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What makes D&D feel like D&D?
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<blockquote data-quote="DammitVictor" data-source="post: 8220352" data-attributes="member: 6750908"><p>The Classic Six ability scores.</p><p>Class and Level and Race, though either Race-and-Class or Race-as-Class is acceptable.</p><p>Multiclassing.</p><p>Feats -- though pre-WotC proficiency systems count</p><p>Armor Class and Hit Points</p><p></p><p>Other: <em>Powers. </em>The level title for an 8th level Fighter in AD&D was <em>superhero</em>. In 3.X D&D, an utterly "nonmagical"-- this word does not apply to <em>anything</em> in a coherent fantasy world and <em>I hate it</em>-- human character with good STR and CON scores who maxes out their Climb, Jump, and Swim skill ranks and only takes "athletic" feats, like a real human athlete might, starts breaking modern world records by 4th or 5th level. This is what I want.</p><p></p><p>Other: <em>Weirdness</em>. As much as I bitch that a lot of D&D world design is unforgivable jank, there's a lot of jank that it just isn't D&D without: having way too many different sapient species in too-small landmasses, universally accepted metric system currency, the dichotomy between arcane and divine (and primal and psychic, please) magic, dragons whose motives and powers are color-coded for your convenience, the <em>assumption </em>of a massively overwrought and easily accessible cosmology. None of these specific, individual points is <em>necessary</em> but a game has to be built out of layer upon layer of these very specific and unintuitive design assumptions to <em>feel like D&D</em>.</p><p></p><p>To the point that, nowadays, most people are incapable of recognizing how specific and unintuitive they are, even outside of D&D.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="DammitVictor, post: 8220352, member: 6750908"] The Classic Six ability scores. Class and Level and Race, though either Race-and-Class or Race-as-Class is acceptable. Multiclassing. Feats -- though pre-WotC proficiency systems count Armor Class and Hit Points Other: [I]Powers. [/I]The level title for an 8th level Fighter in AD&D was [I]superhero[/I]. In 3.X D&D, an utterly "nonmagical"-- this word does not apply to [I]anything[/I] in a coherent fantasy world and [I]I hate it[/I]-- human character with good STR and CON scores who maxes out their Climb, Jump, and Swim skill ranks and only takes "athletic" feats, like a real human athlete might, starts breaking modern world records by 4th or 5th level. This is what I want. Other: [I]Weirdness[/I]. As much as I bitch that a lot of D&D world design is unforgivable jank, there's a lot of jank that it just isn't D&D without: having way too many different sapient species in too-small landmasses, universally accepted metric system currency, the dichotomy between arcane and divine (and primal and psychic, please) magic, dragons whose motives and powers are color-coded for your convenience, the [I]assumption [/I]of a massively overwrought and easily accessible cosmology. None of these specific, individual points is [I]necessary[/I] but a game has to be built out of layer upon layer of these very specific and unintuitive design assumptions to [I]feel like D&D[/I]. To the point that, nowadays, most people are incapable of recognizing how specific and unintuitive they are, even outside of D&D. [/QUOTE]
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