[quote=“Blaquesmith”]I just don’t understand why people like D&D so much and disregard other RPG systems… Usually, playing D&D involves insane amounts of both random and planned encounters and is very “hack&slash” oriented. Back in the day, I used to run games of Dark Sun, Spelljammer, Ravenloft… But in these games settings, the players used to go for the most straightforward plans. Once, after a specially weird (and VERY bloody) gaming afternoon, I decided that I would not be a surrogate gaming console for my gamers. If they feel like killing things an entire day, they can buy an Xbox (or a Playstation).
It took me some Cyberpunk 2020 games to reset my players’ software and restart them in “cautious” mode. Nothing as a couple of friday night gunfights to make anyone realize getting involved in violence is usually a bad idea.
Then the World Of Darkness games allowed me to do some innovative role-playing. That is, until some of the players began to screw it up and fell again into their violent tendences’ grasp. Then the campaign fell apart and we didn’t have enough time to set it right again.
Oh, well… (rant mode off)[/quote]
D&D is the most well known, and entry level game out there. That’s why so many play it.
Back in the day I picked up a World of Darkness book, and in the ‘example of play’ section, it was all about playing out a romance between the PCs and the DM or some such. I decided to go back to elves and spells.
Anyways, if your players just went hack and slashing through Ravenloft and Darksun, I think there was something missing. Darksun is supposed to be incredibly brutal, with death around the corner at all times from an uncaring world, and Ravenloft is like the undead version of that, where the world really is out to get you.
My campaign is all homemade stuff, cities, overworld maps, dungeons, etc. One thing I tell my players early on is that not everything is beatable. Just because they encounter it, doesn’t mean it can be overcome, and you have to decide what to go after and what you can really do. After a warrior idiotically charged a dozen peaceful myconids, and died for it, they got the idea pretty well that fuckups will kill them. Since then, they’ve been quite cautious, and we’ve actually had entire sessions without any real fighting or hack and slash, just talking to various NPCs, dealing with issues, exploring the cities, rooting out mysteries, etc etc. It’s been 3 sessions since they’ve seen a dungeon actually.
Really, it’s not about the system so much, as about how you run it.
