Reply to thread

Message

<blockquote data-quote="Shades of Green" data-source="post: 5112848" data-attributes="member: 3297">I'd say that the essential features of D&amp;D are:1) Generic &quot;kitchen sink&quot; fantasy with a very loose pseudo-western-medieval frame but with much influence from Classic mythology, non-western mythology and literary constructs such as Tolkien's works and the Cthulhu Mythos.2) Humans, Elves, Dwarves and Halflings battling Orcs, Undead and Goblins and, later on, Ogres, Trolls, Giants, Dragons, Beholders, Mind-Flayers, and powerful Undead.3) Classes and Levels; a massive potential scale of mechanical character growth; weak characters growing into superheroes and/or demigods. Skills, if they exist, are secondary to classes and levels.4) Focus on combat and (dungeon) exploration, as well as on treasure acquisition; most rules deal with these aspects of the game; tactical and/or war-gaming aspects of gameplay (it grew out of medieval wargaming, after all).5) Vancian or quasi-vancian magic; a wide variety of available magic items of varying levels of power (especially weapons/armour with 'pluses').</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Shades of Green, post: 5112848, member: 3297"] I'd say that the essential features of D&D are: 1) Generic "kitchen sink" fantasy with a very loose pseudo-western-medieval frame but with much influence from Classic mythology, non-western mythology and literary constructs such as Tolkien's works and the Cthulhu Mythos. 2) Humans, Elves, Dwarves and Halflings battling Orcs, Undead and Goblins and, later on, Ogres, Trolls, Giants, Dragons, Beholders, Mind-Flayers, and powerful Undead. 3) Classes and Levels; a massive potential scale of mechanical character growth; weak characters growing into superheroes and/or demigods. Skills, if they exist, are secondary to classes and levels. 4) Focus on combat and (dungeon) exploration, as well as on treasure acquisition; most rules deal with these aspects of the game; tactical and/or war-gaming aspects of gameplay (it grew out of medieval wargaming, after all). 5) Vancian or quasi-vancian magic; a wide variety of available magic items of varying levels of power (especially weapons/armour with 'pluses'). [/QUOTE]

Verification