🎲🐉Why Early D&D Wasn’t Built to Tell Stories

Comments · 510

• DA

  @daddyrolleda1 · 4 months ago · pinned

  This is one of those topics where I’m curious how people actually experienced it at their own tables &nbsp;back in the day.<br><br>When you think back to early D&amp;D, did it feel like a storytelling game to you, or did it feel more like something else that eventually led to a story?<br><br>I think a lot of the confusion comes from the difference between story being something the game is built to produce, versus something that comes out of play after the fact. <br><br>I’d be interested to hear how that lines up with your experience.<br><br>And, if you’re exploring how early D&amp;D actually worked, these videos connect directly to this one:<br><br>➡ Why Early D&amp;D Didn’t Try to Be Fair: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k3xCKeei-iA">https://youtu.be/k3xCKeei-iA</a><br>➡ Why Early D&amp;D Feels So Strange to Modern Players: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WMkraXjErcg">https://youtu.be/WMkraXjErcg</a><br>➡ How Dungeons Actually Worked in Early D&amp;D: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lVcPLnZBg3s">https://youtu.be/lVcPLnZBg3s</a>

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• KA

  @Kallistos1 · 4 months ago

  When I started playing in 1982/3 the story emerged after the fact as a result of our actions. Someone said it was more about being absorbed in the fantasy realm and experiencing it seems to be accurate. &nbsp;The story grew out of our adventures, and wasn&apos;t pre-planned.

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• JU

  @JuicyGooseAQ · 4 months ago

  When I was a kid playing D&amp;D I dont think telling a story about our characters was really part of it. It was more about being immersed in the fantasy. Imagining ourselves as our characters and fighting monsters, getting magic items. Later we would have those stories to talk about and that&apos;s what I think of when it comes to story in D&amp;D. You make up the story as you play.

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• HA

  @hashtagzema · 4 months ago (edited)

  To me. Story in D&amp;D was like playing outside. I had a massive wooded area behind my house as a kid. We would all go out in the woods - explore, adventure, build forts, etc… and in our imaginations we made up stories or reenacted existing ones. <br><br>D&amp;D to me is the same exact thing, but with rules. The story emerges from the course of play as it is happening. It is both an idea you have in your head and a justification for why certain rolls go a certain way - and it is fully realized once it is over.

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• EM

  @emilysummerbell · 4 months ago

  I started playing D&amp;D 5e several years ago, but I switched to an AD&amp;D 1e table about two years ago, and I LOVE the more “random” nature of AD&amp;D 1e! Letting the dice decide what happens has led to many incredibly memorable events that would have never happened in a more narratively structured game. <br><br>My favorite example of dice deciding what happens without a predetermined narrative arc: About a year ago, our party found some loot in a dungeon, DM rolled on a random loot table. He made several additional rolls and his eyebrows kept raising above the DM screen more and more with each one. We come to find out that one of the pieces of loot was a sentient evil sword that specifically had a vendetta against clerics. We get back to town, and I (the party’s cleric) asked one of the hirelings to use the sword to spar with me so we could test out the sword’s abilities. After a failed initiative roll from me immediately followed by a nat 20 attack roll from the man-at-arms and a failed saving throw vs spell from me…my cleric was instantly disintegrated by the evil sword. What followed was one of the most amazing side quests where the rest of the party (successfully!) hunted down a wish to bring my cleric back. And several months later (both in-game and in real time), my cleric hired the man-at-arms who accidentally evaporated her to be her cleric henchman so he would never have to wield a sword again. None of that was scripted and none of it would have happened without some incredibly lucky/unlucky random dice rolls! And that kind of unscripted randomness is what has converted me to an “old school” D&amp;D enthusiast!

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• TH

  @TheRealDragonsDream · 4 months ago

  as a pre teen in 1981-82 we played a largely hack&apos;&apos;n&apos;slash version of 1e where the &quot;story&quot; was just an excuse for a session to exist and was no more than a delivery system for treasure and XP. That is, &nbsp;we bought into &quot;go punish the giants&quot; not to tell a story but because doing so was how your character leveled up, and leveling up was the whole point of the game.

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• HE

  @Here_are_the_Gumboots · 4 months ago (edited)

  &quot;Revenant Clowns&quot; is a very good, very fair GM response to players capriciously killing clowns. The players used their agency to murder clowns, and their game appropriately turned into a horror movie.<br><br>The GM needs to offer resolution though, not just constant Clown attacks. Perhaps a Necromancer offers to bind the Clowns to the local &apos;Stone of Erech&apos;, but only if you do his bidding.

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• ZE

  @zenmaster6780 · 4 months ago

  Always the deepest dive out there. Thank you

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• IT

  @itzybitzyspyder · 4 months ago

  I played D&amp;D/AD&amp;D with a group of wargamers. It&apos;s about filling a role, not playing a role. Yes, we&apos;re telling a story but it&apos;s the story of our actions.

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• DI

  @discreetzither4488 · 4 months ago

  I love random tables as a dm. It makes it lets me in on the mystery of the story. It also makes some of the most memorable stuff. I had a PC fine a painting in a dungeon and I added some flavortext that was about how the character became fixated on who the artist was, which spun off into a side campaign in a city that was sinking into a swamp, magical salt that would augment spells and ghouls who had some magical allure about them even as they were rotting away

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• JP

  @jpaulhendricks · 4 months ago

  EXCELLENT topic. I was cut from the 1e cloth. We were blessed to have an amazing DM. The world was a mysterious and dangerous obstacle course or puzzle.. The mechanics were part of the substrate and how we interacted with that world. <br><br>When needed, we also used our mouths and ears (via role play). This was also part of how we engaged with the world. But the memories and stories emerged out of the interaction. Play begets stories.<br><br>As a GM I would be terribly bored if players and my random world didn&apos;t have surprises for me, once game play began.

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• DU

  @DuivelsApp · 4 months ago

  I agree, Dragonlance did start an adventure arc idea (beginning, middle and end). &nbsp;Yet games like Ars Magica and Vampire the Masquerade may have elevated the desire for character arcs more so.

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