More on Adventuring Groups

[My crusade against random adventuring groups didn’t stop with suggestions for fixing this “problem.” There are some blogish tirades to go with them.]

The standard setup for any D&D adventure more or less starts with, “A party of adventurers…” What are adventurers? Well, in fantasy literary terms, they may be bandits, raiders, thieves planning a big heist, swashbucklers saving damsels and even the world, killer anti-heroes, any or none of the above. In D&D terms, adventurers wander into dungeons, kill monsters, avoid traps, hoard gold, and level up.

What’s really the difference? Literary groups of adventurers always have some sort of motivation for risking themselves. It might be weak or implied, or it might be very strong and personal. They are driven by their circumstance or status into their profession. D&D adventurers are motivated by the acquisition of XP. Their profession exists to accumulate XP. Would you watch a movie or read a book with those kind of characters? No wonder WOW and Diablo and such have cannibalized tabletop D&D. They’ve distilled the game as written to its essence. This is certainly why some people outgrow the game.

The prototype for the D&D adventuring party, the Fellowship of the Ring, has something that an actual D&D party never has starting out: an objective. There was a reason why the Fellowship consisted of humans, hobbits, an elf, and a dwarf. (Okay, even if it was flimsy and they didn’t have a cleric.) It wasn’t until after Lord of the Rings achieved fantasy cannon status and D&D developed its own self-referential mythos, that Dragonlance and its derivatives became the multi-classed, multi-raced standard in fantasy literature.

The D&D adventuring party is completely directionless and unmotivated when they start adventuring, but for leveling up. “This isn’t a bug. It’s a feature,” you might retort. Characters have a complete freedom of action when they start. They can do whatever they want. This free form aspect to RPG’s is part of the appeal. But, it’s also a major limitation. This will take a minute to explain.

To be continued.  [With more blathering.]