D&D General What do you actually like about D&D?

[Ancalagon]

In some recent threads I began to suspect some people don’t like D&D. As in people who play it but almost only find fault or compare it to something else they simply like better.

This made we wonder: what is the attraction? For me, the genre itself is appealing in a way the Wild West, wuxia or sci fi is not (in an RPG).

I am sure my interest is also driven by my very long fandom of it as well.

I like the game’s focus on combat and its wargame roots.

Just curious what attracts others to D&D…especially since most online discussion are so focused on what is not liked.

Where else could I have an argument with some person named warpiglet?

 

[Dragonhelm]

What I like about D&D...and this is in no particular order...

1. I like how it's a game where players come together to make a story.
2. I love the settings. Some more than others. Dragonlance is my jam, followed by the Forgotten Realms. So many good settings.
3. I like that 5e is a relatively easy game to play.
4. I like that 5e draws from all editions of D&D. I noticed this particularly when the Burning Hands spell included the great flavor text of 1e/2e that was dropped in 3e and 4e.
5. I love that I've played for over 30 years.
6. I love that I got my shot to do some game design in the 3.5 Dragonlance books that Margaret Weis Productions (formerly Sovereign Press). It was a dream come true.
7. I love psionics. I'm glad that they've finally gotten psionics in a form that players have embraced it a lot more, though I like some of the themes of prior editions.
8. I love the races and classes.
9. The dice are fun. I have an unhealthy collection of them.

Okay, that's all I can think of for now. Thanks for having a positive thread.

 

[Snarf Zagyg]

thinking ....

Alliteration. Big fan of alliteration.

 

[Tony Vargas]

1. I like that 5e draws from all editions of D&D. I noticed this particularly when the Burning Hands spell included the great flavor text of 1e/2e that was dropped in 3e and 4e.

A cone of searing flame shoots from your fingertips.
jets of searing flame shoot from his or her fingertips
A gout of flame erupts from your hands
a thin sheet of flames shoots forth from your outstretched fingertips
A thin sheet of flame shoots from the character's outspread fingertips.

 

[cbwjm]

I love the settings. Some more than others. Dragonlance is my jam, followed by the Forgotten Realms. So many good settings.

Dragonlance is right up there as one of my favourite settings as well, I thought that the 3e books were great updates for it, though the revision to the knights of Solamnia was definitely needed, it was so hard getting into the Rose Knights in the core book.

 

[Micah Sweet]

Dragonlance is right up there as one of my favourite settings as well, I thought that the 3e books were great updates for it, though the revision to the knights of Solamnia was definitely needed, it was so hard getting into the Rose Knights in the core book.

I loved the 3e updates. Really showed they were made by people who cared about the setting.

Unlike certain other recent setting products.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

This made we wonder: what is the attraction? For me, the genre itself is appealing in a way the Wild West, wuxia or sci fi is not (in an RPG).

I am sure my interest is also driven by my very long fandom of it as well.

I like the game’s focus on combat and its wargame roots.

Just curious what attracts others to D&D…especially since most online discussion are so focused on what is not liked.

I think 5E is excellent for emulating heroic high fantasy adventures where there's a low chance of unexpected player character death. If there's a long-running series of fantasy novels about a group of characters, 5E is generally the right game to create something similar, and that's what I use it for. (I use other games when emulating other genres.)

 

[Bedrockgames]

In some recent threads I began to suspect some people don’t like D&D. As in people who play it but almost only find fault or compare it to something else they simply like better.

This made we wonder: what is the attraction? For me, the genre itself is appealing in a way the Wild West, wuxia or sci fi is not (in an RPG).

I am sure my interest is also driven by my very long fandom of it as well.

I like the game’s focus on combat and its wargame roots.

Just curious what attracts others to D&D…especially since most online discussion are so focused on what is not liked.

I like a lot of things about it:

-It reliably works for me for long ongoing campaign. There is a certain something about the spread of monsters, spells, magic items, setting assumptions that I find makes it very easy to launch a campaign and plan sessions

-Like the simplicity of picking a class and race as the foundation for your character

-I like a lot of the go to adventure structures that are baked into many of the rules (things like dungeon crawls)

-I like Vancian magic (for D&D, not necessarily for all fantasy)

-Love the 2E setting supplements

There is probably more if I gave it some thought. Generally I like D&D and find it just works. I try not to over think why. But I also find that some changes over the years have helped clarify what I don't want from D&D as well

 

[Clint_L]

I like that I'm starting a new campaign on Saturday because a group of my colleagues were all, "Hey, we wanna try that D&D game that all the kids are doing; it looks fun! It's so cool that you know how to play!" [gets in Time Machine and goes back to tell 13-year-old Clint L that one day being good at D&D will be "cool."]

 

[Greg K]

For both 3e and 5.0, generally, the core rules and third party support.