What *is* D&D?
- Thread starter Reynard
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CanadienneBacon
Explorer
D&D is: Killing Things and Taking its Stuff, Character Building and (mechanical) development, Heroic Stories of Adventure, Role-playing and (in game) character development, Creating a fantastic world and watching it grow through play, and A fun way to burn a few hours.
I think D&D is all of those -- and probably more -- but I can do without the KT&TS playstyle and the mechanical character build/advancement element. I like tactical combat, but it is okay if combat only happens every once in a while.
The most important one for me, as a play or a DM, is creating and exploring the fantastic world of the game. There's no singular way to do this of course, but for me all the other stuff takes a back seat to being really engaged by the illusionary reality of the game. D&D (or RPGs in general) is the only form of entertainment that really allows for it. You can find yourself deeply immersed in a really great novel or film or video game, but once it is done, you can't go back and make it more than it was. You never have to stop playing a particular campaign, or in a aprticular setting, with D&D. As long as there are still things to do, places to go, you can revisit it.
One of the reasons I like the "changing game" of earlier editions -- the perilous early adventures, the heroic mid-level quests, the founding of domains and such at higher levels -- is that it encourages continued, infinite play. There's no end because the game doesn't have a built in "end game" (it also helps that levelling is slow -- at a certain point, levelling takes a back seat to other reward from play). And even if you choose to stop a current campaign, the setting, and the last campaigns' effects on it, are still there for the next campaign. You can play the descendents of previous characters and adventure in the nation they built.
I miss that kind of play.
The most important one for me, as a play or a DM, is creating and exploring the fantastic world of the game. There's no singular way to do this of course, but for me all the other stuff takes a back seat to being really engaged by the illusionary reality of the game. D&D (or RPGs in general) is the only form of entertainment that really allows for it. You can find yourself deeply immersed in a really great novel or film or video game, but once it is done, you can't go back and make it more than it was. You never have to stop playing a particular campaign, or in a aprticular setting, with D&D. As long as there are still things to do, places to go, you can revisit it.
One of the reasons I like the "changing game" of earlier editions -- the perilous early adventures, the heroic mid-level quests, the founding of domains and such at higher levels -- is that it encourages continued, infinite play. There's no end because the game doesn't have a built in "end game" (it also helps that levelling is slow -- at a certain point, levelling takes a back seat to other reward from play). And even if you choose to stop a current campaign, the setting, and the last campaigns' effects on it, are still there for the next campaign. You can play the descendents of previous characters and adventure in the nation they built.
I miss that kind of play.
Jack7
First Post
I'll say all of those things, but to me killing and taking stuff is justifiable only in the context of overall good and evil. That is to say some things are just to dangerous and evil to let live, and have no intention of changing, and so in game that makes for a good justification for killing such creatures/beings and relieving them of their ill-gotten gain.
Otherwise I'll also say that personally, my theory is that the game, like most all role playing games, and many other types of games as well, really involve (on a deep level and sometimes sub-consciously) "player development" and not just character building. That is character development is an extrinsic exercise of employing yourself through the medium of a fictional character to a fictional world. Player development is an intrinsic exercise whereby one employs a fictional character in the background of a fictional world in such a way as to benefit through that experience to some real world advantage. So personally I would add to that list the following:
Player Development (skills, mental, personal, etc.)
Usefulness (utility) to the Player (though that might very well be considered little more than an extension of Player Development). But I can differentiate also. Player Development is what directly benefits the player personally (skills, capabilities), whereas usefulness may involve things like facts and data discovered, lessons learned, a broadening of experience, etc. So Player Development is player capability development and an internal factor, whereas Utility is external and is often knowledge or wisdom based, being both an accumulation of data, and the learning of better ways to employ what knows to any given situation (wisdom).
Social Interaction/Development and a Friendship/Comrade Exercise
Myth Exploration and New Myth Development
Psychological Development (used in both the modern and the old Greek senses)
Moral Development (and if properly played and employed maybe even spiritual development)
But personally I don't think it has to be Either/Or, or Just this/Just that.
It can be many things, sometimes simultaneously, sometimes sequentially.
Speaking of which I got church in the morning and I'm dog tired.
See ya.
Otherwise I'll also say that personally, my theory is that the game, like most all role playing games, and many other types of games as well, really involve (on a deep level and sometimes sub-consciously) "player development" and not just character building. That is character development is an extrinsic exercise of employing yourself through the medium of a fictional character to a fictional world. Player development is an intrinsic exercise whereby one employs a fictional character in the background of a fictional world in such a way as to benefit through that experience to some real world advantage. So personally I would add to that list the following:
Player Development (skills, mental, personal, etc.)
Usefulness (utility) to the Player (though that might very well be considered little more than an extension of Player Development). But I can differentiate also. Player Development is what directly benefits the player personally (skills, capabilities), whereas usefulness may involve things like facts and data discovered, lessons learned, a broadening of experience, etc. So Player Development is player capability development and an internal factor, whereas Utility is external and is often knowledge or wisdom based, being both an accumulation of data, and the learning of better ways to employ what knows to any given situation (wisdom).
Social Interaction/Development and a Friendship/Comrade Exercise
Myth Exploration and New Myth Development
Psychological Development (used in both the modern and the old Greek senses)
Moral Development (and if properly played and employed maybe even spiritual development)
But personally I don't think it has to be Either/Or, or Just this/Just that.
It can be many things, sometimes simultaneously, sometimes sequentially.
Speaking of which I got church in the morning and I'm dog tired.
See ya.
D&D
...is a specific set of rules and assumptions about a fantasy setting that incorporate certain elements that are unique to Dungeons and Dragons (such as but by no means limited to wizards not being able to cast spells in armor, paladins being or attempting to be paragons of order, honesty, and good, etc.)
...is class and level based.
...does not contain technology or technologists except in very limited sorts of ways. i.e., technology beyond a certain medieval level (which could be very sophisticated actually) is not comprehensible or well understood by the vast majority of sapients.
...is a specific set of rules and assumptions about a fantasy setting that incorporate certain elements that are unique to Dungeons and Dragons (such as but by no means limited to wizards not being able to cast spells in armor, paladins being or attempting to be paragons of order, honesty, and good, etc.)
...is class and level based.
...does not contain technology or technologists except in very limited sorts of ways. i.e., technology beyond a certain medieval level (which could be very sophisticated actually) is not comprehensible or well understood by the vast majority of sapients.
jdrakeh
Front Range Warlock
I always liked how Steve Jackson differentiated between systems and games (i.e., he said that a game is something you do and a system is something that enables you to do these things). D&D is the penultimate fantasy system. It allows you to play many different games. D&D is whatever you make of it.
Jack Daniel
Legend
I'd weigh in on this poll if "tactical combat" and "complex mechanics" were separate categories.
D&D is (and I quote from the title page), "Rules For Fantastic Medieval Wargames Campaigns Playable with Paper and Pencil and Miniature Figures."
Of course, once you sit down to play at the game table, D&D is whatever the DM says it is. At my table, it's light rules, in depth character development, absolutely no character "building" allowed, tactical battles, high magic, and steampunk.
D&D is (and I quote from the title page), "Rules For Fantastic Medieval Wargames Campaigns Playable with Paper and Pencil and Miniature Figures."
Of course, once you sit down to play at the game table, D&D is whatever the DM says it is. At my table, it's light rules, in depth character development, absolutely no character "building" allowed, tactical battles, high magic, and steampunk.
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