Everything I Know About Roleplaying, I Learned From D&D

This article was entered into the RPG Blog Carnival at 6d6 Fireball.  The topic for this month was D&D.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, whether you like it or not D&D is the granddaddy of all roleplaying games. I started roleplaying games playing Battletech and Shadowrun. It was only years later that I began to start playing D&D. That is when my real schooling about roleplaying began. Or did it? Here are some myths and misnomers that I think D&D has brought into roleplaying games.

It All Starts At The Tavern

It may be the sign of a novice roleplayer, or perhaps one that has played too much D&D, but it may surprise you to know that I roleplayed for years without ever starting an adventure in a tavern. I played Battletech for a long and our missions always began in clan briefing rooms, a drop shop, or the middle of the wilderness. In Shadowrun, my first adventure happened at a Stuffer Shack. The next couple started out on darkened street corners and corporate offices. After my group started playing D&D, for some reason the vast majority of adventures, in every game, seemed to begin at a tavern. I don’t know why! Maybe it is some gaming cliché that got stuck in our lazy heads. If we ever got stumped in an adventure we usually found ourselves in a tavern not long after.

Why Is Human The Default?

Every other race in every game seems to always be compared to human as the default. Elves live longer and are smaller; dwarves are tougher but shorter, and so on. Humans always seem to have the widest variety of personality types and traits in every game. Yet when you encounter another race, you can usually box them in to just a few categories. When was the last time you ran into a butt-ugly, tobacco chewing, smelly elf? Or how about the last time you ran into the most alluring, charismatic, sharp-witted dwarf princess you’d ever seen? It rarely happens. I don’t know if it is stereotyping of if it is D&D’s fault, but give us some more variety in our non-human races!

Breaking RPG Weapon Myths

Recently, I was reading a post at The Scrolls of Lankhmar about weapon myths in roleplaying games. He pointed out a few possible myths about weapons in roleplaying games that I mostly agreed with (but I’m sure some medieval scholar will dispute them on some minute points). Who said maces have to be slower than swords? Why did big weapons always have to be swung, rather than stabbed at an enemy? Why do spears have to suck so much?

It was pointed out that one benefit of a mace over a sword is you just swing as hard as you can and hope you hit. With a mace, you don’t have to worry about which way it is facing at all. If you hit someone with the flat part of your sword, you aren’t going to do that much damage. If you hit them with a mace, it doesn’t matter which part you hit them with because it is going to hurt.

As for large weapons, such as a bastard sword, who says it has to be swung? One of the greatest advantages of a large weapon is its reach. In the case of a pointy bastard sword, a long reach, with heavy weight, concentrated at the end point makes it the perfect weapon to puncture through armor.

When it comes to spears, it pretty much seemed like they always sucked in every roleplaying game I played. I’m not sure exactly why, considering they typically have greater reach than a sword and can be maneuvered like a staff. Plus, you can use them to pole vault over castle walls (okay, maybe not). The deficiencies of the spear have lessened a little with more modern roleplaying games. Many of them allow for the spear to have a greater reach now, striking enemy characters sometimes one or two movement units away on a miniature battle map. Finally, the spear doesn’t get the shaft (I stole joke that from The Scrolls of Lankhmar).

Bad Guys Travel In Hordes

I’m going to make some general observations about most ‘bad guys’ in D&D and other roleplaying games. Most bad guys travel in large hordes. They don’t care about their life and are willing to throw it away over the treasure chest in the middle of the room. I don’t know if bad guys just breed like rabbits, grow up faster than a fruit fly, and throw caution to the wind faster than Evil Kanevil or what? Death is superficial to bad guys and only really matters to good guys. Heroes can slay a bad guy without guilt because they’re bad and because there are nine billion other bad guys around the next corner.

Why Are All Heroes Wandering Adventurers?

Seriously, how much sense does this make? Most D&D heroes (*cough*Drizzt*cough*) have some tragic story or flaw that cause them to wander the world, righting wrongs and wronging rights. Wait, that sounds wrong, but you know what I meant. Generally the heroes are unemployed vagabonds that wander the lands doing whatever they want in the name of whatever. I’ve got news for you, those aren’t called heroes. They’re called nomads. And rarely are they ever considered anything beyond the scrubs of the earth.

What would you think if you’re living in a town and some random person comes strolling in? They come into your bar, ask what needs to be killed or destroyed in the area, and how much they’ll get paid. Then, they actually go and do it. They may leave a trail of bodies behind them and pretty much could care less what the town guards, the mayor, or even the king say about anything. Then they whisk themselves away onto the next ‘adventure’. Does that sound like hero material?

Maybe It Isn’t D&D Fault…

There are a host of other things D&D has ‘taught’ me about roleplaying. Maybe these aren’t necessarily D&D stereotypes. They could be general stereotypes, myths, or misconceptions that having become roleplaying gospel. Maybe that is how roleplaying games developed and what we’ve come to know as the norm. I can’t necessarily fault D&D for ‘teaching’ me these things about roleplaying, but sometimes it sure feels like it did.