Is Pathfinder D&D to you?

I was considering this question myself recently as I have been telling people, “I’ve stopped playing D&D for now and am playing Pathfinder”. The thing is, I feel like I am still playing D&D, or at least the previous version, which makes sense.

My official (short) answer to this question is that yes, I am playing D&D when I play Pathfinder, but I make the distinction in the event someone may want to know more about it, or wants to know what edition it is I am playing, etc. If I was only playing Pathfinder (for example) and stated, “I am playing D&D”, I think the vast majority of people would assume I was NOT playing Pathfinder, thus the distinction is made.

With that said, I posed this question to the #dnd Twitterverse recently. I have posted the responses below, not in an attempt to sway opinions, but simply to share. This is of course anecdotal data, and I am not attempting to draw any substantial conclusions from it – the range of answers is indication enough that that this is a rather subjective topic as presented. We would have to (as others have mentioned) get into the debate of what D&D “is” before really deciding what systems/games qualify as well, not to mention find a better way to poll a wider array of people, etc.

The point is, this is simply for entertainment purposes.

Okay, here we go. I asked this question via Twitter, Facebook and Reddit. Here are the results…

Is Pathfinder “D&D” to you?

Total Responses: 55
Yes: 41
No: 6
Other: 8

Yes, Pathfinder is D&D to me…

@brianliberge: #Pathfinder is #dnd as far as I am concerned, yes.

@paulbaalham: ive always thought it was

@dmfumbl: #pathfinder is as much #dnd as 3.5, 3.0, 2e, and 1e. Never understood the argument against thinking that way.

@smittyhalibut: I treat it as such, yes.

@pedr: #pathfinder is definitely #dnd to me. I far prefer 4e but playing pfrpg feels just like playing 3.5 did

@exalteddarkness: I certainly consider #pathfinder to be #dnd, most certainly in spirit if not in name/publisher.

@sarahdarkmagic: I think it is but at times it can be important to distinguish.

@samldanach: yes. I feel that #pathfinder is #dnd

@zizazat: #patfhfinder is totally #dnd to me. Started w/ red box, played 2nd and 3rd. Pathfinder continues in that tradition for me.

@dysonlogos: I feel that #Pathfinder is (a) #DnD game, yes. But I understand people who don’t.

@richgreen01: yep #pathfinder is still #dnd

@charismacheck: Yes, I do consider it an upgraded version of DnD.

@the_blind_gm: the answer is of corse yes branding has little to do with the game at it’s core

@brainclouds: I’ve never read a Pathfinder core rulebook in my life, yet I understand everything when I read a module. So, in a way, yes.

@grahamemulliss: I would say no. Can’t really explain why in 200 characters tho.

@ldcomic: pathfinder is “all but” dnd to me. In some ways, more dnd than 4e ever will be.

@brindy: yes. It’s like a software fork. It’s 3rd edition revised continued on its own path.

@lowlyminion: Definitely. If you go by Mike Mearls’s recent “what are the bare essentials of D&D” post, there’s no question.

@ObsidianeCrane: Pathfinder is a version of dnd, like BECMI and AD&D. Like 1E AD&D it is a version I don’t enjoy as much as 4E (or BECMI back then).

@neceros: #pathfinder IS #dnd. Paizo picked up the slack where WotC left off. My table uses it as the core system.

@nikonraccoon: I think of #pathfinder as #dnd 3.75.

@captcalamitous: I went back to #DnD with #Pathfinder, I feel that #4e strayed too far, that’s a personal opinion btw #asshats need not reply. 😉

Elsbeth [Facebook]: I don’t play it, but I still consider it to be D&D

Jody [Facebook]: Quick answer: Yes

TrueBuckeye [Reddit]: When my friends and I get together to play D&D, we play Pathfinder, so yes.

Laughing_Boy [Reddit]: Pretty much have to agree (with TrueBuckeye), here. Fact is, I have one group that plays Pathfinder and one that plays D&D 3.5, and I could imagine my characters in either game, no problem.

Not_Really_Here [Reddit]: Pathfinder is the evolution of D&D 3.5. Pathfinder is what D&D 4.0 would be if they went to improve 3.5, rather than re-make the D&D system like 4.0 now does (I don’t mind 4.0, I’m just stating it’s different).

cartmanbeck [Reddit]: Short answer: yes.

rednightmare [Reddit]: Is Lamentations of the Flame Princess D&D? I say yes to both. If has all the same tropes and conventions I expect from D&D then it’s D&D.

An interesting question is how much would D&D need to change for it to stop being D&D? I think that if the class system and d20 were taken away I wouldn’t consider it D&D anymore. Sometimes I think that 4e dances along the edge of D&D-dom. Not really mechanically, but with how the iconic races and classes have kind of been swept away.

dcampbez [Reddit]: D&D is almost like Kleenex or a Xerox generic for me when telling people what I am doing Friday night:

OLD ME:

Co-Worker: What are you doing this weekend?
Me: Playing Pathfinder (Or Eclipse Phase, Mouse Guard, Traveler, Outbreak:Undead, or whatever we are getting up to)
Co-Worked: Blank Stare
Me: It’s Like Dungeons and Dragons
Co-worker: Ah!

NEW ME:

Co-Worker: What are you doing this weekend?
Me: Playing Dungeons and Dragons
Co-worker: Ah!

Moves the conversation along faster…:)

Wakefield [Reddit]: It’s more D&D to me than 4th edition is, and it sure as hell put a fresh face on everything I liked about 3.5.

ShyGuysonStilts [Reddit]: Pathfinder is D&D 3.5++

W32Badwolf [Reddit]: Emphatically yes.

jcfalia [Reddit]: The only way that Pathfinder isn’t D&D, is that it’s not allowed to put the words ‘Dungeons & Dragons’ on the cover. But c’mon – it’s just as much D&D as any other version of D&D is.

Rayston [Reddit]: Yes. As in I know automatically without looking to closely that its not for me.

bobrogue [Reddit]: Me and my friends basically consider pathfinder what DND 4.0 should have been, it cleans up alot, rebalances things and gives alot more diversity to the game we switched awhile ago and never looked back.

insanityv2 [Reddit]: With all due respect, this is sort of a bullshit question. I have never seen anyone discuss of what “real” D&D without using it as a means to try and exclude people and try to assert some sad and imagined superiority.

So yes.

ExtremeMetalFTW [Reddit]: Yeah, it’s pretty much 3.5 with some (IMO) great revisions and since my group is full of noobies they call it D&D anyways.

Strebalicious [Reddit]: Considering it was designed to be used with all the 3.5 D&D material (with a few slight changes), I’d say yes. Inf fact, I never once considered it NOT to be D&D.

SmilerClark [Reddit]: It feels and tastes like DnD to me and my friends (who have been in a 3, then 3.5, now Pathfinder) game for the last seven years, but we prefer to call it Pathfinder. Mostly its out of respect for Paizo and their product, which we are really quite fond of. Paizo should get some kind of award for the masterful way they support their product line.

d1ngo: I say 3.75

No, Pathfinder is not #dnd

@phaezen: It may not be dnd to me, but for many people it is, and who am I to say they are wrong?

@wolfsamurai: [msg 1] It’s… not. It’s got the same bones underneath so it’s close, but it’s different enough that to me it’s not D&D. [msg 1] Right now, D&D is D&D to me. Pathfinder has similar mechanics, but feels more like it’s own thing.

@aliothefool: I don’t consider Pathfinder D&D. They’re both fantasy RPGs. Names are just names.

@nightchilde: No. D&D is D&D, Pathfinder is Pathfinder. I like both. 😉

Moe [Facebook]: I was going to say yes but then read Ari’s “Hey, do you have a D&D game going right now?” and it made me reconsider. If I was running Pathfinder and someone asked me that question I would say “No I don’t, but I am running Pathfinder which came from D&D 3.5” so I obviously think of it as something different.

AGNKim [Reddit]: Not at all. I don’t buy into the “Edition Wars”, as its all role-playing games and we nerds should stick together, but D&D will always be AD&D 1st edition, being 16, eating Doritos and wondering how cool it would be to meet Gary Gygax. And writing run-on sentences apparently.

Neither (that, or Weem can’t call it)

@hawklord2112: it depends. To my GF all rpgs are dnd

@mandarific88: [msg 1] Often times with Pathfinder I often preface it by saying “D&D, or in this case Pathfinder” or something. [msg 2] To me it’s the difference between, like, Oatmeal & Cold Cereal – both are for breakfast, both are technically “Cereal.”

@trachalio: That’s how Pathfinder was first described to me; it’s D&D 3.75. Haven’t played 3.5 or Path yet so don’t know if description is apt

@ampthebard: Any game of fantasy roleplaying can be #dnd if it covers some basic tropes. It’s the experience that matters, not the ruleset.

@miskatonichrich: [msg 1] it is based on 3.5 and since a lot of things were made for the D20 OGL. Dnd became settings, the D20 system was almost universal [msg 2] To some playing any rpg is #dnd because that is the Icon, like BandAid or Jello. Not technically correct but you will be understood

Frank [Facebook]: It is the spiritual successor and natural progression of the game as it stood with 3.5. I was just having this conversation with the store owner I run 4e at. In many ways I saw it as a pure system, meaning it was not bogged down with all of the additional glut of material official or not.

That being said with the Ultimate Books, the 3rd party support it can look as if they are taking some of the mistakes 3.5 and wotc took and continuing them. More class options, making more base classes, more feats more spells.

While I can say no it is not D&D in some ways yes it is. All that is missing is the old second edition spell reincarnate and there you go. D&D in a different body. This is the long form response.

Ari [Facebook]: I don’t think it’s any more or less “spiritually” D&D than any other edition, since it’s basically a variation on 3.5E. I’m no less likely to play it than I am most of the other editions, and if I were involved in a game and somebody casually asked me “Hey, do you have a D&D game going right now?” I’d probably say yes.

David [Facebook]: This presents us to the tangent of would you call Castles & Crusades or any of the “off shoots” D&D. On a pitiable level no they aren’t as they aren’t produced by TSR or their successors. On a game play level, yes they are a they use base systems derived from their D&D counterparts. Overall they’re games and as long as you’re having fun why classify.