You are playing D&D wrong

[diaglo]

d02 ain't D&D

in my book ADnD ain't D&D

and Basic ain't D&D

there is only one D&D. it has 3 booklets.

 

[Buttercup]

If the DM and the players agree they're playing the "right" way, then they are. As Psion says, the rules serve the game, not the reverse.

 

[Keeper of Secrets]

it isn't that most people are playing D&D wrong. it is that they aren't playing D&D at all.

OD&D(1974) is the only true game. All the other editions are just poor imitations of the real thing.

Here we go again . . .

 

[fusangite]

I'm a little baffled here. Am I reading too much into some people's comments or have we jumped into the relativistic deep end again? Buttercup and Psion seem to be putting forward the view that playing D&D correctly is any situation in which
(a) two or more persons claim to be playing D&D together; and
(b) these individuals are having fun.
Surely everyone on this thread can agree that at some point sufficient deviation from either the letter or spirit of the rules renders the game not D&D. We may not agree on where that point is but surely we can all acknowledge its existence.

 

[Buttercup]

Fusnagite, if we were talking about something that actually *mattered* in the real world, like driving a car, or building a house, or mixing up chemical formulae, then I'd take a much more rigid stance. But it's a game. So who really cares, ultimately, except for the people directly involved?

 

[fusangite]

Fusnagite, if we were talking about something that actually *mattered* in the real world, like driving a car, or building a house, or mixing up chemical formulae, then I'd take a much more rigid stance. But it's a game. So who really cares, ultimately, except for the people directly involved?

People who might want to join their group? People whose groups they join? People on messageboards or other internet fora to which they post?

Besides, if what defines D&D as D&D doesn't matter at all, why are you responding to my post so fast? On a Sunday morning at that?

 

[hong]

People who might want to join their group? People whose groups they join? People on messageboards or other internet fora to which they post?

Who cares?

And the plural of fora is forae. Please check your facts before posting nonsense to UNsenet. I always do.

 

[fusangite]

Who cares?

And the plural of fora is forae. Please check your facts before posting nonsense to UNsenet. I always do.

Hong, how ironically am I supposed to take this post? Where do I start? I'm going to assume charitably, ignoring all our other interactions here, that you are just making a densely-packed set of jokes.

However, for those who mistook the above for a serious post, "fora" is, of course, the plural of "forum."

 

[Dyne]

Why does it matter what they call it? Some bums could be rolling regular six-sided dice on the street corner, using some crappy rules they made up and call it D&D for all I care. Or someone playing totally by the core rules could call it Knight's Quest or something instead of D&D. It doesn't matter how much they change it. If they want to call it D&D, then it's D&D. (unless they try to publish it as though it's D&D, in which they'll run into copyright problems)

And I thought the plural of forum was forums.

 

[Psion]

There is such a thing as playng the wrong way to be conducive to the enjoyment of a given group. We had a player for a bit that had rather munchkin expectations for his character (he had a 2e character drawn from a homegrown class that was, if you can beleive it, a powered up version of a specialty priest for Faiths & Avatars). I nerfed it into a prestige class that wasn't too overpowered, but he still had competition issues with the rest of the group.

He mercifully quit coming for a while. When he announced the intention to come back, we informed him (truthfully) that there was no longer room, he announced that he could merely have his character kill one of the existing characters. Which, since our group is player not character driven, was laughable.

To be part of our group and enjoy our game (and have the rest of the group enjoy it), he was playing D&D wrong. If he can find a group that is concilatory to his competitive attitude, more power to him.