You are playing D&D wrong

[Nightcloak]

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.

I agree with Buttercup.

Psion said it best long ago: "The rules serve the game."

 

[Remathilis]

I'll go out on a limb and say you CAN play D&D wrong...

However, it takes lots of effort to do.

My take on what you can do to play D&D wrong (look for the theme).

PCs
* Be antagonisitic to all other characters, from other PCs to every NPC.
* Refuse to get along with other players, do your own thing at the cost of the group and/or game.
* Be a glory-hog.
* Lie about dice rolls. Almost everytime.
* Deliberately make your PC the best at everything, cheating to do so.
* Be the LE prick on the party of paladins.
* DEMAND you be allowed to play a vampire/lich/half-dragon/powerful creature without reprocussions.
* Kill NPCs for fun. Double points to plot devices or helpless.
* Arm's Race the GM.

GMs
* Railroad PCs so that they have no free will of thier own.
* Make your NPCs ten times better than any PC. Make them the TRUE heroes and the PCs witnesses.
* Deu Es Machina. Everytime.
* Make your bad-guy impossible to kill.
* Attempt to kill your PCs because you can, usually in unfair methods.

These are the habits of poor role-players. The common thread? ITS A CO-OPERATIVE GAME! CO-OPERATE WITH YOUR FELLOW PLAYERS AND GM TO HAVE THE MOST FUN POSSIBLE!!!!!!!

 

[Fenes]

I think we all have different views what are the essentials for a D&D game, so we can't define what is not D&D anymore.

 

[Stone Angel]

Nope at my table my way is LAW!

No seriously is there really a wrong way to play? Other than hurting people like that dumb 80's TV movie portrayed.

If there is a wrong way we need some RPG secret police to enforce the rulebook!


The Seraph of Earth and Stone

 

[Barak]

The problem is that not everyone defines the terms the same way. Heck, I'm not talking about game terms, I'm talking about the terms in the question that started this thread.

Define D&D, and define wrong, and then many people who are arguing right now would agree.

 

[Nebt Bhakau]

I must agree with Fusangite. And I will add:

-Many people use 'D&D' to mean 'the Dungeons and Dragons roleplaying game, published by Wizards of the Coast, in its current incarnation'. And others use it as a shorthand for 'D&D and other tabletop FRPGs, as well as any crap house-ruled-to-death abomination played by people who have, at some point, read the PHB'. I assume the original post referred to the former.
- In order for D&D to achieve the same measure of mainstream respect shared by other games such as cribbage or rugby, there must be certain, intrinsic rules, sine qua non. Almost every high school in this country has a football team, and any of those teams could play any other on any high school football field because of this uniformity of rule. Further, any player on any of those teams could transfer to another team and still be sure he knew what rules he would be playing under. And if I were to say 'I ran fifty yards to the goal line,' you know exactly what I have accomplished and can measure that accomplishment against others, and no one can whisper "Yeah, but over at William Blount, they define a 'yard' as one foot, and ..." etc. etc.

Without standard rules, my lords and ladies, we may be playing at D&D, but we are not playing D&D.

 

[D+1]

The purpose of playing D&D is to have fun. D&D exists as a framework of rules to be used along with imagination and random dice rolls to play out the adventures of characters controlled by the players in a fictional world. In one sense then telling someone they are playing D&D incorrectly is like telling them they are not having fun in the correct way.

But D&D IS a collection of rules. Those rules have a lot of options and includes one ABSOLUTELY OVERRIDING caveat - the DM can change rules from what has been presented AS rules. In that sense you CAN be playing D&D wrong if you are not adhering to the rules as A) the game has presented them and B) the DM has altered them.

The most common context in which the phrase is used however is in the sense of "The way YOU play D&D is not a way that I find appropriate, sensible or fun." There are many ways of playing D&D. There are different styles, different settings, different use of "official" optional rules or rules supplements, use of lots of house rules or strictly by-the-books; you can play the game as it was originally played, play it as it is written, play it according to a particular interpretation by emphasizing roleplaying over the rules or emphasizing the rules above all, emphasizing enjoyment via character maximization and precise construction or enjoyment via clever play against interesting opponents and exciting situations. It is not difficult for two people to disagree on the best or preferred way of playing the game even when all things are otherwise equal.

It IS thus possible to consider someone to be playing the game wrong, but only as YOU personally define the PROPER way to play the game. Most of the discussion about rules is thus centered around the notion that there are correct and incorrect interpretations for virtually all the rules, excepting only those rules that are themselves inherently incorrect or for which there isn't a definitive interpretation.

 

[fusangite]

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)

What if they called it "smelting zinc"? Would we calmly say "those people over there are smelting zinc" because to do otherwise would interfere with their fun?

Yes. D&D is supposed to be fun. But the fact that something is supposed to be fun doesn't mean that one shouldn't bother to define it. Indeed, let me make the case that if we do not place any boundaries on what constitutes D&D, there will be less fun to go around.

 

[Fenes]

But D&D IS a collection of rules. Those rules have a lot of options and includes one ABSOLUTELY OVERRIDING caveat - the DM can change rules from what has been presented AS rules. In that sense you CAN be playing D&D wrong if you are not adhering to the rules as A) the game has presented them and B) the DM has altered them.

I think this settles it. Since the rules themselves state that the DM can overrule the written rules, how can anyone state that houseruling does cause a game not to be D&D anymore?

As far as interchangeability is concerned, even if you used the rules as written and shared all interpretations you could have vastly different games. One game could have the the DM limiting treaure severly, in effect ban magic items from his campaign without changing any rule. You could have players and DMs forgoing certain classes - not changing any rules, just not using such classes or races or spells. Combat could be completely absent and all D&D rules used as written.

So, no, you can't really play D&D wrong, since it is too flexible for that.

 

[Silver Moon]

Generally I'd go along with the "everyone having fun" rule transcending right and wrong, but with one exception - honesty. It is "wrong" for a player or DM to cheat. When players fudge dice rolls, add or subtract something to their chracter sheet or peek at the module the DM is using that is "wrong". Similary, the DM must play with a sense of integrity that is beyond reproach. We once had a DM who we couldn't strategize in front of because he would make substantial changes in the module to counter them, I feel that was wrong.