THE LIVING GAME

by Bill Slavicsek, Director of RPG R&D

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D&D is a living game. It grows. It evolves. It changes every day it gets played. This concept is so important, so fundamental to the nature of D&D, that I’ve spoken about it at length at conventions year in and year out since the launch of 3rd Edition. This volume makes a great place to collect those thoughts and touch on the subject one more time—at least until the next time an opportunity presents itself to talk about it again.

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What do I mean by a living game? A living game has few, if any, boundaries. It has a structure, but that structure is designed to expand; it isn’t rigid and set. From the moment we “finished” the rules (and I use that term lightly), we began to see ways to add to the game, to improve the game, to take what we learned in the creation process and reexamine it as we played. Few other forms of entertainment have this built-in evolution mechanic, and it’s what makes D&D so vibrant and so exciting. And even more exciting, we (as the original creators) have only a minor stake in this evolution. Change, growth, and improvement really come from the tens of thousands of game groups playing the game. In other words, the catalyst for change is you!

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A board game can play differently each time you break it out of its box, depending on the strategies employed and the players involved, but by its nature, it can’t go beyond the confines of the game board, the play pieces, or the fundamental rules of the game. The same is true of computer games. For a computer game to evolve, it must be reprogrammed, and even minor updates require tons of work before the end user notices any change. RPGs, and D&D specifically, work at a whole other level.

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At its core, D&D is a very personalized game. Sure, we have a common set of rules to abide by. There have always been watershed adventures that a significant portion of us play through to create a shared experience. But otherwise, your D&D game is different from my D&D game.

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The choices that players make for their characters provide the first of these differentials. From class selection to feats to skills to ability scores, the mix of players and player characters make your game unique. Even if two separate groups had exactly identical player characters, just the fact that different people were playing those characters would make the two games radically different. To me, that’s exciting in a way that can’t be matched by any computer game. The Dungeon Master directly influences another significant difference through campaign setting choice, adventure selection, monster choices, and other elements related to story and setting. Even if we’re both playing in an EBERRON campaign, we could be in disparate parts of the world, following different plots and subplots, and tackling different villains and villainous organizations. More often, DMs build unique campaigns using material from the official campaign settings that we publish, further widening the gap between experiences from one game group to another.

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So, these differences between games and game groups showcase one aspect of the living game. From the moment a DM or player picks up the core rulebooks and interacts with them, the D&D game begins to change. D&D isn’t a static game that lives only between the covers of its books. The books, with their rules and stories, provide structure and balance—but the game itself comes alive when DMs and players get together. The game lives and breathes as imaginations spark and dice roll. Whether you’re a pure roleplayer or a crunchy all-about-the-combat player, your interaction with the DM’s setting and the other players create a story and game that is uniquely your own. And it’s alive!

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Which leads to the other aspect of the living game: the rules themselves. Because we built D&D to expand, it is by necessity alive. Every new book we produce offers new options for game play that add to the fundamental structure of the game. New classes and prestige classes, new feats, new spells, new monsters, new settings, new organizations, new locations . . . you name it, we make it, and it all adds up to more choices to make your game exactly what you want it to be. But while the rules begin with us, they certainly don’t end within the walls of Wizards of the Coast.

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When books are published, the rules see play at a scale that no amount of playtesting can match. As the tens of thousands of game groups put the rules through their paces, stress fractures begin to appear. Let’s face it, some rules wind up being broken. But other times, better ideas begin to appear as rules for specific situations get applied. This is one of the most exciting and invigorating aspects of the living game—the game rules evolve as the game gets played.

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We gather feedback from a wide variety of sources. We watch the message boards (on our site and on other sites). We conduct surveys. We run focus groups. We sift through email and rules questions. And we play the game ourselves—because it’s work and because it’s also the hobby that we love. Through these venues, we update errata, clarify rules, and make the D&D game even better than it was. The process of evolution and continuous improvement has led to every new edition of the game, and it shows that the audience has as much influence on the way D&D develops as the designers, developers, and editors who work on it.

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Say it with me—D&D is a living game. It’s an exciting, vibrant, evolving, and constantly changing entertainment experience unparalleled by anything else out there, because the creators and audience jointly inspire this change. That’s powerful. That’s unique. And it’s really, really fun. At the end of the day, that’s what D&D is all about.

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Long live the living game! Long live D&D!