billd91
Not your screen monkey (he/him) 🇺🇦🇵🇸🏳️⚧️
Yes, I'd say that games, by their design, do tend to favor certain kinds of player experiences. I don't think that's particularly controversial. If we envision gameplay experience as a multidimensional space, with different factors (action, deadliness, immersion, ease of play, etc) being different dimensions, each game takes up a particular area within that space. And, yes, as written, D&D tends toward high action and monster killing in its default area - those factors would be emphasized with the game's experience space - meaning a notable presence along those dimensions.I would argue the game's rules lend themselves to a high action kill monsters and take their stuff game style. I certainly embrace that style in my D&D campaigns.
Others would argue the rules are just a toolbox that permit resolutions in a cooperative story-telling activity. I suspect a consideration of the players’ game experience would be a non-starter for these folks.
I know this is a bit rambling and full of half-thoughts, but here is where I am coming from:
My main group recently switched from 5e to another system. The game play is radically different. I have observed this over and over again through the years.
But each game, as implemented at the game table with different players and GMs, modifies the game so it fits a slightly different space. And there would be various overlapping areas within that game play experience space that would represent a game with different options in place. Implement the slower healing variations for 5e, the gameplay area shifts along the appropriate dimensions in the game play space. The more toolkit oriented the game is with its rules and features, the broader the potential gameplay experience area can be, and the less focused, when viewed as a whole.
And, of course, different games with different rules and different designs will occupy different gameplay experience areas within the same multidimensional space. If everything were squashed into 2 dimensions, and D&D represented a circle, Call of Cthulhu might represent an oval that partly overlaps that D&D circle because it's different but has some similarities in gameplay experience.
With respect to games that change with editions, you're going to have differences in the gameplay experience area because of changes in the rules and design values. It's inevitable. How well the different gameplay experiences conform to each other may help identify how well a game will be received by the existing market. Too different, and people may not move with the edition change because of those changes (there may be a host of additional reasons people don't move including sunk costs, poor relations between publisher and market, etc). On the other hand, slower morphs in the gameplay experience area may meet with more acceptance, even to the point where the game is markedly different several iterations along.4e, being comparatively more specialized, alienated a lot of fans. A lot of them.
I think, therefore, it's fair to say that an entire edition of DnD should not have a particular player experience in mind.