What do you call the game you are playing?


3.5/d20/OGL


Let's say you are running the Pathfinder adventure path, would you say you were playing D&D or would you say that you are playing Pathfinder or RotR or what?

It just seems kind of strange to me to say it is D&D, when it is not made by the official producer of D&D, doesn't say D&D anywhere, but instead just uses the mechanics of D&D instead.

When you are running a homebrew campaign, do you say you are playing D&D or do you say you are playing (insert name for your campaign setting)? If you are playing a game in Eberron, is that still "D&D", or is it a game of Eberron?

Scarab Sages

We call it D&D when we play the pathfinder AP.

Because it is.

I have also put Campaign: Rise of the Rune Lords on the character sheets.


I play Greyhawk, using the 3.5 rules, so we call it D&D or Dungeons and Dragons. If we are in the middle of a module (like right now we are in Ravenloft) and the adventure has progressed far enough where the PCs have a pretty good idea what is going on, we might say something like:

"Let's go kick some undead butt" or vampire butt". Insert the most appropriate word that fits what we are doing. When we went though The Return to the Temple of Elemental Evil, it was "Tharizdun butt".

When we play Top Secret/S.I., it's "WEB butt".

Kinda a phrase one of the players started. Kinda just happened unconsciously I think.

Dark Archive

I'm running RotR with 2nd Edition AD&D, we just call it plain ol' D&D, not RotR.

When I was running Castles & Crusades, we called that D&D too...because it is.

Generally though, we just say "up for some gaming?"


For us, it's "we're in Eberron" or "we're in Chult". Further explanation becomes "we're playing D&D". That simple.


DangerDwarf wrote:
Generally though, we just say "up for some gaming?"

Yea, I missed that one as DangerDwarf, I use "Who want to game?" a lot as well". Guess it depends upon my mood.

Scarab Sages RPG Superstar 2013

my games generally have somemore specific reference, like 'the epic game' or 'the millenium game'. likely that's born out of the golden days when i could have a job, a girlfriend, sports, and still 2 games a week. now i'm waiting for someone to design a roeplaying game with a football component and steamy, dirty roleplaying scenes, that i can get paid to play. twice a week.

anyhoo, i find the comment strange regarding it not being DnD if it's an AP. After all, if we play my homebrewed world, it's still dnd isn't it?

Grand Lodge

We call our games by the title of the campaign. Tonight is the final showdown in my SCAP w/ AoW (modified homebrew) campaign. Vhalantru, the Cagewrights, Hookface, Lashona, all the BBEGs still alive for this "Strike on the Shatterhorn" rewrite, vs The Order of the Cockatrice.

But I guess the "game" we play is "Dungeons and Dragons Anti WotC Style."

-W. E. Ray


D&D, because a lot more people recognize those words than the name of a specific campaign. And because the rules you use basically are the game; the campaign is a lot flesh that can be grown over any ol' set of bones.

When you eat a jiggly gelatin dessert product not produced by Kraft, do you say you're eating Jello...or something else?
When you use a stack of re-adherable yellow squares of paper not produced by 3M, do you say you're using Pots-Its...or something else?


When mentioning the system it's DeeDee (no sense in mentioning that "et" there). 2nd edition was AhDeeDee. Even when it is homebrew or full of houserules and third-party-content.
Campaigns get names, usually based on locations, sometimes defined by other characteristics...so there are "Sharn thing", "Vampires in London", "Ravnovesje"...


I'm playing D&D. That's the set of rules I use.
I run Pathfinder, because that's the Campaign I use.

Sovereign Court

That really depends on who I'm talking to.

If it's my gaming group I'll say "are we playing AoWs this week or is it STAP?" (because D&D is understood)

If I'm taking to an old gaming buddy (that I don't currently play with) I might say "oh I haven't played Rifts in years, we manly play D&D these days." (because they might not know the specific campaigns)

If I were talking to someone who had no idea what D&D or RPGs were then I might say "Oh, I enjoy role playing games. They're like computer games or board games, only far less constraining," (because they're noobs :))


My gaming group usually uses the title of the campaign to be played, so we don't get confused between each of the different ones going on at one time. So, for my Savage Tide campaign, I'll be like, "We'll be playing Savage Tide tonight."


Evil Genius wrote:
My gaming group usually uses the title of the campaign to be played, so we don't get confused between each of the different ones going on at one time. So, for my Savage Tide campaign, I'll be like, "We'll be playing Savage Tide tonight."

Same here. There's an implicit assumption that it's D&D unless otherwise stated. (Though to folks who don't play, we might offer an explanation that includes "this is a Dungeons and Dragons session. It's like World of Warcraft on the tabletop."


pres man wrote:
...It just seems kind of strange to me to say it is D&D, when it is not made by the official producer of D&D, doesn't say D&D anywhere, but instead just uses the mechanics of D&D instead...

Actually, it just uses the D20 mechanics. Very different ;)


We say "let's play".


Simple. We call our game HackMaster.

Well, that's the title of the game. I think we actually call the game itself "Sir"...


Rise of the Runelords Hero because that is the standard naming convention. And we don’t want to break the standard naming convention, now do we?


We usually call it our "Pathfinder Campaign" even though it has neatly folded into the Rise of the Runelords Adventure Path, despite my every imagination. Ironic, huh? They're in Sandpoint with the Iconics protecting it from stone giants. One of the PCs and Valeros teamed up to take down one of the Northgate attackers AT-AT style with chains and harpoons. Wow.

To be honest, when we talk about our campaign it's more like "DUDE! Pathfinder!!! Woo-hoo!"


I would call it "Awesome!". And so would my players if they know what's good for them.


If I am playing a game based upon the pathfinder modules (or using any of the various D&D rule sets for that matter, 3.x, holmes basic, 1e, 2e, BECMI what ever)if somebody asks what I am doing I'll just say "playing D&D."

if I am playing a different roleplaying game and somebody asks what I am doing I'll general say "playing x" and give the name of the game in question (Call of Cthulhu, Runequest, Marvel Superheroes, etc.) with out elaborating any further (giving edition number for instance, unless asked specifically).

for example:

Paul: Hey Wes, what are you doing?

Me: Playing Call of Cthulhu with some friends.

Paul: Hey realy? is that the d20 version by Wizards of the Coast?

Me: Hell no, the d20 version sucked, I am playing 6th edition by chaosium.

Scarab Sages

pres man wrote:
What are you playing right now?

Errr...

Right now?

As in RIGHT now?

I'm playing the one-string banjo; why do you ask?


My buddy, one of the coolest players of all time, had only one phrase for wanting to play any role-playing system (D&D, Amber diceless, James Bond, etc.) you'd care to name:
"Let's f--- some s--- up!"

Jon Brazer Enterprises

I call it "game." That covers Greyhawk, FR, Pathfinder, 3 Dragon Ante, Munchkin, Exalted, d6 Star Wars, nWoD, minis, etc.


My group usually calls things in general if asked from someone outside. Between eachother we use the modules names.

At the moment we're playing Age of Worms and Pathfinder: Rise of the Rune Lords.

If someone random asked us what we were doing while playing. We'd normally say playing the Age of Worms adventure for D&D.

Dark Archive RPG Superstar 2013 Top 32

Yeah, amongst ourselves we would say "Want to play Pathfinder?" or "Want to play Iron Kingdoms?" but, to the uninitiated outsider, we'd simply say "We're playing Dungeons & Dragons."


So when 4th edition comes out, if you are still playing 3.x will you say you are playing "D&D" or "3rd edition"?

For the person that said they just call it DeeDee, it made me think of that episode of Dexter when Dee Dee gets to be the game master.

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