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<blockquote data-quote="I'm A Banana" data-source="post: 4884173" data-attributes="member: 2067">Of course. That's par for the course in any artistic endeavor. It doesn't mean there is not a strong central theme. It means that the thing is multifaceted enough to present many angles for it. Which is key in artistic analysis, but doesn't have a lot to do with the D&amp;D game, by and large. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f609.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=";)" title="Wink&nbsp; &nbsp; ;)"&nbsp; data-smilie="2"data-shortname=";)" /> A strong theme can improve the often-ambiguous narrative element of D&amp;D (if you want a strong narrative element; many games do not). It can work in an over-arching campaign, in a single adventure, or whatever.I think it's safe to assume that &quot;theme&quot; is being used in a very broad context in this conversation, rather than the specific, narrow, academic context. That said, I'm hardly a LotR scholar, and I'm entirely sure my off-the-cuff &quot;theme&quot; for it could be improved.The crux is, &quot;Normal people save the world,&quot; and &quot;evil kills itself&quot; are entirely possible to weave into a D&amp;D game, complete with mechanical, statistical, possibly even numerical, representation to reinforce that theme through more than just the DM's say-so and the players' complacency. And doing so enhances the strength of the narrative you tell at the table. If you're not looking for a narrative (if you're more of a sandbox or a dungeon-delve kind of group), it's kind of pointless, sure. Though I tend to think composing a narrative is one of those things that is uniquely suited to TTRPG's, and that videogames deal with the other two play styles better.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="I'm A Banana, post: 4884173, member: 2067"] Of course. That's par for the course in any artistic endeavor. It doesn't mean there is not a strong central theme. It means that the thing is multifaceted enough to present many angles for it. Which is key in artistic analysis, but doesn't have a lot to do with the D&D game, by and large. ;) A strong theme can improve the often-ambiguous narrative element of D&D (if you want a strong narrative element; many games do not). It can work in an over-arching campaign, in a single adventure, or whatever. I think it's safe to assume that "theme" is being used in a very broad context in this conversation, rather than the specific, narrow, academic context. That said, I'm hardly a LotR scholar, and I'm entirely sure my off-the-cuff "theme" for it could be improved. The crux is, "Normal people save the world," and "evil kills itself" are entirely possible to weave into a D&D game, complete with mechanical, statistical, possibly even numerical, representation to reinforce that theme through more than just the DM's say-so and the players' complacency. And doing so enhances the strength of the narrative you tell at the table. If you're not looking for a narrative (if you're more of a sandbox or a dungeon-delve kind of group), it's kind of pointless, sure. Though I tend to think composing a narrative is one of those things that is uniquely suited to TTRPG's, and that videogames deal with the other two play styles better. [/QUOTE]

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