77 lines
3.7 KiB
Plaintext
77 lines
3.7 KiB
Plaintext
.PP
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.H1
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Dungeons and Dragons At Fifty
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.2C
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.PP
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There's so much one could write about when thinking of D&D at 50. A whole
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bunch of it would be severely political and no doubt offensive to this crowd
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or the other. Some of it could be deeply reflective of all the broken dreams
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that mean DMs have been responsible for. There could be a brutal slamming of
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rules that never worked, fiery debates on why exactly multi-classed elves
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can or cannot cast spells in plate, you name it.
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.PP
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But in the end, this whole D&D thing is not at all about rules, railroads, or
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racism; it's not about classes, capitalism, or criticals; and it's definitely
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not about markets, mass-appeal, or money.
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It's about having a good time with a bunch of friends, whether they be lifelong
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personal friends or the decidedly-digital-decidedly-dungeonesque variety.
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Well, that's what it is to me anyway, no doubt it's many of the other things to
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others.
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.LP
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.ce
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\[3d]
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.PP
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Now that I've created the impression that it's impossible to say anything
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technical about D&D, I shall of course do that anyway. I simply have nothing
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else to say about having fun with friends, it's self-explanatory to me. So I
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will instead point out one incredibly bizarre thing about D&D: We keep calling
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the darn thing D&D no matter what the actual game is! Just compare the Three
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Little Brown Books with whatever monstrosity WotC (thrice curse their name!)
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is trying to put out this year. What do those games have in common?
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.PP
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There are player characters and those have levels and six primary attributes.
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And hit points. As levels go up, player characters become better at certain
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things. And they gain hit points. There are classes. Some player characters
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can cast spells. Every now and then players roll dice, in combat for example.
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And ... that's about it!
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.PP
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Seems to me that those two versions of D&D have about as much in common as
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any version of D&D has in common with ... any other roleplaying game in which
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player characters have levels and hit points and classes and some of them cast
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spells. So why are they both called D&D? On the one hand it's probably only
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about who "owns" that "property" called "D&D" because whoever that is, guess
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what, they call their game D&D. Of course they are! On the other hand, despite
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the fact that the 1974 and the 2024 versions have very little in common, it's
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true that one can still recognize the 2024 version as some kind of D&D, and I
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mean regardless of the name on the front. "Roll for initiative!"
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.PP
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Does that mean anything? Anything more than having a good time with a bunch of
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your friends? I don't know! Personally, I'd much rather play the 1974 version
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or the 1979 version or the 1981 version than any of the later ones. But I can
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see myself playing the 2024 version if I had to. Maybe there's only one DM at
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the senior home I am destined for, and maybe she will only have the 2024
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version. Well fine, count me in! And what do you mean the dragon is dead
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already?
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.LP
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.ce
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\[3d]
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.PP
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Alright, let's get down to it, what's wrong with newer D&D iterations? I'll try
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to be concise. Wrong experience point progression (not exponential!) or no
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experience point progression whatsoever (pure DM fiat!). Ascending armor class.
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Saving throws based on attributes. Death saves! Too many hit points and way too
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much short-rest/long-rest healing; no player character ever dies, not ever.
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Dragonborn paladins; actually, Dragonborn anything, period. Too many
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spell-casting classes. Two many? Sorry, bad inside joke. Fireballs that don't
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set your party on fire. Critical hits. Inspiration (yet more DM fiat!). I'll
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stop now.
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.PP
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There's one thing, and one thing only, that deserves a little bit of praise
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though: advantage/disadvantage. Replacing long lists of modifiers with a die
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mechanic? Respect! Well played!
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.PP
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.Au phf
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.KF
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.PDFPIC img/alrik.pdf
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.KE
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