what makes a game "D&D"?

[Hypersmurf]

Don't you mean Hear Hear?

Good grief! The comedian's a bear!

-Hyp.

 

[Umbran]

I sincerely believe i can do a better job than WotC did in balancing the conflicting goals of a "modern" system and remaining true to the spirit of D&D, so i want to see if i really can--and see if anyone agrees with me.

Hm. No insult intended, but gamer, thy name is Hubris.

There's one aspect that's pretty essential to game-design in which you are unlikely to be able to match WotC - playtesting. IIRC, 3e was preceeded by the greatest playtesting effort ever seen in paper RPGs. I don't see how someone without WotC clout and resources will be able to get testing nearly so comprehensive.

Not that you can't do a decent job without such playtesting, but extedting to do better without it requires... well, a lot.

I think a less-specific D&D could either require less alteration, or have more of those alterations built in as options to lessen the GM's work.

Lots of people seek the Holy Grail of fantasy gaming - the generic system. Even SJG, who made the most credible attempt, didn't really manage it. Search to make a system less D&D specific, and you know what you get? A system that is more self-specific. Every system has it's own flavor. If it did have no flavor of it's own, nobody would want to play it. If it has flavor of it's own, gamers will still have to modify it to make it what they speciifcally want. Catch-22.

 

[Hypersmurf]

Hm. No insult intended, but gamer, thy name is Hubris.

Isn't that backwards?

-Hyp.