Dungeons and Dragons. What was it all about?

[denverbill]

OK, D&D was something I never played in my whole life. Never even got close enough to it to figure out what it was all about or how it was played or anything. Can anyone clue me in? Was it a board game? How did you play it or win it? Has it ever made the jump to the PC?

[Streetdoc270]

1. It started 30 yrs ago

as a 'pen and paper' Role Playing Game (RPG) where you took on the role of a adventurer in fantasy world of swords and wizards. It made the transition to PC in many titles from the 'gold box' games titled 'Curse of the Azure Bonds' and others to the current 'Neverwinter Nights' a massive online/solo PC experience. The traditional game is played with a group of people and a handful of many sided dice, one person will take the role of storyteller (known as DM or Dungeon Master) and he will guide the adventures along their journey in their chosen fields wither it be fighter, thief, mage, or others. Combat and other game mechanics are determined by dice rolls that use charts to calculate hits, damage, and other successes/failures. There really is no true way to win and the game only ends when you hang up your dice bag for good.

Streetdoc270
(or Grendal Grahmn the Half-Drow Fighter/Mage to my friends :))

[NewJeffCT]

2. A long explanation

Well, Dungeons & Dragons (or D&D) can be explained by comparing it to the Lord of the Rings movies. It is a fantasy based role-playing game that takes a bits and pieces from the tales of King Arthur and Robin Hood, throws in some Conan and a dash of Tolkien, and many other fantasy authors, to come up with the hodge-podge that is D&D.

To compare it to Lord of the Rings, imagine the players stepping into roles as the Fellowship of the Ring, taking the roles of the four hobbits, plus Aragorn, Legolas, Gimli, Boromir and Gandalf. The game is controlled by a person called the Dungeon Master (or DM) who is the equivalent of director Peter Jackson. The DM knows where he wants the story to go and puts obstacles in the way of the players. The DM also controls the actions of the bad guys (Sauron, Sarumen, Wormtongue, the orcs, etc) and any non player characters (Bilbo, Elrond, Arwyn, Galadriel, Theoden, Eowyn, etc)

So, setting out as the Fellowship, the DM would be the one to present you with the choice of going over Caradhas mountain pass or to try and go through the Mines of Moria or go the long way through to Gondor, and the players would decide their actions based on how they think they should play their character. Or, in another scenario, the Balrog starts approaching the Fellowship ¨C do you stand and fight it, do you flee like in the movie, does one member of the Fellowship make a stand somewhere else to allow the rest to escape?

It is not quite so simple as that, though, as there are rules books (3 main books) that detail rules that have evolved over more than 30 years now. You create your character by rolling dice (the only true way!) to determine your characters six main attributes: Strength, Dexterity, Constitution, Intelligence, Wisdom and Charisma.
From there, you choose your player¡¯s race and profession, or class. Most players start off as Human, Elf, Dwarf, Halfling (Hobbit), Gnome, Half-Elf or Half-Orc for their race. From there, a player chooses what ¡°profession¡± or class his or her adventurer becomes. Classes include: Fighter (Boromir);
Ranger (Aragorn);
Paladin (a divine holy warrior, loosely based on medieval Templar Knights);
Cleric (D&D is generally polytheistic in nature, using deities loosely based on Roman/Greek mythology¡­ part of the reason Fundies hate it so much. Clerics get magic from their God);
Druid (sort of a woodsy cleric);
Thief (the hobbits);
Barbarian;
Wizard (somebody that learns magic through study);
Sorcerer (somebody that learns magic naturally);
Monk (probably loosely based on Shaolin monks¡­ yes, I know it does not exactly fit); and also Bard (jack of all trades type ¨C a little bit magic, a little bit thief, a little bit warrior)

Unlike Lord of the Rings, where Legolas, Gimli, Aragorn and Gandalf are WAY more powerful than Frodo, Sam, Merry & Pippin, everybody generally starts off as roughly equal in D&D. As the players overcome obstacles that the DM puts in their way, they gain ¡°experience¡± and become more powerful and go up in what is called ¡°levels.¡± As you go up in level, your fighter becomes better at hitting things in combat, your wizard becomes able to cast more powerful spells, your thief has an easier time picking the lock of the treasure chest, etc.

You can win the game, but it is not always clear. If you throw the ring into the cracks of Mt Doom, or rescue the princess from the dragon, or save the world from the Hordes of Darkness, you have essentially won the game, or at least the campaign. A campaign is generally when characters begin at the bottom and then discover that there is some great evil that they have to overcome to save the world... this does not happen in one night. Usually the players get together weekly or bi-weekly to play for several hours at a time and the campaign unfolds over many weeks and months of games (sometimes years)... Imagine each get together as a chapter in a book or a collection of scenes from a movie.

How is that for an explanation of the game?

And, yes, there are many versions of the game on the PC. I know very little about the PC games, however. I think the most popular is the Baldur¡¯s Gate series.

[denverbill]

3. Thanks Streetdoc and Jeff.

So let me see if I kind of understand.

If you can't 'win' per se, you probably can't 'lose' either. I.e., I'm assuming it's impossible for your character to be killed off. Maybe he can lose every ounce of skill he's gained or something? Otherwise, why would anyone volunteer to 'make a stand and let the rest escape'? Or does the player just 'die off' and respawn again as a beginner?

It sounds like an interesting concept. It also sounds like it may depend a lot on the DM. If he makes a challenge to easy, it wouldn't be fun, but if he makes it too hard, that probably wouldn't be much fun either.

[NewJeffCT]

4. the player dies off

If your character dies, there are a variety of ways to handle it.
1) In game, if a cleric is high enough level, they can cast Raise Dead or Resurrection on your character. Of course, if Resurrection is available on every street corner, it kind of defeats the challenge of the game.
2) Out of game, the person playing the character usually starts over again. Most often as a new character starting off at the beginning, or first level.
3) However, if the game has been going on for a while and the rest of the group is at a fairly high level, it will not be fair to the person that has to start over - imagine a kindegartner being thrown into an NBA game - so the new character may be slightly less powerful than the surviving characters. This may be an option if the previous character died heroically in the game.
4) There are also some games, though its not to my taste, where the DM can invoke some sort of Deux Ex Machina type intervention and save the character from death.

And, yes, the challenge of the game is for the DM to challenge the players appropriately - a small goblin raiding party is a good challenge for beginning characters, but a piece of cake for an experienced group. Likewise, a dragon or demon can overwhelm a beginning party without breaking a sweat, while it would be a good challenge for an experienced party.

They do have guidelines in the current edition for that called "Challenge Ratings" (CR) - a single orc might have a CR of 0.25, so 4 of them together are CR 1, or an appropriate challenge for a party of 1st level. A powerful demon may have a CR of 16, or a good challenge for a 16th level party. Or course, it's not a perfect system and a DM learns from experience, too. As an example, Orcs have Low intelligence, which is part of their CR, so you can't play them like master tacticians or you risk giving the PCs too tough a challenge. Likewise, you can have a demon just rush into combat with the most powerful character in the group and not use any of its special Demon powers and the 16th level party can polish it off with no problem.

[Ready4Change]

9. Yes, a lot depends on the DM.

A lot can depend on the players too. It's boring if the DM just tells a story without the players being able to take any action. And if the DM does his job, but the players don't take the initiative, it's still boring.

But when everyone gets into the game, it flies. As a DM I try to keep ahead of the players, predicting what they'll do, how I can respond, etc... But they never fail to do something I never thought of, and now I'm the one who needs to think quick on his feet. It's a challenge, and I love it.

[NewJeffCT]

10. I know what you mean

I used to DM 100% of the time when I was younger - in my teens & 20s. I was always a pretty quick thinker back then and could handle the unexpected from the player. (Even though it had been over 10 years since I had gamed with one friend, I was at his wedding about 2 years ago and he still remembered this one crotchety old lady NPC I had run in a game 10+ years earlier!)

However, I stopped playing after my old gaming group started graduating from college and moving all over the country, and gave it up for several years. Later, as my first marriage started going bad (a few weeks after we said "I do"), I decided I needed to get out of the house for at least a little while every week and re-visited my interest in D&D. I found some local guys via the internet and got hooked into a great campaign with a great DM.

However, the DM had some physical problems and needed an occasional break from DMing full time... so, I volunteered to sit in for him for a couple of weeks. It was totally different than before - I was no longer able to think quickly on my feet and improvise good stuff at will. It was a struggle just to make my NPCs not boring. I don't know if it was rust or just my imagination not being as good now that I was in my 30s - probably both.

[nadinbrzezinski]

17. Ok I will give an even simpler explanation

yuo are playing cowboys and indians with dice, Bang you're dead...

No I am not

Yes you are'

No I am not

Ok lets roll a D20 (20 sided dice) If I roll over a certain nunmber, or equal to that number I did "hit" and if I roll damage high enough you are dead.

Dice are a randominzer, that is all they are.

Now why would people play it even if your character can die (and they do die and some people take it way personal), it is like writing a novel, except the DM is the writer but you control the main character... he\she just sets the situations.

Now there are seeveral ways you can play... and parties do differ in taste.

Dou you like to kill monsters? We call them hack and slash games, all you do, or mostly all yuo do is go into them dungeons and well slay them monsters.

Political games, you get to meet the Prince and play the intrigues in court. Hence things like all them social skills that are useless in a hack and slash game, come to play, such as ... diplomacy and negotiations. So I want to see if I convince the prince to pay us better? I roll dice, the DM rolls dice, called an oposed roll. If I succeed I get more pay, I don't, well I'd better live with what was promised, and this is just a rough example.

Combo... you get some hack and slash but you also get plenty of social interaction, I like those games the best. Why am I (well my character) putting my life on the line? Well those who hire me usually give me a reason to do it, in character...

If you can find somebody local to just take you through an introductory game of DnD, or a science fiction RPG, or what have you. The best way to find out what it is... is to do it... oh and the objective is not purely winning... and characters don't respawn.

The goal, it is often written, but many forget it... is to HAVE FUN. If everybody, from the hard working GM to the newest of players, had fun, it was a succesful RPG session.

Nadin Brzezinski
President Deist Games, which incidentally is in the midst of developing its first Science Fiction paper and pencil RPG.

[Griffy]

5. I would add...

that is a good summary of the game and its basic mechanics, but what might help you understand the "Game" is some of the social aspects of playing... You picked up on the DM has to be good, True.. Dm's are almost always experienced players.. ready to lead a game themselves. And the people you play with is key, its a social event, snacks and drinks (caffine is perfered over alchol in my circles) are always on the table. Its a sophisticated game of imagination, like a complex tea party or cowboys and indians. With you and your friends acting like different people for fun! In D&D you add the dice in so as to prevent people from saying there characture does impossible things, and the dice rolling gives the game the ability to grow as you build your charature. You earn/find gold along the way and then find towns to buy stuff in, better armor, magical staff, ect...

Nowadays there are D&D like games to be played in many different genres, like you can be a superhero, or post-ww3 survior or a future with aliens and humans travelling the universe.. its a game of imagination, its role playing and its fun with good friends, you can make good friends too (and find someone that can fix your computer too, hehe ;) )


There are also many computer games that sprang from the roots liad down by D&D, the fantasy realm that we now see in movies too.. like Lord of the Rings.

1 more thing... you can win.. I win everytime I get to play, I have fun with friends. It is rewarding to solve puzzles and riddles and figure ways out of difficult situations, and to solve these as a team EVERYONE feels good.. "yeah WE made it" and in most cases, it takes actions of everyone to do well (and a little luck of the dice)!

[Terran]

6. That's a damn good description of a D&D session

"A sophisticated tea party, or Cowboys and Indians". I think it's definitely both! :)

By it's very nature D&D doesn't translate to computer-based gaming, because the fun is sitting around a table or wherever with people you like, role-playing your arses off and pretending to be strange people you aren't really, and following raptly, and participating in, the mystery being spun with words by the DM. It's like going to an incredibly hot adventure movie, but it's in your head, and the heads of those with you, all sharing and elaborating and building synergy.

I haven't played in years and years, but there were some sessions that were so intense they brought tears of joy, profound sadness, and triumphant exultation. No computer game will ever do that for you.

[NewJeffCT]

12. Sometimes...

Sometimes, I've laughed so hard at some games that I've literally had tears streaming out of my eyes... when I do get around to playing, we have one guy in our group that is just a train wreck when it comes to role-playing - if the situation calls for him to be heroic, he runs away; if it calls for him to retreat, he will attack, even if it means stabbing wildly in the dark; if a roleplaying situation calls for him to be tactful, he will end up insulting somebody; if it calls for him to play it tough, he'll be meek. And, none of this is intentional. And, he is always putting his foot in his mouth.

I could probably write a 10,000 word post on his in-game exploits.

[Ready4Change]

7. The shorters answer is this:

It's make believe with rules.

[Ready4Change]

8. Here's a longer answer:

Dungeons and Dragons is the first and best known of a whole slew of what were originally called Role Playing Games. (RPG's) Nowadays, since computer games have co-opted the term, you pretty much have to call them Pencil and Paper RPGS, or PnP RPGs. (Yes, that DOES annoy me, and I will just use RPG from here on.)

Now, what's an RPG?

Remember playing cops and robbers with that annoying kid down the street who thought he was bullet proof? You'd yell "Bang! I got you!" and he would ALWAYS yell back "Nuh uh! You missed!" Yet he always threw a hissy fit if YOU didn't die when HE shot you.

Well, if you were playing an RPG you could look it up in the rules and say "Here on page 12. It says that to shoot you with a .38 snub nosed revolver at this range of 35 feet I need to roll a 9 on 2 six sided dice. I roll (here you shake and roll a pair of dice) a 10! Ah hahahah! I got you! I got you!" And if the kid wants to play, he's gotta abide the rules.

Now he'd ask "Well, do ya kill me?" You'd say "I dunno. Here on page 13 it says a snub nosed .38 does 1 six sided dice plus 1 damage." You roll one dice. "I got a 3. That plus one means you take 4 damage." Here the kid pulls out the sheet of paper that holds his characters statistics and marks down 4 damage. "Ok," he says "I had 10 hit points, now I only have 6. I'm hurt but still going. Now I pull out my Thompson sub machine gun and..." it goes on from there.

To complete the picture you now add Bill, that slightly older kid down the street. He knows the rules by heart, and he has a great imagination. He calls out "Hey, as you pull up the machine gun you hear sirens down the street. Around the corner come two police cars loaded with cops, and they want to arrest both you guys. What are you gonna do now?"

You and the obnoxious kid decide to join forces to fight off the cops. You can settle your own differences later. He starts firing at the oncoming cop cars while you race for cover. They'll need to get closer before you can start plugging them with .38 slugs...

----------------------------

That's really pretty much it. Some RPGs had you swinging swords and casting spells. Others had you shooting blasters and flying spaceships. The genre's were endless.

And I shouldn't use the past tense. Lots of people still play them. People of all ages. I do.

[NewJeffCT]

11. Actually, the numbers have gone up in recent years

Wizards of the Coast (the company that bought out TSR and was later bought out by Hasbro...) has done extensive market research. Prior to the release of 3rd Edition in 2000 or 2001 (I forgot which year now), their analysis said that about 2 million played the game on a regular basis (I think it was at least 1 time per month, but I don't recall for sure)

3rd Edition has caused that number to double. I did see that somebody with Wizards thought both numbers - the 2 million and the 4 million - were too high, but, he did say that it was a good trend in the overall that more were playing D&D now than in the 90s.

[Squeegee]

13. And if you don't want to use pen and paper

Try this:

http://www.d20srd.org/extras/mapProjection.htm

[Ready4Change]

14. Pretty nify idea.

One bugaboo of these games is getting everyones mental picture of what's going on to match.

[lazarus]

16. What a friend of mine did

He had a nice sized round table we always gamed on. He found some nifty long sheets of hexed paper. Laid it out on the table, made sure the seams were lined up perfectly, glued it down, then covered it with plexiglass.

We'd use grease pencils and draw out maps as we went. Pretty fun, actually.

[Ready4Change]

19. My buddies used to play Air Superiority...

It was a modern air combat game that required hex paper and lots of room. One buddy got tired of never having enough room to play the slower turning planes and high speed. So he bought two door blanks from a hardware store, screwed them together at their edges, laid sheets o hex paper down, shrink wrapped the whole deal and put legs on it. Gave us an 8' x 6' playing surface (larger than a pool table) for about $50. We had some marathon sessions on that table. It was great.

We never tried dry erase markers on it. Not sure that would have agreed with the shrink wrap. Pity, as it would have been cool to leave a trace behind the jets, to see the shapes they made while fighting.

[Mojambo]

15. Man. That is an awesome setup! n/t

[nadinbrzezinski]

18. And some of us have grown up to produce commercial level

maps,

these will not be fantasy, but modern, cyberpunk and future maps, and will have both a hex and clear settings.

Here is a preview of the product,

Now back to mapping I fear... and layout

http://deistgames.com/news.html