Running A Campaign versus Playing Dungeons & Dragons

[The Perilous Dreamer]

Over at the blog Beer, Pretzels, and 20-Sided Dice, @piper has a new post titled Running A Campaign versus Playing Dungeons & Dragons. Go read the post, I will wait while you do.




OK you are back, cool.


I understand his point about old school play and all, but yet that is not what I do. I do not sit down and spend a lot of time designing and doing all the things that he talks about. One is that I create on the fly in real time and it unfolds for the players as it is created. But I also do not sit down and try to figure out how to fit a creation around a set of rules either. I run OD&D and have from the very beginning so internalized the rules (my version) that you cannot separate the two in my case. 

His "Do you cram as much fun and imagination as you can dream up ... then figure out how to make it all run using whatever rules you have handy?" is for me something that is done fully on the fly with both parts fully integrated from the moment of creation on. Since I only run OD&D, for me there is no figuring out how to make it run, it is created run ready from the git-go. I pretty much just use the minimum of rules or create the minimum of rules I need as I create, moment to moment.

How about you, how do you react to his post and how does it work in terms of what you do at your table?

[mao]

I am in total agreement w Piper, it's never about the rules, ever. I've had fun at almost every set of rules put in front of me, that doesn't mean I view the rules lightly, on the contrary , I will try to conform the rules to what I am creating but feel free to break them all. I have a corollary to this line of thought, that one should not bother making up ones own rules, but if you insist on writing something make it a setting or adventure never a rules set, we've got more than enuf of those.

[ripx187]

Does Dungeons & Dragons really exist? I mean, it exists on the shelf, but once you abandon the module model and start designing your own material do we ever really play Dungeons & Dragons, or is it just a generic word to describe the bionary role playing game? Or maybe one can aquire enough understanding of the system to modify it without any glitches, but then again, at what point is it no longer the corperate entity known as D&D? 

[The Perilous Dreamer]

Nov 26, 2018 17:09:51 GMT -5 ripx187 said:

Does Dungeons & Dragons really exist? I mean, it exists on the shelf, but once you abandon the module model and start designing your own material do we ever really play Dungeons & Dragons, or is it just a generic word to describe the bionary role playing game? Or maybe one can aquire enough understanding of the system to modify it without any glitches, but then again, at what point is it no longer the corperate entity known as D&D? 

I guess it depends on your point of view, from my point of view, any home brew campaign that riffs off of OD&D in any direction/multiple directions (whether few hours rules or a ton of house rules) is still OD&D. YMMV

[Harry Wolf]

I don't understand the post, I just play OD&D and I don't remember ever worrying about the rules and whether things fit or not, they just always seem to work for me.

[mao]

Nov 26, 2018 17:09:51 GMT -5 ripx187 said:

Does Dungeons & Dragons really exist? I mean, it exists on the shelf, but once you abandon the module model and start designing your own material do we ever really play Dungeons & Dragons, or is it just a generic word to describe the bionary role playing game? Or maybe one can aquire enough understanding of the system to modify it without any glitches, but then again, at what point is it no longer the corperate entity known as D&D? 

Whao! Intense. I missed a lot