how do you explain D&D to your friends

[Eldrys]

Every time one of my friends asks what D&D is I always end up making them think its teh stupidest game ever invented(or they asume its a board game).

It usuallly goes some thing like this.

Friend:What's D&D?
Me:Have you ever played runescape?
Friend: Yeah, its the best game ever!
Me:Runescape is an inferior version of D&D.
Friend: Really, I got to go sign up!
Me:No you can't sign up, you play it with other people, usually at the same table.
Friend:Oh so its a board game.
Me: No its not a board game, you have a sheet that describes who your character is in a game world.
Friend: So its a card game.
Me:No its not a card game, you have a sheet that you use to play a game in an imaginary world with lots of dice rolling and mabye some bad acting once in a while!
Friend:So your playing make-believe
Me:*Facepalm*


How does it go when your friends ask about D&D.

[ZeroNumerous]

Friend:So your playing make-believe
Me:*Facepalm*

That's.. basically it. You can sugar-coat it, but saying we're doing anything else would be an outright lie.

[Choco]

That's.. basically it. You can sugar-coat it, but saying we're doing anything else would be an outright lie.

But you CAN point out to them that video games are no different. You playing make-believe with purdy graphics.

[Tar Palantir]

I describe it as similar to video game RPGs, but more flexibility and less flash, elaborating where necessary.

[Surfing HalfOrc]

I usually explain that it's like an MMO or other Computer RPG, BUT that you have a lot more options on what you can do. For instance, if the designers didn't think about including a rowboat somewhere, you can't decide to row out to a ship. But if the DM decides that would work, you can! You just have to find one, buy it or steal it, and row up to the ship from the "other side"

I say that it has SOME board game elements, more like a wargame where you move all your pieces on your turn, then someone else moves his on theirs. But instead of just an abstract battle without any story context, you create your own story as you go along.

[Dixieboy]

It's make-believe.

I don't see any reason to explain it as anything else, i have a buddy who thinks that makes me a wee bit pathetic to sit around for hours playing make-believe with other n3rds while drinking soda enough to fill the Nile and eating everything sugar coated and/or crispy in the immediate vicinity.

But I'll let him think what he wants, i enjoy it.

[Choco]

I describe it as similar to video game RPGs, but more flexibility and less flash, elaborating where necessary.

That's basically what it is IMO too...

I played video games before getting into D&D, but ever since I started pen+paper D&D I havent been able to enjoy D&D based video games as much as I used to due to them being too restrictive...

Anyway, at their roots, both video games and pen+paper RP games are the same. One uses purdy graphics at the expense of freedom, one uses unlimited imagination at the expense of actually requiring someone to HAVE an imagination.

This is just like the Action Figures vs. Dolls argument really... They are the same thing, only real difference in construction being that action figures usually have more mobility while dolls have actual clothing that can be changed out. For proof, I use the 12' GI Joes... They have all the traits normally associated with dolls, but are considered action figures cause it is a soldier doll

[The Dark Fiddler]

I tend to say that its a game where you can do anything you want, ignore any rule, make up your own even.

If I'm feeling silly, I say its Candlyland but you change the board constantly, and you make it up, and you kill things, and you make up any rules you want, and it isn't in the slightest and laugh as they get confused.

[pirateshow]

Most of my friends are at least peripherally involved in theatre, so I've had good luck explaining D&D as 'group storytelling with some simple board game-esque rules to help resolve conflicts'.

[Choco]

'group storytelling with some simple board game-esque rules to help resolve conflicts'.

THAT is genius!!!

[Asheram]

Most of my friends are at least peripherally involved in theatre, so I've had good luck explaining D&D as 'group storytelling with some simple board game-esque rules to help resolve conflicts'.

This is pretty much how I try to explain it.
It's like the process of making the book, the author is sitting there with his world ready and you all are playing characters against eachother and other people that the author controls.
Add rules to how your character work and how skilled he is, and there you go.

[kamikasei]

That's.. basically it. You can sugar-coat it, but saying we're doing anything else would be an outright lie.

Indeed.

It's part make-believe, part improv theater, and part collaborative storytelling.

Has he ever played a CRPG, like Final Fantasy or KotOR, never mind the specifically D&D-derived ones? The step from those to pen-and-paper (take away the fixed script and artificial arbiter, have multiple people telling the stories of characters of their own creation with a flexible human mind describing the consequences of their actions) is clear enough. If he hasn't, then the easiest place to connect it to is make-believe, or campfire stories or the like.

[TengYt]

Tell him you're playing the game that became the basis for all RPGs on consoles and the PC.

[Eldariel]

I always bring up the "Pen'n'Paper" if it seems to be unclear. And then mention that the whole awesome of the system is that there are no limitations and that the DM is the final arbiter of all rules, thus allowing you to do anything the hell you want.

And that as the world is made by a human, it can logically and naturally adapt to everything you do and things you face don't have to be scaled for your level and so on...basically, it sidesteps all the believability problems inherent to computer games and maintains infinite replay value.

[Hat-Trick]

"You ever hear of storytelling where one person starts and then everyone adds on? Kind of like that but a little more controlled."

[valadil]

I explain D&D to my friends as that thing we do on wednesday nights and sometimes on weekends.

To other people I explain it as playing a character out of a book with some math for conflict resolution.

[Alteran]

I usually explain that it's like an MMO or other Computer RPG, BUT that you have a lot more options on what you can do.

I've never had to explain it (most of my close friends play), but this is almost exactly what I would say if asked.

[Dogmantra]

^ Yep.
If someone asks for more detail, I'll say something like "have you ever played Oblivion?" and if they say no, go through RPGs, unless they don't seem like an RPG sort of person, where I'll use another genre, like FPS. Then I'll say "and while playing, have you ever had an awesome idea for something you could do, but the developer's didn't program a way to do it?" They'll almost certainly say yes, so I continue "Well D&D's a bit like that game, but you can do that really awesome thing you wanted to do".

[TheThan]

I'll take a stab at it:

Dungeons and dragons is a co-operative adventure game in which the players create “characters” and take them on a series of adventures. One of the players plays the role of dungeon master, he is responsible for determining the outcome of each characters actions, as well as providing the adventures, enemies and stories for the players to experience.
The game itself uses polyhedral dice and a simple action resolution system to determine the outcome of characters’ actions. Players use “character sheets” to keep track of the numerous variables the game uses. In essence dungeons and dragons is playing make-believe with rules.

[ghost_warlock]

D&D is sort of like improvisational theatre where you take the role of a specific character. Each player has a character sheet that details the special abilities and skills of their particular character. Another player describes scenarios while you, and the other players, describe what your individual characters would do; often using dice to resolve situations where chance can affect the outcome. Some scenarios are puzzles while some are combats involving monsters. Usually, the player who describes the scenarios links them together in a way that tells a story; with you and the other players as the protagonists.

Some groups use minatures to represent their characters on to-scale maps; which can help visualize positioning for various scenarios - particularly combat situations.

In the end, though, it's about hanging out with friends and just having a good time joking around while playing.

@V: LOL!

[Riffington]

{Scrubbed. No Jack Chick tracts!}

Explains what it's all about way better than I ever could.

[xPANCAKEx]

"so how do you actually play DnD"
"you roll dice, say stupid things, hope not to die and everyone drinks lots of wine! oh and theres chinese food too!"
"AWESOME!"

[Eldrys]

"so how do you actually play DnD"
"you roll dice, say stupid things, hope not to die and everyone drinks lots of wine! oh and theres chinese food too!"
"AWESOME!"

Not chinese food and wine. Greesy pizza and orange soda

But seriously thanks for all the input guys

[Nerd-o-rama]

Well first, I put on my robe and wizard hat...

[TheThan]

really, i thought it was Cheetos and mountain dew.

clearly I've been doing it wrong this whole time!

[SSGoW]

whatcha do is mix final fantasy and who's line is it anways and you have dnd :p

although DnD and Final fantasy had a bastard child named WoW :p

[Yora]

I think of our group of 6, 3 had never heard of RPGs when I met them.

How I explain it depends on if I explain it to men or women. :D
Men I ask if they played any fantasy PC-games. With women I forego that.

So what is an RPG?
One of the players organizes everything. He discribes a place in a fantasy (or something other) world and every other player imagines a character that is in this scene. The GMexplains them at what kind of place these characters are and what all the other people do that are present in this scene. Then the other other players tell what the characters they control do and say. Then the GM tells them how the other people react to that, or how other places look that the players decide the characters go to.
At some times in the story, the players want the heroes of the story to do things that the characters might be able to do or maybe not. Then the player rolls a die and if the number is really high, it happenes like the player wanted, or if the number is very low, the character fails at it. For example attacking a monster with a sword or breaking open a door.
It's all the time that the GM tells what happenes in the story and the players decide what the heroes in the story should do. Then repeat to infinity.

That's the basic way of what happens in an RPG. Everything else is details.

whatcha do is mix final fantasy and who's line is it anways and you have dnd :p

although DnD and Final fantasy had a bastard child named WoW :p

That's the little, but even much more famous, brother of Warcraft 3.

[TheEmerged]

Most of my friends are at least peripherally involved in theatre, so I've had good luck explaining D&D as 'group storytelling with some simple board game-esque rules to help resolve conflicts'.

That's close to mine.

At its most basic, RPG's are "make believe" with rules in place of all the running around and screaming. But at the high end, with experienced players, it's improvisational theatre with a wargame attached.

[Nerd-o-rama]

whatcha do is mix final fantasy and who's line is it anways and you have dnd :p

although DnD and Final fantasy had a bastard child named WoW :p

Technically, Final Fantasy started off as being fairly based off of D&D. It's just evolved off in a different direction.

[woodenbandman]

"Basically it's like final fantasy except you can do anything as long as you don't hang out with jerks."