What's right with D&D?

[Shades of Green]

Its based on very commonplace heroic-fantasy assumptions, concepts and stereotypes. This makes the game's premise (as well asmost D&D settings) pretty easy to explain, and makes descriptions easy. Most concepts touched by D&D are easily familiar to most people who are attracted to such a game: if you've read The Hobbit, LoTR, Harry Potter, EarthSea, Wheel of Time, Narnia or any other popular fantasy book (or watched any sword-and-sorcery movie/TV-series such as Hercules/Xena/Conan/LoTR/Narnia) you'll grasp the basic D&D ideas pretty easily.

This also makes describing settings pretty easy: you only have to focus on describing deviations from the norm (e.g. "in my world, Dwarves live on the rocky shores of a frozen land and raid the rest of the world in Drakkars") rather than the basics and norms themselves (e.g. you don't have to say "Dwarves are short, stocky people with beards and axes who are quite gruff and like alot of ale").

 

[MoogleEmpMog]

It's easy to find a group for.

It's easy to explain to new players. Basic/Rules Cyclopaedia D&D was perhaps the easiest RPG to introduce a new player to ever - nothing high concept or far from the common understanding of Game, readily accessible classes that mapped to popular media, and a simple system. A good GM can introduce D&D 3.5 almost as easily, certainly easier than most any other system on the market, and AD&D is only a little behind in ease of explanation.
Caveat: this doesn't mean D&D is necessarily easy to PLAY, compared to many other RPGs. Once you 'get,' say, FATE, it's much easier; heck, HERO is easier outside of character creation. A new player, however, will have trouble grasping those systems.

(3.x only) It's one of the better tactical games available, a worthy alternative to dedicated skirmish-level wargames. Offhand, Savage Worlds is the only non-d20 RPG that can claim this - you could do it with HERO but only if all the players knew the system well.

 

[Crothian]

1. Multiclassing
2. Free Metamagic
3. Synergy
4. Two-Handed Weapons
5. Balancing Per Encounter Instead of Per Day
6. Neverending Buffs
7. Combat Expertise and Power Attack
8. Point Buy
9. Rerolls
10. Magic Item Creation

 

[Psion]

1. Multiclassing
2. Free Metamagic
3. Synergy
4. Two-Handed Weapons
5. Balancing Per Encounter Instead of Per Day
6. Neverending Buffs
7. Combat Expertise and Power Attack
8. Point Buy
9. Rerolls
10. Magic Item Creation

 

[sniffles]

It's easy to learn. I'm crap at learning complicated rules, but I understand most D&D rules fairly quickly.

It doesn't require a lot of mathematical skill. I'm crap at that too. Roll a d20 and add something to the result - simple enough even for me.

It's very well suited to the fantasy genre as a whole, and it's easy to think of how to apply D&D rules to most fantasy settings with little or no modification.

It offers a lot of variety and flexibility within the limits of the system.

It's well supported.

Like Shades of Green says, the assumptions of the system are easy to explain to novices.

 

[Mallus]

It's more fun that not...

 

[crazy_cat]

What do you like about D&D?

I quite like the name - "D&D" just sounds sort of catchy and stuff......

 

[Darklone]

It's as simple as you like and as complicated as you need it.

Besides, one evening of RPG during the week allows you to recover like during two days of vacation.

 

[Drowbane]

1. Multiclassing
2. Free Metamagic
3. Synergy
4. Two-Handed Weapons
5. Balancing Per Encounter Instead of Per Day
6. Neverending Buffs
7. Combat Expertise and Power Attack
8. Point Buy
9. Rerolls
10. Magic Item Creation

qft

 

[RyanD]

Things I like about D&D

It is designed to provide as much content for those who create content for game sessions as it is for those people who play in those sessions. In fact, one could argue there's actually more support for creating content then there is for using that content.

This is one of the subtle things people often overlook about D&D; it's basically two different kinds of experience sold in one package. There's the "use tools to create stories" game, and there's the "play cool stories" game.

D&D, and D20 by extension, actually provides a 3rd type of experience, the "make new tools for others to use to create stories" game - but this 3rd type of experience is not well documented within the actual products themselves as much as it is by the community and the aftermarket support provided by Wizards, and unlike the first two kinds of experience, you typically do the 3rd one all alone without a community, which makes it less visible, and harder to document in terms of numbers of participants in that activity.