Why D&D will never leave Hack -n- Slash

[Zak Arntson]

On 2001-06-23 11:22, Jared A. Sorensen wrote:
I agree with Peter -- the design philosophy of D&D3e is for the players to put their characters into dangerous/difficult situations in order for them to a) surmount them and b) benefit from them.

Thanks, Jared.  I wasn't sure what Peter was getting at.

Okay, I'm conceding.  You're right.  I'm guilty of oversimplifying things.  But, leaning more towards game design (check the Game Design area), D&D's presentation points Players towards combat as the prime source of conflict, with exploration (traps & puzzles) second.

And I would add that D&D's design philosophy strongly seems to place physical and magical danger far above mental or political.

What I'm trying to get at here (and this is more Game Design which leads to Play) is that D&D is designed and presented for Combat & Challenging Exploration (emphasis on dungeony settings).  So when you want to run a courtly intrigue, or a seafaring expedition you often have to invent skills and make character notes on things not explicitly provided for in Character Creation or the Character Sheet.

Going from here, I would say this is advice for game designers to really focus on their presentation.  And possibly for players to try a different game than D&D when going for a different style of play.  Or, what most of us do, don't play the game fresh from the box and modify rules & record sheets.

But for designers, we don't have the momentum that D&D carries, and we can't expect people to take our games and change them to fit the play-style.