D&D General What D&D Thing Has Changed The Most

[Reynard]

This is totally subjective and supposed to be a light hearted discussion. Please refrain from badwrongfunning or edition warring.

For me one of the D&D things -- game element, rule, class, creature, whatever -- that has changed the most since I discovered D&D (Metzner Basic, 1985) is the kobold. The little dog headed psychos have somehow pupated into pint sized, seni-nible dragonkin. Wha???

 

[jasper]

My eyesight, hair line, income, drinking capacity, and amount gaming stuff. Alignment of creatures when from x alignment standard to x alignment typical.

 

[This Effin’ GM]

Popularity?

 

[Jack Daniel]

Pisonics.

 

[Reynard]

Popularity?

That is certainly a shift. I remember trying to "explain" D&D to people, including parents and teachers, and at best getting derision as a response

 

[Blue]

The dice! They used to be dull single colored polyhedrials (replacing carboard chits!) that you had to color in the numbers with a crayon, and expensive to boot. Now they are in glorious colors, translucent, transparent or opaque, you can find them of metal and other materials, have LED lights in them, fancily etched, and otherwise wunderbar!

 

[overgeeked]

Challenge, resource management, tier expectations, and art.

Challenge used to be a cornerstone of the game. Low hit points, dead at zero, properly scary monsters, negative conditions that last, and slow healing.

Resources management used to be a cornerstone of the game. Tracking food, water, light sources, weight carried, ammo, etc. It gave a real sense of grounding in the fiction and world.

Tier expectations used to actually change the way the game was played. You'd go from delving dungeons to exploring wilds to leading armies, to leading kingdoms, to questing for immortality, to actually being an immortal.

The art used to be way more evocative. Characters were shown in fun, funny, silly, and scary positions. Black and white line art filled the pages and kept the costs down.

 

[Tonguez]

That is certainly a shift. I remember trying to "explain" D&D to people, including parents and teachers, and at best getting derision as a response

Yeah a decade or so ago it amused me that 80s geek had become 00’s cool, now its not even remarkable and geek has gone mainstream

 

[Zaukrie]

Everything about Magic Users (including the name). From hit points, to cantrips, to well, everything (other than power that becomes perhaps out of balance with fighter types at high levels).

 

[Musing Mage]

My physiology! I went from a flesh-and-blood human to puppet! Also, I can no longer talk without someone's hand up my butt! You try DMing under these conditions! AHHHHH!