D&D General Why do you play Dungeons & Dragons?

[Rhenny]

Nostalgia and 5e is much easier for me to DM than any other game I’ve been a DM or GM for.

 

[Asisreo]

Me and my players really enjoy D&D. From the dungeons to the iconic monsters. It's not like other systems lack these things, but it just feels like its meant to be played as this fun adventure between friends while exploring an area with greatswords and spells and dragons.

Honestly, though, if it wasn't for 5e, we probably would have dropped it completely. Nobody liked the direction 4e went in my group and if 5e was continuing on that path, we probably would either have the remainder of our games in Call of Cthulu or just dropped TTRPG's in general.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

My group left D&D with 3/3.5, came back with 4e, and really dug in with 5e.

Now, we have enough experience that we know we can do pretty munch any game style with 5e, so we don’t want to learn new systems.

 

[LuisCarlos17f]

I am not a true player, (but the Endless-Quest gamebooks) but more a collector. I like to create with my imagination.

 

[opacitizen]

I play a lot of other rpgs, both old and new, but I almost always have a running D&D story as well. Why? Because I like it. I know it's not a good explanation, but consider this: I like pizza too. Are there a myriad other kinds of food as well? Sure there are. Are some of them excellent? Sure! It's not like I eat pizza all the time. Still, pizza remains a favorite. It's been that for decades. I like its taste, I like going to a pizzeria with pizza-loving friends, we have a ton of cool memories related to pizza. Tasting a new food doesn't make me or us unlike pizza. If I can, I'll return to pizza regularly.

Yeah, go order a pizza now, if you want.

 

[Marc_C]

It was my first love. I do play other RPGs, more in recent years, but like comfort food D&D is the one a return to all the time.

 

[GMMichael]

...because I have some friends playing a D&D game.

There are so many new Tabletop RPGs out there that it's crazy to me people still play D&D after 45 years. It's certainly much more popular than a lot of the other RPGs that came out around the same time period. What is it about D&D that makes it stand out above the rest?

Why do people still drink Coke?

Learning how an RPG system functions is work, therefore I only ever want to do it once; and as I've already done it there's no need to do it again.

That's a bit unfair. D&D (especially if you're the DM, with another book to read) is work, sure. I can't imagine that learning Morrus's Simply 6 is work though, along with oodles of other rules-light games out there.

 

[Morrus]

If work must be done I prefer to only have to do it once.

Learning how an RPG system functions is work, therefore I only ever want to do it once; and as I've already done it there's no need to do it again.

I must be unusual in that I find reading a new RPG system to be fun, not work. I marvel at the new (to me) rules and itch to try them. I find learning an awesome new rules system to be very enjoyable.

 

[Retreater]

I am not playing D&D (unless you count PF2 and OSR games).
I can tell you why I'm not playing 5e D&D. One group wanted more tactical depth, so they went to PF2. Two other groups wanted more narrative, less rules, so they went OSR. D&D is sort of the "middle" to us, and rather than bringing together players with different playstyles it is currently alienating my players by being too middle-of-the-road.
The tactical players say that they've already seen everything 5e offers for character design, that combats are boring slog fests through bags of hit points. The other groups get bogged down in options and the rules are a little too fiddly for them.
But why do I keep coming back to D&D-style games? I guess I've found that I can't run long campaigns in anything but D&D. I'm lucky to get in a few months of WHFRPG, Savage Worlds, or Call of Cthulhu. I haven't seen any games that reward character growth with mechanical benefits like D&D. (Going up a few percentage points in a skill is about all you get in Cthulhu.) The narrative and story is rewarding, but the system gives you little to look forward to in character advancement. I think that is the main draw of D&D-style games.

 

[Greg K]

I prefer other games to D&D for fantasy (e.g. Savage Worlds, Barbarians of Lemuria, Fantasy Hero, and Tiny Dungeons 2e). I don't enjoy most of the Gygaxian monsters, the majority of lore introduced into D&D beginning with several 2e settings, or the direction of fantasy that WOTC has pursued since mid 3e. However, when players can't agree on a system other than settling for D&D, 3e and 5e have both decent enough base mechanics and plenty of third party material to help tailor the system into something that I don't mind running- and, thankfully, for 5e, a lot of the third party material I like has been, free, PWYW or no more than $1-3 which has allowed me to acquire plenty of content that I find more useful than WOTC supplements and for about $20-$25 dollars total) .