Here's an event listing from a local con.

QuoteInteraction: Role-playing with no books, no dice
Friday 7-11pm; Roleplaying; Dungeons and Dragons; 8 players; Alford, Joseph
   All you really need to play Dungeons and Dragons is paper and pencil and pizza. In a pinch, you can skip the pencil and paper. No books, no dice. Each player brings a problem to the table. The GM turns the set of problems into a story. I've run this at GenCon every year since the mid-80's. Every game is different - play several times.

I could run a game like this.  I could set the game in a world of halflings and fireballs.  In my head the world could work like as close an approximation of D&D as I can muster.  But is it really Dungeons & Dragons?

Sure its D&D. Its just not a D&D game. Its a D&D story collectively built (verbally) by the group.

Why doesn't the guy just go and join an improv group?

it's a fantasy game that's like d&d, but without funny-shaped dice, it isn't really d&d.

Quote from: beeberit's a fantasy game that's like d&d, but without funny-shaped dice, it isn't really d&d.

I disagree, its not even a game.

I'm kinda with Ronin, really.

I don't even think there's anything wrong with collective storytelling or anything, I just don't see it as gaming.

okay, my bad.  i was assuming the "gm" would use some sort of mechanism (rock paper scissors?) to resolve conflict.  

yeah, if there isn't anything to resolve conflicts aside from gm fiat, then it isn't gaming, it's "let's tell a story."  

does he provide marshmallows?  :rolleyes:

If the bloke running it is approximating the effects on the fly (eg. a fireball cast by an experienced wizard will kill 3 of the 4 Ogres and leave the remainder heavily wounded) then all that's really missing is precision and randomization.

Whether that's D&D or not, I couldn't really say. It all depends on how much emphasis you place on the rules-orientated aspect of the game, and what you consider the baseline requirements of a tabletop RPG to be.

If he's having fun then more power to him.

Quote from: RoninI disagree, its not even a game.

Cops and robbers is a game, and I don't remember needing stat blocks for that. At some level almost every tabletop RPG's defaults to negotiation of abstractions, whether it be debating over the application of a specific rule or making shit up on the fly. This is just the far, far end of the spectrum.

In any case I think it's more an issue of perception than definition, but my mindset of what gaming can be is pretty much frozen in the freewheeling approach of the late 70's. Others ideas on the subject may of course vary.

Quote from: DrewIf he's having fun then more power to him.

well, yeah, that goes without saying, dunnit?  i don't think we were calling it badwrongfun, just debating (thread title) yes?

So what is D&D? Is D&D defined solely by its mechanical parts? If so, isn't any d20 system mutations acutally D&D? Is a game with the rules just like Monopoly still Monopoly even if it is about Horse Racing? Or is it not?

What do you see, if someone says D&D? Do you see d20 dice, six abilities, class and level...

Or do you see dragons, halflings, Elminster, Drizzt, Mordenkainen, the dungeons full of monsters, the world of fame and glory? Do you see just an ordinary guy, or perhaps that strange dungen-punk armor and this stuff.

Because if D&D is at least in part based on fluff, than this game IS D&D. If you assume, that D&D is pretty much defined only mechanically, then which game is D&D? The oD&D, AD&D 1e, AD&D 2e, D&D 3e, D&D 3.5e, D&D 4e, white box, green box, yellow box, black box?

And if all these games are D&D for you, what then is the common for all of them? What is it, if not an experience of the D&D worlds?

Just asking.

Funny you bring up Monopoly.  Go ahead and make the same post as jrients refrenced - you're going to play Monopoly, but without the board, dice, properties, etc.  Would it still be Monopoly?

Quote from: beeberwell, yeah, that goes without saying, dunnit?  i don't think we were calling it badwrongfun, just debating (thread title) yes?

Of course. I wasn't aiming it at anyone in particular, but sometimes I feel it needs to be said.

You know how it goes round here sometimes...

Quote from: James J SkachFunny you bring up Monopoly.  Go ahead and make the same post as jrients refrenced - you're going to play Monopoly, but without the board, dice, properties, etc.  Would it still be Monopoly?

D&D ain't Monopoly, unless there's a way for my boot to hop off the board and carve out it's own little kingdom west of the borderlands...

Quote from: DrewD&D ain't Monopoly, unless there's a way for my boot to hop off the board and carve out it's own little kingdom west of the borderlands...

Can you claim to be playing D&D if you do not use any of the rules? No more so than I could be claiming to play Monopoly if I ignored the rules. In this way, they are similar.

Is he playing something? Sure.  Is he playing a game? Well, by the definition of game he is.  Is he playing D&D? Nope.

If he made the same post and replaced D&D with WoD, or even DitV, I'd be saying the same thing.