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What is the essence of D&D
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<blockquote data-quote="Deleted member 7015506" data-source="post: 7792891"><p>I have to counter that. I DMed many sessions, either with totally new people to RPGing or few experience with other systems. The basic concept of RPGing (dialogue, explaining your actions during the game) is explained easily, no matter what the system is you are playing. The game mechanics are not that complicated (combat f.e.: roll a d20, add or subtract a modifier and see if that result is equal or higher than a target number (=AC)) and are understood after the first couple of combat rounds. And for that no expereince with RPGs is necessary.</p><p></p><p>Now I agree on the basic concepts of fantasy (dragons, dwarves, elves, etc.). Basically everybody knows what that is and how it looks (thanks Mr. Jackson for making those great movies). </p><p></p><p>One thing though, that makes D&D so easy to transport to the table is, that no matter what edition or clone you play (some exceptions exist), veteran players, even when total strangers to each other, can easily adapt to the presented system/edition (normally) and play together. The reason is, that D&D throughout all of its editions remained the same to the core mechanics and provided therefore a kind of unified "language" amongst people playing D&D. Now that might hold true for other games also (Runequest and its cousins for example), but it is (for me) most obvious in D&D.</p><p></p><p>Now for the "complete failure" to adapt into other genres I agree to a certain point. There were attempts in the past "Mask of the Red Death" for example), but IMHO they never clicked, because the support was not so large as for AD&D (2e) at that time and TSR made the big mistake in competing with itself by publishing too many settings so their customer base was split amongst itself. And this resulted in neglecting and finally abandoning those attempts.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Deleted member 7015506, post: 7792891"] I have to counter that. I DMed many sessions, either with totally new people to RPGing or few experience with other systems. The basic concept of RPGing (dialogue, explaining your actions during the game) is explained easily, no matter what the system is you are playing. The game mechanics are not that complicated (combat f.e.: roll a d20, add or subtract a modifier and see if that result is equal or higher than a target number (=AC)) and are understood after the first couple of combat rounds. And for that no expereince with RPGs is necessary. Now I agree on the basic concepts of fantasy (dragons, dwarves, elves, etc.). Basically everybody knows what that is and how it looks (thanks Mr. Jackson for making those great movies). One thing though, that makes D&D so easy to transport to the table is, that no matter what edition or clone you play (some exceptions exist), veteran players, even when total strangers to each other, can easily adapt to the presented system/edition (normally) and play together. The reason is, that D&D throughout all of its editions remained the same to the core mechanics and provided therefore a kind of unified "language" amongst people playing D&D. Now that might hold true for other games also (Runequest and its cousins for example), but it is (for me) most obvious in D&D. Now for the "complete failure" to adapt into other genres I agree to a certain point. There were attempts in the past "Mask of the Red Death" for example), but IMHO they never clicked, because the support was not so large as for AD&D (2e) at that time and TSR made the big mistake in competing with itself by publishing too many settings so their customer base was split amongst itself. And this resulted in neglecting and finally abandoning those attempts. [/QUOTE]
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