Role-playing Games Stack Exchange
Role-playing Games Stack Exchange

Questions tagged [dungeons-and-dragons]

For questions relating to Dungeons & Dragons as a whole, or to multiple versions of Dungeons & Dragons. If your question is about a specific version of D&D, you probably should tag it with the corresponding tag instead (see the full tag info for this tag if you're unsure which tag is appropriate).

Dungeons & Dragons is a role-playing game originally created by Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson, and published by TSR. It is now published by Wizards of the Coast, a division of Hasbro, and is the most played RPG in the world.

See the Wikipedia article for more details.

If your question is about a specific version of D&D, you probably should tag it with the corresponding tag instead:

  • is for questions relevant to multiple/all versions.
    • - The first D&D, aka 0e, brown box/white box from 1974.
    • - The first Basic D&D by Holmes from 1977.
    • - Moldvay Basic and Cook Expert from 1981.
    • - Mentzer Red Box + (expert, companion, master, immortal) from 1983.
    • - Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, aka 1e, from 1977.
    • - Advanced Dungeons & Dragons Second Edition from 1989.
    • - Dungeons & Dragons Third Edition from 2000.
    • - Dungeons & Dragons 3.5 Edition from 2003.
    • - Fork of D&D 3.5e by Paizo in 2008.
      • - The Pathfinder organized play program.
      • - Pathfinder Beginner Box, a starter kit that contains dice, pawns, and simpler rules for players and GMs as well as a pre-written adventure and the story to continue a campaign.
    • - Dungeons & Dragons Fourth Edition from 2008 (includes Essentials).
      • - The D&D 4e organised play program.
      • - The subscription-based digital toolset connected to D&D 4e.
    • - Dungeons & Dragons Fifth Edition, playtested from 2012 and released in 2014.
    • Also, there are various retro-clones of specific editions with their own tags.
    • - Pathfinder Second Edition, the successor to the Pathfinder RPG on which it is based, released on August 1, 2019.
      • - Pathfinder Second Edition Playtest, the playtest of the successor to the Pathfinder RPG on which it is based. Playtest materials were released on August 2, 2018, and the full product released on August 1, 2019.
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What's a good mechanic for rewarding players for keeping their characters happy?

In a lot of setting and systems, such as D&D, the aim of the game tends to be to explore and kill things. Money is spent on useful items and hirelings. However, a real adventurer would probably want to get drunk, carouse, and generally have some fun…
Dakeyras
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How many editions of Dungeons & Dragons are there?

How many editions of Dungeons & Dragons are there?
RS Conley
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In what medium does D&D get played nowadays?

I'm 38, and I remember playing D&D when I was a kid, almost 20 years ago, but to my knowledge have not heard of or know how it is played today. Being that there is a stackexchange for concept it must have a good following, but where? Is it still…
Anthony Fornito
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How accurate is the depiction of RPGs in “Dungeons, Dungeons, & More Dungeons”?

In Gravity Falls, a Disney cartoon, there's an episode “Dungeons, Dungeons, & More Dungeons” where characters Dipper and Ford play a fictional RPG called Dungeons, Dungeons, & More Dungeons (a Dungeons & Dragons parody, if I'm not mistaken). We see…
Arturo Torres Sánchez
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How do you adjudicate a chase?

Generally if PCs run from a fight, I would give the monsters a free attack, and then let the PCs escape automatically (playing 1e/0e D&D). Of course if they linger around, the monsters may come back later. I have read that in 3e/4e, "retreating from…
Modern Hacker
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What are the core tropes or assumptions of D&D?

After an interesting discussion with my local GM, I was left wondering What are the core tropes and assumptions that players bring to a game of D&D? Specifically the ones that are different from other role-playing games.
C. Ross
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Are old versions of D&D compatible with new ones?

Some 30 years ago I used to play Dungeons and Dragons: red 'Basic', blue 'Expert', black 'Master' edition box sets, etc. I still have them and was recently playing with my son, who loved them. I want to get him his own sets, and thought the D&D…
Richard Draper
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Can you “backstab” with a siege weapon?

The 2002 movie The Gamers has a famous scene where the party's thief backstabs someone with a ballista.* The movie uses a vaguely Dungeons-and-Dragons-ish system. Would any of the versions of D&D that existed at the time (2002), as written, permit…
Mark
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Is there a concept in D&D where you can assume a 20 on a roll because you can retry as much as you want?

I don't know why, but for a long time I though that a "natural 20" meant that a skill check was done under circumstances where the player can just retry an action until they get a 20, so the rolling becomes kind of pointless and you can just assume…
Vilx-
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Where is D&D in the spectrum of RPGs?

Our gaming group has been using various forms of D&D for several decades now, and we've enjoyed it quite a bit, but we have zero experience with other roleplaying games. Seeing all the other games mentioned on here has gotten me thinking if D&D is…
Joe
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Should sunrods be allowed in D&D?

Sunrods, those banishers of darkness, are they a problem or not, I've met a number of DMs that don't want them in their games. Are they a problem?
Iain M Norman
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What did you do for a Tarrasque adventure?

What did you do for a Tarrasque adventure? When you ran it, did you wait for the players to be epic level? Did having such an overpowered enemy detract from anything? Or did your players - on the contrary - find it too easy? All together, how did…
LeguRi
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Could non-lethal damage draw blood?

Can non lethal damage draw blood? Does it leave bruises? Is it possible to knock a character out with non-lethal damage without leaving a mark? For the purposes of this question, consider a mark to be any indication of violence that would be…
C. Ross
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Any news regarding Planescape?

Riding on the coattails of the equivalent question on Spelljammer... Is there anything happening on the Planescape front? Both Wizards-related as well as independent updates are interesting.
lavonardo
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What are the historical and literary backgrounds of Dungeons & Dragons Languages?

Is there a source for the nature of the fantasy languages in D&D? An official source would be best, but I'd also be interested in other players' interpretations of the languages. If the D&D languages are based on languages from specific literary…
Ax Kidson
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