The Unfortunate Truth about Dungeons and Dragons
Preface everything you're about to read with this: I love Dungeons and Dragons. I play it almost every week, and at best multiple times in a week. However, I can relate the problem with the game that I have with another experience I had within nerd culture: My relationship with Magic: The Gathering. Once I learned from these experiences, I learned an unfortunate truth about Dungeons and Dragons- The game is not perfect.
(Damodar shares your enthusiasm)
Thirst for Power
When I get into something, I get into it. This was entirely the case when I picked up Magic: The Gathering. I learned everything I could and scrutinized every rule. I mastered the "stack" rules, and slung spells like no one's business. My favorite format was EDH, or "Commander" as it is referred to commonly now. Then my deck (as I only ever managed one at a time) was immovable. Changes to it were hard, finding room for new cards in my deck was a challenge; my, then, near expert level of understanding of the game would prohibit what appeared as any step backwards in my endless hunt for the perfect arrangement of cards. Though I realized that I didn't have the same fun with the game that I did when I started the game. Before my goal was being creative and experimenting, I had countless hours of fun creating any old deck with Starhelm and seeing who won in the end, with whatever ingenuity we could muster. Once I was on the other side, the "fun" ideas were not the right answer anymore-- fun wasn't the requirement; victory was the requirement. The thirst for the validation of my ideas in motion was not through how much fun I had. Winning was my fun. The result was fun, when really had I been playing it as it was intended, fun would have been the act of playing itself. This metagame I was playing in lieu of the actual game made me realize that playing the game as intended was fun, but the metagame that is attached the actual game is misery. Ultimately, I discovered that MtG is not perfect.
Dungeons and Dragons hasn't been that different to me. At first, simply playing however and whenever I could was a lot of fun, but when I started to realize there was a method to the pile of rules that was D&D 3.5, I realized that there were particular design instances that had to be paid attention to. Then I moved to Pathfinder, which functioned as my brief 4th Edition, and then to D&D 5e. I owe a lot of what I came understand about game design early on to 5e. Though from the moment I started DMing in 5e, I knew something was "wrong". This was the first time I had actually participated in the start of an edition of Dungeons and Dragons. Around the same time, Starhelm began investigating other games. When my options became much more narrow with the official start to 5e, I was very disappointed. I appreciated its simplicity compared to 3.5, 4e, and Pathfinder, but it lacked player options, GM tools, and the like. Though this was due to the relative novelty of the system, but it drew attention to the design walls of the system. Unlike the editions I had experienced that seem to have endless options, 5e started out small. Then I began to experience something that was new- the feeling of limitation. Once I felt that my options as both a player and GM were limited, I felt that the only way I would alleviate the feeling of being limited was to enjoy other editions of the game and the d20 system, until the new material was released. My only option was to find homebrew material for this edition in an attempt to re-enable myself to have that same sense of limitless possibility. It even inspired me to begin working and understanding the design of 5e for myself. Not at all unlike my quest in magic, I went from playing and enjoying to having to understand the intricacies of the game. Starhelm, at that point began introducing me to other roleplaying game systems, and I understood the unfortunate truth: The walls, the limits, of Dungeons and Dragons will always remain, and the growing sea of content will only dull the sense that these limits exist.
(My eyes open to the truth. Oh wait, that's the Matrix)
You Think That's Air You're Breathing? In fact, the truth was two-fold, I discovered that there were things about other games that I liked better than I did in my beloved Dungeons and Dragons, on top of the horrific realization that this game wasn't perfect. Most importantly, there was no harm in acknowledging it. D&D is good for a good few things. At its core, it is a war game, with most of its rules, combat and action economy are carefully balanced to support the combative aspect. Other abilities that reflect more of a "roleplaying" element are referred to as ribbons, and tend to take a back seat to the combat rules that manipulate numbers and interact with the math based system. Then the community, not all but some of it, tends to argue over the rules, balance, and validity of various aspects, and dogmatically applies the ribbons to be completely unwavering in form and use like this game has perfectly "right way" to play. It's hard to ignore other players/GMs of the game, because we want to share what we think is right. Though, by and large, there is no "proper" way to play it after the base rules are understood and practiced.
This carries over into a lot of the homebrew culture of 5e. Homebrew is a tough job, and I have realized yet another unfortunate truth homebrew specifically, but where we are concerned right now, is that our urge to homebrew to populate that sea of content, is indicative of a different problem. These players that want to play as lion people, or wield a new set of powers but still have it be magic, or have a looser but more narrative based experience are experiencing the same thing. They are trying to take these ideas and wedge them into a system that may not be right or ready for it.
(The best damn metaphor I have. TNI Press)
This picture so adequately describes what I mean. We have a well crafted, perfectly usable source material, but so many of us would rather have something we did ourselves "because we can." Obviously, the box is cut in the same shape as the cat bed, but it is lacking in so many other places. If your cat has ever done this, then you know entirely what is so infuriating about that picture. If you have witnessed a cat that you know and kind of hate cats, you doubly understand this fury. Sure, it may suck to have to wait for an Unearthed Arcana article, but, by trying to circumvent the game's design you cut your hole in the cardboard box, rather than making the bed more comfortable. Instead you could be using another system that is made to be up for interpretation by you and the other players. One such game that already exists is the Cypher System roleplaying game, by Monte Cook Games. It may be a bit more different than what you and your players may be used to, but when you actually understand the game, you and your group may be more inclined to use it when you want to play something that is further outside the mold of classic Dungeons and Dragons. What is most important to understand is the uses that Dungeons and Dragons is good for, and that there is no right answer, only answers that work for the group.
(Good question, Gary. Good question.)
Are you always going to break down the door? Probably not. You may use lockpicks, you may have found the key, or as my wife suggested when she saw this picture, she commented that her supernaturally alluring bard could probably seduce the door into opening. Depending on the style of game you're playing, that may work too. I challenge you try something before the next time you start a new game in an edition of Dungeons and Dragons, try a different system. By doing so, you will not only expand your horizons and grow as a table top gamer, but you will learn what you like about D&D and what its value is as a game. In the meantime, I recommend one of these games:
Fate System
Cypher System
Age System (Fantasy Age for you fantasy gamers)
Any Powered By the Apocalypse game. (I recommend Dungeon World)
Experiment, learn, and most importantly, have fun. No game is perfect, but by branching out, you may find out more succinctly what it is that you like about roleplaying games and how these games do what they do.
What Do We Do With This?
You keep playing D&D! There is so much it does right, but other games use other implementations for the same things and you can learn from them and take them back to your game of Dungeons and Dragons. Do you hate having to role for every trivial thing? Then maybe you play Night's Black Agents and realize, perhaps I should only have my D&D group roll out of encounters for stuff they aren't trained in but assumed anything trained works? Maybe after playing Cypher System or Edge of the Empire, you realize you want to improve on linear player character progressions in your game of D&D, and there for homebrew a second subclass system that works for you and your group. One of the rewards of specifically 5e is that it is easy to hack and modify if you want it and was made with that goal in mind. Other games may show you how you might further improve on what you want. Maybe you are the genius that tackles hit points and realism for that feel of added danger? Maybe you decide treat your ability scores like resource pools that can be expended? Grow and expand and come back to Dungeons and Dragons. If you find a fix for something you didn't know how to handle, or a mechanic you didn't like in 5e. Mike Mearls himself rehashed initiative to how he found it interesting and dynamic.
You don't have to change a damn thing though. If you choose D&D after trying other things and don't want to change anything, that is perfectly fine too. There's no problem with your mom's cooking being better than your friend's mom's cooking. Though, you can stand to learn to cook from your mom without eating at other restaurants or going to culinary school. While Dungeons and Dragons is not perfect, it does offer you the room to make it perfect for you and your table. If you don't want to branch out, that's fine. Learn to GM, learn to write adventures, play every class, and maybe design some of your own material. If you want to laser focus on D&D, study like hell. My experience is my own, just like yours will be, and you'll draw your own conclusions and your own personal truths about gaming. That's what's really cool about tabletop gaming, nothing in it is objective. When you regard it as objective like I did with my EDH deck, that's when things fall apart. That's when the limits become restraints and not guidelines. That's what those limits of the game truly are: guides.
What's Next?
Well, for some readers, they may have already chosen D&D as their go to, in which case, good for them. Maybe there might be something that they can still learn or improve, and again, good for them and I'm glad they've made that choice. (That means my content for D&D is even more relevant for them) For those readers that have only played Dungeons and Dragons and are now curious about the roleplaying game multiverse, I'll be starting a series called "D&D Hermit's Guide" in which I'll showcase other systems, their strengths, why you should try it, and what you can bring back to the good ol' D of D.
Until then, Happy gaming everyone!