Its worth pointing out as well that D&D isn't just a game, its a tradition and that cannot be said about most other RPG's, in fact, I would say D&D as a tradition is a truly unique element of the game.
When people say "let's play D&D", you need to ask follow-up questions, as this is not enough information. Which edition are we going to play? What style of D&D are we playing? What setting are we using? What house rules are we using?
You come to my group and say "lets play D&D" you might very well be talking about Castles and Crusades or Pathfinder, you might be talking about running a Dungeon Crawl, or a survival game... D&D isn't a system so much as it is an identifiable premise of a game. Wether you play 1st edition AD&D, 5th edition D&D, Castles and Crusades or Shadow Dark.. you are playing "D&D".
Its broad as a concept because it isn't a game, its a tradition that includes a wide range of things like styles of play, versions of the game, themes, settings... its a lot of things all built into one larger concept.
Most RPG's do one of two things. They either "jump aboard" the D&D train and try to be part of that tradition, for example Daggerheart is a kind of focused version of D&D that targets narrative play as oppossed to the more tactical side of say Draw Steel.. But these two games are definitely in the D&D family, you could say "lets play D&D" and mean Daggerheart or Draw Steel.
The other type of RPG are games that are not part of the D&D family, for example if you are playing Vampire The Masquerade or Call of Cthulhu, these are very specific, very intentionally games that actively don't want to be D&D. They go out of their way to break away from core ideas and structures to find their own identity. Games however, that are not in the D&D family tend to have their own ideas about what constitutes a character or story, they have different expectations about what the game is about and how the game is about that thing. For example in Vampire you are not heroes, you don't go on adventures, you don't level up, you have very little if any combat and when you do have combat its not tactical at all. Its a game that breaks a lot of the expectations of what it means to play an RPG from the perspective of D&D.
I think and this is just an opinion based on personal observation so very subjective, but I do believe it to be true that the concept of an RPG being about players creating heroes that go on adventures is the easiest and most approachable way to play an RPG and D&D does this concept in a very approachable and easy to grasp way. I can sit down with a group of people that have never played an RPG and know nothing about it and in 15 minutes, we'll be fighting goblins and having a good time. Most RPG's are not that easy to setup or accessible, you can't just "play" Vampire the Masquerade for example, there is a tremendous amount of setup and reading for everyone to do for anything to make sense.
I don't know if that makes sense, but I would say D&D as a tradition is one of the most accessible ways to play RPG's and I think that is responsible for its popularity.
Its worth pointing out as well that D&D isn't just a game, its a tradition and that cannot be said about most other RPG's, in fact, I would say D&D as a tradition is a truly unique element of the game.
When people say "let's play D&D", you need to ask follow-up questions, as this is not enough information. Which edition are we going to play? What style of D&D are we playing? What setting are we using? What house rules are we using?
You come to my group and say "lets play D&D" you might very well be talking about Castles and Crusades or Pathfinder, you might be talking about running a Dungeon Crawl, or a survival game... D&D isn't a system so much as it is an identifiable premise of a game. Wether you play 1st edition AD&D, 5th edition D&D, Castles and Crusades or Shadow Dark.. you are playing "D&D".
Its broad as a concept because it isn't a game, its a tradition that includes a wide range of things like styles of play, versions of the game, themes, settings... its a lot of things all built into one larger concept.
I agree with this observation. D&D is to RPG’s as Kleenex is to facial tissue and Xerox is to photocopiers. This iconic nature does set D&D apart from the rest even if it doesn’t necessarily make it the greatest.
Its worth pointing out as well that D&D isn't just a game, its a tradition and that cannot be said about most other RPG's, in fact, I would say D&D as a tradition is a truly unique element of the game.
When people say "let's play D&D", you need to ask follow-up questions, as this is not enough information. Which edition are we going to play? What style of D&D are we playing? What setting are we using? What house rules are we using?
You come to my group and say "lets play D&D" you might very well be talking about Castles and Crusades or Pathfinder, you might be talking about running a Dungeon Crawl, or a survival game... D&D isn't a system so much as it is an identifiable premise of a game. Wether you play 1st edition AD&D, 5th edition D&D, Castles and Crusades or Shadow Dark.. you are playing "D&D".
Its broad as a concept because it isn't a game, its a tradition that includes a wide range of things like styles of play, versions of the game, themes, settings... its a lot of things all built into one larger concept.
I agree with this observation. D&D is to RPG’s as Kleenex is to facial tissue and Xerox is to photocopiers. This iconic nature does set D&D apart from the rest even if it doesn’t necessarily make it the greatest.
This is interesting to me, as I hadn't ever thought of it before. I wonder how much this relates more to outside the TTRPG community. If someone asked me to come to a D&D game and I showed up and it was a Pathfinder or a Shadowdark game, I would be thrown off (although I would happily join), as I don't think of them as interchangeable at all and refer to other TTRPG's by name regardless of how similar they are to D&D.
This iconic nature does set D&D apart from the rest even if it doesn’t necessarily make it the greatest.
I don't think D&D is "great" in the sense of "very good," but it may be "great" in the sense of "memorable and impactful." It's probably even a fine example of a product that is great despite being not very good at all.
And most of its issues stem from trying to preserve traditions, even when they are long outmoded.
Its worth pointing out as well that D&D isn't just a game, its a tradition and that cannot be said about most other RPG's, in fact, I would say D&D as a tradition is a truly unique element of the game.
When people say "let's play D&D", you need to ask follow-up questions, as this is not enough information. Which edition are we going to play? What style of D&D are we playing? What setting are we using? What house rules are we using?
You come to my group and say "lets play D&D" you might very well be talking about Castles and Crusades or Pathfinder, you might be talking about running a Dungeon Crawl, or a survival game... D&D isn't a system so much as it is an identifiable premise of a game. Wether you play 1st edition AD&D, 5th edition D&D, Castles and Crusades or Shadow Dark.. you are playing "D&D".
Its broad as a concept because it isn't a game, its a tradition that includes a wide range of things like styles of play, versions of the game, themes, settings... its a lot of things all built into one larger concept.
I agree with this observation. D&D is to RPG’s as Kleenex is to facial tissue and Xerox is to photocopiers. This iconic nature does set D&D apart from the rest even if it doesn’t necessarily make it the greatest.
This is interesting to me, as I hadn't ever thought of it before. I wonder how much this relates more to outside the TTRPG community. If someone asked me to come to a D&D game and I showed up and it was a Pathfinder or a Shadowdark game, I would be thrown off (although I would happily join), as I don't think of them as interchangeable at all and refer to other TTRPG's by name regardless of how similar they are to D&D.
Before I started playing D&D 5e my first TTRPG group played Pathfinder and no one outside that group had a clue what that meant but say "I'm playing D&D" and even my 75 year old parents understand vaguely what that means
Its worth pointing out as well that D&D isn't just a game, its a tradition and that cannot be said about most other RPG's, in fact, I would say D&D as a tradition is a truly unique element of the game.
When people say "let's play D&D", you need to ask follow-up questions, as this is not enough information. Which edition are we going to play? What style of D&D are we playing? What setting are we using? What house rules are we using?
You come to my group and say "lets play D&D" you might very well be talking about Castles and Crusades or Pathfinder, you might be talking about running a Dungeon Crawl, or a survival game... D&D isn't a system so much as it is an identifiable premise of a game. Wether you play 1st edition AD&D, 5th edition D&D, Castles and Crusades or Shadow Dark.. you are playing "D&D".
Its broad as a concept because it isn't a game, its a tradition that includes a wide range of things like styles of play, versions of the game, themes, settings... its a lot of things all built into one larger concept.
I agree with this observation. D&D is to RPG’s as Kleenex is to facial tissue and Xerox is to photocopiers. This iconic nature does set D&D apart from the rest even if it doesn’t necessarily make it the greatest.
This is interesting to me, as I hadn't ever thought of it before. I wonder how much this relates more to outside the TTRPG community. If someone asked me to come to a D&D game and I showed up and it was a Pathfinder or a Shadowdark game, I would be thrown off (although I would happily join), as I don't think of them as interchangeable at all and refer to other TTRPG's by name regardless of how similar they are to D&D.
Back in the day, I played a bunch of TTRPG’s that were not specifically D&D—Rifts, TMNT, Palladium RPG, Spycraft, D20 Modern, Star Wars RPG, Star Trek RPG etc. etc. When discussing hobbies, most people would be utterly mystified if I mentioned any of those games. OTOH, if I said I play D&D even though it wasn’t really actually a D&D game, many of those same people had at least some glimmer of understanding, a faint idea of what I was on about.
I had never really thought about it much either until OSR4ever made their observation just now.
Hello! I am writing a research report for a class on dungeons and dragons, and figured D&DBeyond forums might be a good place to go for discussion and other peoples opinions, so here's my question.
What makes D&D great and what makes it better/different from other TTRPGs?
Edit: I know the question I have asked is subjective, but the true prompt I have to answer is "Why is D&D so popular" I just worded my question that way so I can get more of the positives, because I've already done research on the negatives
From my perspective:
1. Allows you as a player to take time off from reality and enjoy a game.
2. Allows for childhood friends to remain close and keep getting together for game day instead of the occasional party (birthday, Super Bowl, etc).
3. A place to take built in aggression and release it during playing, when taking out mythical creatures.
4. Keeping you sharp and dealing with strategy to overcome situations. Especially as you get on the other side of 50.
5. Just building characters and envisioning gameplay and testing out the character afterwards. Then making tweaks to overcome flaws that are discovered early.
6. Winning an epic battle and then going through the loot (spoils of war) and feeling the rush of finishing and conquering.
I’ve been playing since the mid 80s and regardless of version of Dnd, the above holds true for me since then.
Thank you for reminding me that I need to add 4 more games to my original post... I never realized how adventurous we were as kids in the number of systems we tried. Though I will say, for me at that age anyway, the systems themselves were secondary to the setting/premise.
Perhaps one of DnD's strengths, at least now, is that it does high fantasy so well and high fantasy is just incredibly popular.
D&D is like democracy. It certainly has issues, it's far from ideal - but it is a remarkable improvement on all the other options.
Which isn't exactly right, but serves to make a point: There are better RPG's for specific things, but broadly speaking, D&D does most things decently, is decently accessible, and is fun for a majority of players, where other games tend to be more niche. Or something.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Blanket disclaimer: I only ever state opinion. But I can sound terribly dogmatic - so if you feel I'm trying to tell you what to think, I'm really not, I swear. I'm telling you what I think, that's all.
Its worth pointing out as well that D&D isn't just a game, its a tradition and that cannot be said about most other RPG's, in fact, I would say D&D as a tradition is a truly unique element of the game.
When people say "let's play D&D", you need to ask follow-up questions, as this is not enough information. Which edition are we going to play? What style of D&D are we playing? What setting are we using? What house rules are we using?
You come to my group and say "lets play D&D" you might very well be talking about Castles and Crusades or Pathfinder, you might be talking about running a Dungeon Crawl, or a survival game... D&D isn't a system so much as it is an identifiable premise of a game. Wether you play 1st edition AD&D, 5th edition D&D, Castles and Crusades or Shadow Dark.. you are playing "D&D".
Its broad as a concept because it isn't a game, its a tradition that includes a wide range of things like styles of play, versions of the game, themes, settings... its a lot of things all built into one larger concept.
I agree with this observation. D&D is to RPG’s as Kleenex is to facial tissue and Xerox is to photocopiers. This iconic nature does set D&D apart from the rest even if it doesn’t necessarily make it the greatest.
This is interesting to me, as I hadn't ever thought of it before. I wonder how much this relates more to outside the TTRPG community. If someone asked me to come to a D&D game and I showed up and it was a Pathfinder or a Shadowdark game, I would be thrown off (although I would happily join), as I don't think of them as interchangeable at all and refer to other TTRPG's by name regardless of how similar they are to D&D.
How interesting. For a different perspective, my group and I started a Shadowdark campaign a few months ago. Most of us still call it our DnD game because, to us, DnD is synonymous with "gathering together to play a TTRPG." Occasionally I will call it an SD game, or I will say "We're going to play DnD—I mean, SD." But in general, I simply refer to our games together as DnD whatever system we play.
That said, if I were invited to a DnD game and I came and was told we were to play Pathfinder, I would be very uncomfortable: I'm one of those people who like to be prepared before entering into something new if possible, so I would like to read all the rules days in advance of actually playing. Being told, "Hey, you're actually playing a system you've never played before" minutes before beginning would give me massive anxiety.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
To post a comment, please login or register a new account.
Its worth pointing out as well that D&D isn't just a game, its a tradition and that cannot be said about most other RPG's, in fact, I would say D&D as a tradition is a truly unique element of the game.
When people say "let's play D&D", you need to ask follow-up questions, as this is not enough information. Which edition are we going to play? What style of D&D are we playing? What setting are we using? What house rules are we using?
You come to my group and say "lets play D&D" you might very well be talking about Castles and Crusades or Pathfinder, you might be talking about running a Dungeon Crawl, or a survival game... D&D isn't a system so much as it is an identifiable premise of a game. Wether you play 1st edition AD&D, 5th edition D&D, Castles and Crusades or Shadow Dark.. you are playing "D&D".
Its broad as a concept because it isn't a game, its a tradition that includes a wide range of things like styles of play, versions of the game, themes, settings... its a lot of things all built into one larger concept.
Most RPG's do one of two things. They either "jump aboard" the D&D train and try to be part of that tradition, for example Daggerheart is a kind of focused version of D&D that targets narrative play as oppossed to the more tactical side of say Draw Steel.. But these two games are definitely in the D&D family, you could say "lets play D&D" and mean Daggerheart or Draw Steel.
The other type of RPG are games that are not part of the D&D family, for example if you are playing Vampire The Masquerade or Call of Cthulhu, these are very specific, very intentionally games that actively don't want to be D&D. They go out of their way to break away from core ideas and structures to find their own identity. Games however, that are not in the D&D family tend to have their own ideas about what constitutes a character or story, they have different expectations about what the game is about and how the game is about that thing. For example in Vampire you are not heroes, you don't go on adventures, you don't level up, you have very little if any combat and when you do have combat its not tactical at all. Its a game that breaks a lot of the expectations of what it means to play an RPG from the perspective of D&D.
I think and this is just an opinion based on personal observation so very subjective, but I do believe it to be true that the concept of an RPG being about players creating heroes that go on adventures is the easiest and most approachable way to play an RPG and D&D does this concept in a very approachable and easy to grasp way. I can sit down with a group of people that have never played an RPG and know nothing about it and in 15 minutes, we'll be fighting goblins and having a good time. Most RPG's are not that easy to setup or accessible, you can't just "play" Vampire the Masquerade for example, there is a tremendous amount of setup and reading for everyone to do for anything to make sense.
I don't know if that makes sense, but I would say D&D as a tradition is one of the most accessible ways to play RPG's and I think that is responsible for its popularity.
I agree with this observation. D&D is to RPG’s as Kleenex is to facial tissue and Xerox is to photocopiers. This iconic nature does set D&D apart from the rest even if it doesn’t necessarily make it the greatest.
This is interesting to me, as I hadn't ever thought of it before. I wonder how much this relates more to outside the TTRPG community. If someone asked me to come to a D&D game and I showed up and it was a Pathfinder or a Shadowdark game, I would be thrown off (although I would happily join), as I don't think of them as interchangeable at all and refer to other TTRPG's by name regardless of how similar they are to D&D.
I don't think D&D is "great" in the sense of "very good," but it may be "great" in the sense of "memorable and impactful." It's probably even a fine example of a product that is great despite being not very good at all.
And most of its issues stem from trying to preserve traditions, even when they are long outmoded.
Before I started playing D&D 5e my first TTRPG group played Pathfinder and no one outside that group had a clue what that meant but say "I'm playing D&D" and even my 75 year old parents understand vaguely what that means
Back in the day, I played a bunch of TTRPG’s that were not specifically D&D—Rifts, TMNT, Palladium RPG, Spycraft, D20 Modern, Star Wars RPG, Star Trek RPG etc. etc. When discussing hobbies, most people would be utterly mystified if I mentioned any of those games. OTOH, if I said I play D&D even though it wasn’t really actually a D&D game, many of those same people had at least some glimmer of understanding, a faint idea of what I was on about.
I had never really thought about it much either until OSR4ever made their observation just now.
From my perspective:
1. Allows you as a player to take time off from reality and enjoy a game.
2. Allows for childhood friends to remain close and keep getting together for game day instead of the occasional party (birthday, Super Bowl, etc).
3. A place to take built in aggression and release it during playing, when taking out mythical creatures.
4. Keeping you sharp and dealing with strategy to overcome situations. Especially as you get on the other side of 50.
5. Just building characters and envisioning gameplay and testing out the character afterwards. Then making tweaks to overcome flaws that are discovered early.
6. Winning an epic battle and then going through the loot (spoils of war) and feeling the rush of finishing and conquering.
I’ve been playing since the mid 80s and regardless of version of Dnd, the above holds true for me since then.
Thank you for reminding me that I need to add 4 more games to my original post... I never realized how adventurous we were as kids in the number of systems we tried. Though I will say, for me at that age anyway, the systems themselves were secondary to the setting/premise.
Perhaps one of DnD's strengths, at least now, is that it does high fantasy so well and high fantasy is just incredibly popular.
D&D is like democracy. It certainly has issues, it's far from ideal - but it is a remarkable improvement on all the other options.
Which isn't exactly right, but serves to make a point: There are better RPG's for specific things, but broadly speaking, D&D does most things decently, is decently accessible, and is fun for a majority of players, where other games tend to be more niche. Or something.
Blanket disclaimer: I only ever state opinion. But I can sound terribly dogmatic - so if you feel I'm trying to tell you what to think, I'm really not, I swear. I'm telling you what I think, that's all.
How interesting. For a different perspective, my group and I started a Shadowdark campaign a few months ago. Most of us still call it our DnD game because, to us, DnD is synonymous with "gathering together to play a TTRPG." Occasionally I will call it an SD game, or I will say "We're going to play DnD—I mean, SD." But in general, I simply refer to our games together as DnD whatever system we play.
That said, if I were invited to a DnD game and I came and was told we were to play Pathfinder, I would be very uncomfortable: I'm one of those people who like to be prepared before entering into something new if possible, so I would like to read all the rules days in advance of actually playing. Being told, "Hey, you're actually playing a system you've never played before" minutes before beginning would give me massive anxiety.