Turn Off the Screen and Play the Game
Skip the videos. Reading the rulebook builds stronger RPG groups, sharper understanding, and a more collaborative play experience than watching others play.
Someone asked me to make a series of videos explaining how my game system works. Now, I understand that different people have different learning styles, and that explainer videos can be helpful, but I have a great face for radio and the perfect voice for mime. There’s a reason I don’t do videos, have a podcast, and all of that; privacy aside, my medium is words. Also, I’ve already explained how the rules work. That’s what the book is.
It was still a surprise when I opened up the 2024 Dungeon & Dragons Player’s Handbook and came across this piece of boxed text on page 4, the first page of the introduction:
LEARN BY WATCHING
A great way to learn the basics of D&D is to watch people play it. The Internet offers videos of D&D play that show off the tremendous range of possibilities the game offers. As you watch, pay attention to the ways that some players help make the game fun for everyone in their group. The only audience you need to entertain when you're playing D&D is yourself and your group.
No. No, no, no, no, no. And I’ll tell you why.
Turn Off the Screen and Read
A major part of my shtick is encouraging people to read more. Or at all. Just read the book and figure it out as you go along. That’s half of the fun. If you get something wrong, misinterpret a rule, or overlook some fiddly bit, go with what feels right and fix it later. We all spend too much time in front of screens. The only way to play “wrong” is not to have fun. No one will die if you don’t implement the rules perfectly. Well, not actual people will die. Character death is a whole other rant for another time.
It’s a Creative Collaborative Experience
There is a special joy, a whole series of bonding moments, in figuring it out together. It’s a treat when someone does understand the rules and can teach the rest of the table. Not knowing everything when you start out, though, can be what helps the group click. The point is to work together. Offloading that to strangers in videos is depriving yourself of an experience that’s unique to roleplaying games. Of course, this works best if you’re all in the same room together and not a bunch of talking heads on a screen, either.
Maybe the Rules Are Too Complicated
Here’s the thing that no one wants to admit about Dungeons & Dragons: if you need to watch a video summarizing things, maybe, just maybe, the rules are too dense. One of the reasons I hate the term “rules-lite” is that it’s comparative to the baseline created by D&D. The assumption is that an almost 400-page Player’s Handbook, one of three core books, is the correct amount of rules. “Lite” almost feels dismissive, a synonym for “incomplete”.
Which brings us to my next boxed-text call out, as we move into the “Playing the Game” section:
EXCEPTIONS SUPERSEDE GENERAL RULES
General rules govern each part of the game. For example, the combat rules tell you that melee attacks use Strength and ranged attacks use Dexterity. That's a general rule, and a general rule is in effect as long as something in the game doesn't explicitly say otherwise.
The game also includes elements — class features, feats, weapon properties, spells, magic items, monster abilities, and the like — that sometimes contradict a general rule. When an exception and a general rule disagree, the exception wins. For example, if a feature says you can make melee attacks using your Charisma, you can do so, even though that statement disagrees with the general rule.
This is probably why I took umbrage at being asked to make videos. My system isn’t that complicated. There aren’t really exceptions to the core mechanic. The space that could have been taken up by fiddly bits is used for examples.
Something people forget, or maybe didn’t know, is that codified rules in D&D exist because of tournament play. Basic D&D started out as a very much “yeah, whatever, the gamemaster will figure it out” rules set. Which was fine, because your home group or the people you played with at the hobby shop could do whatever worked and everyone agreed on. Again, the creative, collaborative part. Advanced D&D came along when they started having games at conventions, and needed everyone to be on the same page.
If you play at conventions or local game days with people other than your regular crew, that’s fine. Most people only ever play in home games, so… why? Okay, with more people playing on screens via virtual tabletops, maybe. But is there really anything wrong with the group you’re playing with on Tuesday nights doing things a bit differently than the other group you play with on Sunday afternoons? Is that really such an onerous burden to bear? Or is that part of what makes each group special, and not a cookie-cutter experience that lacks imagination and camaraderie?
The Book Isn’t the Game
I will hit this point repeatedly: the game is what happens around the table. Regardless of the rules used. Irrespective of whether you’re using the rules correctly or applying house rules. It’s the creative, collaborative output of the group. Full stop. Rules can help. They can. But they’re a tool, not the point. Reading them, interpreting them, and figuring them out together with the rest of the group is part of the process. Offloading is forfeiting some of your agency and abandoning the opportunity to make the game uniquely yours.
Technology isn’t Innovation
Having players watch videos isn’t any great leap forward for game design. The game remains mired in its wargaming roots, colonialist logic, and the assertion that violence is the most effective way to solve problems. Dungeons & Dragons remains a fossilized system, and tweaking the rules here and there while incorporating the modern obsession with screens does nothing to address the underlying problems and basic assumptions at the heart of the game.
