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

[Micah Sweet]

It's incredibly rare to see a scene where people are actually showing signs of reduced capability as a fight goes on. It's rare enough that when it does happen my wife and I tend to comment on it. It's usually more along the lines of people going full blast until one drops or, as you say, they beat a hasty retreat.

And that's fine if what you want out of D&D is an action movie.

 

[Tony Vargas]

Well, or a high fantasy novel or myth/legend or even sword & sorcery.
But TV and action movies - and video games - are more the norm for fantasy these days, yeah.

Hit points are definitely less compelling if you're going for, IDK, survival horror, murder mystery, slice of life, or many another genre or sub-genre... oh, and of course, "low fantasy" (implied by the existence of "high" fantasy) and "fantasy vietnam" (AFAICT, coined for D&D discussions, ironically enough)

But, yeah, I get not liking hit points. I acknowledged they're a dissociative mechanic, unrealistic as can be, vague, abstract, and occassionally self-contradictory. But they are a practical game mechanic that avoids many issues that are problematic in games, even tho author force can make them work in fiction, and they're right at the core of D&D, you can't really have the game without them.

 

[Oofta]

And that's fine if what you want out of D&D is an action movie.

There's actually some truth to the "You're fine until you drop dead" in some cases. People report being shot and that it felt like a bee sting but their adrenaline was running and it didn't even slow them down and it's not until a few minutes later they realize how badly hurt they are. Unlike boxing matches which tend to last more than 15 minutes most one-on-one fights like we get in D&D really are over very quickly, much more quickly than what we see on TV and movies.

In any case, I was just pointing out that D&D is not the only genre that treats injury and damage unrealistically. It's pretty common. I don't think it's either good or bad, the advantage is that it's easy to use and understand.

 

[Stormonu]

Yeah, that's what I think I do like about D&D - making a high octane action flick with a few poignant story moments. I think I'm past the days of trying to make it a fantasy simulator.

 

[Micah Sweet]

There's actually some truth to the "You're fine until you drop dead" in some cases. People report being shot and that it felt like a bee sting but their adrenaline was running and it didn't even slow them down and it's not until a few minutes later they realize how badly hurt they are. Unlike boxing matches which tend to last more than 15 minutes most one-on-one fights like we get in D&D really are over very quickly, much more quickly than what we see on TV and movies.

In any case, I was just pointing out that D&D is not the only genre that treats injury and damage unrealistically. It's pretty common. I don't think it's either good or bad, the advantage is that it's easy to use and understand.

Yeah, I can get behind no death spirals as long as dropping to 0 has meaningful consequences. But of course, WotC doesn't even do that.

 

[Micah Sweet]

Yeah, that's what I think I do like about D&D - making a high octane action flick with a few poignant story moments. I think I'm past the days of trying to make it a fantasy simulator.

Not me. That's the D&D I want to play.

 

[Professor Murder]

It gets the job done. Real talk, no game system hits all needs, you will always make compromises.

 

[Swarmkeeper]

Yeah, I can get behind no death spirals as long as dropping to 0 has meaningful consequences. But of course, WotC doesn't even do that.

Yes, we get that you don’t like WotC. There’s plenty of other threads for that.

But here, please tell us more about what you like about D&D in general (and Level Up, specifically, if you want).

 

[Micah Sweet]

I like the old lore from 1e and especially 2e, particularly Ravenloft, Dark Sun, Dragonlance, Planescape, and Spelljammer. I enjoy the feeling of adventuring through an imaginary world. I more than anything love creating such worlds and seeing others experience them. I love the feeling of danger and knowing how close you can be to death at any moment in the game. I enjoy making new characters and seeing how their lives unfold. I like re-hashing the story that emerged after the fact with my group.

For Level Up, I appreciate the effort that has gone into giving DMs the tools to build awesome worlds in 5e, particularly the exploration and travel rules and the extra care given to every entry in the Monstrous Menagerie. I really like the hazard rules and how they were applied to traps, and also the dungeon-building tools.

I appreciate the work that has gone into the PC-facing rules to provide mechanical heft, particularly the entire Level Up origin system, about which I will continue to sing the praises.

I like D&D quite a lot, just not the parts a lot of other people seem to like.

 

[Guest 7042500]

OD&D.

I like the fact that it gives me a simple set of basic mechanics and gets the hell out of the way. "Here's basic character generation, a simple combat system, some spells and some monsters and some treasure. Add imagination and go apeshit." Remember, the spell research rules came BEFORE the spell list.

AD&D 1E - I loved all the world building stuff in the DMG. (The Random Harlot Table makes perfect sense to anyone who ever read Fafhrd and the Mouser.)

Hated everything since.