D&D General What makes D&D feel like D&D?

[Blue]

I don't know how prescriptive this is - I picked a bunch of options that a game without wouldn't feel like D&D, but I can apply those same options to another RPG without making it D&D.

So take my votes as sacred cows that if removed would make a game feel less like D&D, but not a recipe for making D&D since it needs more than that.

I also picked "other", and here are some of those off the top of my head:

• Vancian magic system
• Zero to Hero journey - emergent from the mechanics, not explicit in them
• Team game / niche protection - a lone wolf can't cover all bases, and a party is more than the sum of it's parts.

 

[Blue]

I actually considered including "spell slots", but figured the specifics of how classes work was getting too down in the weeds.

D&D felt like D&D long before spell slots was a concept, and it's actually a watering down of D&D in some ways. It used to be that you prepared spells. Like "I memorize sleep x2, magic missile, and audible glamour". And you could cast sleep once or twice, magic missile exactly once, and audible glamour exactly once. There was no split between spells prepared and spell slots. There were no spells known because spontaneous casters didn't exist. Though later editions allowed clerics to swap out a spell prepared for cures (good aligned) or inflicts (evil aligned).

Mind you, it's a watering down that I like - I am okay with metamorphizing sacred cows into something more playable if you keep the essence so it still feels like D&D. Design of D&D is more constrained then a greenfield design of a new RPG to keep that feel.

 

[DEFCON 1]

Rangers and Paladins that don't get spells before 8th-9th level. Druids that can't shapeshift before 7th.

<ducks>

How can you have ducks if druids can't shapeshift until 7th level?

 

[aco175]

One of the things I picked that everyone else did not pick was monster types. I find that monsters give the game its flavor like races and classes. They are what you battle to gain levels and feel part of the core things about the game.

 

[Seramus]

Intellectual Property.
Essentially, the monsters and settings.
Without those things, you could be playing any RPG.

 

[Kodiak3D]

Other:
Hanging out with friends creating epic stories, great moments, and good times that you will recall for years.

 

[JEB]

D&D felt like D&D long before spell slots was a concept, and it's actually a watering down of D&D in some ways. It used to be that you prepared spells. Like "I memorize sleep x2, magic missile, and audible glamour". And you could cast sleep once or twice, magic missile exactly once, and audible glamour exactly once. There was no split between spells prepared and spell slots. There were no spells known because spontaneous casters didn't exist. Though later editions allowed clerics to swap out a spell prepared for cures (good aligned) or inflicts (evil aligned).

Mind you, it's a watering down that I like - I am okay with metamorphizing sacred cows into something more playable if you keep the essence so it still feels like D&D. Design of D&D is more constrained then a greenfield design of a new RPG to keep that feel.

Oh yeah, I'm aware that spellcasting used to be different. But I'm also in favor of the current take. (I do miss spontaneous casting for clerics, though.)

 

[Blue]

Oh yeah, I'm aware that spellcasting used to be different. But I'm also in favor of the current take. (I do miss spontaneous casting for clerics, though.)

Yeah, but I thought the idea of the poll is to find out what others feel define D&D. I would not have picked spell slots - it's a great implementations but it's still D&D without it. But I would have picked Vancian magic.

"What makes D&D feel like D&D" is a different set than "what are my favorite parts of 5e". I love Advantage/Disadvantage, but if 6e didn't have it I wouldn't decry that it wasn't D&D. (I would be sad though.)

 

[RobJN]

Rangers and Paladins that don't get spells before 8th-9th level. Druids that can't shapeshift before 7th.

<ducks>

Druids that shapeshift into ducks!

 

[Blue]

Hm, some others on things that make D&D feel like D&D:

• Attrition based play / Nova - two sides of the same coin.
• Daily full refresh.
• Frequent battles to the death as acceptable ways to overcome challenges - fights are common solutions, fights to the death are common when it is a fight, and often there are no other repercussions for killing.