-lived test of the game, not necessarily a fully-fleshed campaign) to impart that desired soul and drama into the game.

 

[kennew142]

This has always been my take on it as well. The Soul and Drama are provided by the GMs and the players. They do not spring from the rules. The rules exist so that we have an objective guideline to determine success or failure in purely mechanical arenas.

 

[Lackhand]

Sorta yes, sorta no. You could design an RPG that used checkers as the base deciding mechanic -- whenever you disagree with the DM, play a quick game of checkers, with penalties being reflected by fewer pieces, to determine who gets to have their narrative vision continued.

Checkers, however, has no soul to speak of

Magic has tons of story in it -- wizards, armies, enchantments over the land -- but no real soul to speak of, because one's narrative control is exceedingly limited. Besides, it's hard to identify with any of the characters. But you could damn well try to use it as an RPG, and it wouldn't be insane. Just very, very hard.

D&D as a game is a framework, and some frameworks work better (or more naturally) for telling stories than others. I don't have any particular fear that somehow D&D 4 will be USELESS for telling a story or even harder than D&D 3, so I disagree with the specific contention, but I don't think it's worth dismissing out of hand.

It just happens to be wrong.

 

[xechnao]

*emphasis mine*

I found the bolded text very interesting. I know that D&D came out of miniatures battles played by EGG and others. I think most will agree on this origin of the game.

But it my contention that the real soul and drama of D&D evolved from the imagination of the DMs. That the core rulebooks of each iteration of the game to date had the main focus of providing a rules framework to play within, while it was up to the DM to provide the soul and drama. You did so through your campaign world. This is what made the game more than its miniature games predecessors. Some DMs got their worlds published to share their imagination with others. Some became designers who insert some of this soul and drama into the core rulebooks.

But to claim that 4E has no soul or drama because some playtesters (who are breaking their NDA by even telling anyone else who is not part of their playtest group anything of the sort asserted above) said it has none? First, they are supposed to be testing rules. Second, 4E should not be expected to feel any different without the effort of the DM (who is running a short-lived test of the game, not necessarily a fully-fleshed campaign) to impart that desired soul and drama into the game.

I disagree with what you are saying. The rules (crunch) are there to mathematically balance the fluff of the game. For example look at the wish spell of 2ed- it could rise your stats but it also made you older. Also think of spell materials and spell costs. Think of magic healing, vancian spell system or 1xday powers. The rules is merely the tool that enforces the fluff of the game.
So the rules are important to the soul and drama as you say it.

 

[MarkAHart]

I didn't get the whole "soul" thing...Not sure how a game has, or does not have, "soul." How does a game lose its soul, or regain it once lost? What is the definition of "soul" in regards to a role-playing game? Are miniatures and square grids harbingers of soul loss? Perhaps in future when the game is released, the various playtesters will comment and clarify their sentiments. I've never playtested a game before, so I don't know what the process is like or what it entails.

In the games (regardless of system) in which I participated, I always found the participants make a session fun (which, may or may not be comparable to soul).

If these comments did originate with playtesters, I sincerely hope they had more useful and substantive playtesting notes to offer than this.

 

[Daniel D. Fox]

Personally, I like the measurements in squares instead of feet. It lends credit to an appeal for international gamers who want to measure in meters. For that matter, if a DM wanted to create some other type of measurement for the game to fit a specific flavor,(let's say "quadrants" as an example) 5 squares of movement could be five quadrants along the battlefield).

 

[Warbringer]

Looking at the Pit fiend card, and reading the various playtest posts, I think it is clear there has be a concerted effort to make the minis game a derivative of the RPG (yes, some will argue the other way around).

This does not equate to D&D being relagated to a mini experience, but a nod towards rules clarity. If you ever want to watch rules laweyers in action, forget D&D, watch a Warhammer game. If think this is a great step forward; clear rules, that yes do look like OO Code, but they should. What better way to discover rules conflict and inconsistencies.

But, as to the heart and soul? Heart and soul comes from the story that builds around a character through campaigning. The attachment forms because of the stories that the players create through the game, IMO. It is easy to see hw this element is missing in playtest, and hence seems like the game has no soul.

 

[Daniel D. Fox]

Obviously, there is a clear marketing effort by WotC to sell miniatures through their DnD franchise and specifically the DnD Minis franchise. It only behooves them to polinatae their products across both revenue channels.

It's a damn good marketing strategy.

 

[WhatGravitas]

Personally, I like the measurements in squares instead of feet. It lends credit to an appeal for international gamers who want to measure in meters. For that matter, if a DM wanted to create some other type of measurement for the game to fit a specific flavor,(let's say "quadrants" as an example) 5 squares of movement could be five quadrants along the battlefield).

Very much. Here's an European who's delighted to see squares. Less hassle than these imperial units (but that's another rant).

And yeah, D&D, in every incarnation, got its drama and "soul" from the players, DMs and adventure authors, nobody else. D&D never had "drama" rules that put an emphasis on the narrative (whereas Feng Shui is almost ONLY drama rules).

And Profession (Tailor) isn't drama or excitement.

Cheers, LT.

 

[ThirdWizard]

Worlds and Monsters has more soul and drama than anything I've read out of D&D in almost a decade. I don't see how anyone can come away from that book and not get tons of inspiration for one's own campaign as well as dozens of ideas for plot hooks for adventure. If 4e is anything like this, then the soul of Dungeons and Dragons is just fine, thank you.