In Defense of Dungeons and Dragons

As the story arc of the game I am GMing wraps up, I am preparing character ideas for Brad's game.  He is going to run an intermission game between each different GM's story arc, and he's gonna run it using Dungeons and Dragons 4th edition.

When D&D 4th came out I heard a lot of dissent about it on the web, and in real life. I've heard people say that it has been dumbed down, is more like a certain MMO (that starts with World, and ends with of Warcraft) than a role-playing game, or simply that in its quest to get new players it has gone too mainstream.

All of those arguments are valid. Some of them may even be true, but that shouldn't stop your enjoyment of the game.

D&D is a great game for the same reason that 'Shoot 'Em Up' was a great movie, or why playing games like Halo and Call of Duty are fun. It speaks to a visceral need within a player, something going back to our caveman days.....

Sometimes you just need to blow some stuff up. I mean sometimes all you need, after a long day, is to throw your +2 throwing axe into some orc's face. Add in the shininess of treasure, and hot darn, you got yourself a game.

D&D gives players a break from plot-heavy games like World of Darkness, or Gurps, or even to some extent BESM. That doesn't mean that D&D is all killing and no plotting, it's just different. It's more black and white than most games, I mean there are definite good guys and definite bad guys. Lolth is never going to pick daisies (unless they are daisies of....DOOM), and Melora is never going to wear a necklace of halfling heads or chain smoke.

There is something wonderful about defeating an ultimate evil (or good, if you're playing evil characters) that just makes you feel warm and fuzzy inside, and that is why D&D, no matter what edition, will always have a special place in my heart, and on my gaming table.

And two words:

Gelatinous Cube.

Come on, what other system makes you fight evil Jello?