Thread by @mikemearls

I don't think TTRPGs are actually games. They're platforms. Consider this:

In 30 years since its release, Settlers of Catan has undergone no significant rules changes. Its rules have been clarified, or tweaked to match later expansions, but the game is the same.

In comparison, D&D has been through five major rules updates. Most, if not all, TTRPGs regularly go through this process. That makes them distinct from most other tabletop games. The rate at which TTRPGs change their rules leaves other tabletop games in the dust.

That's because most tabletop games rely on skill to determine a winner. If I master Settlers, I don't want the rules to change. That invalidates my earned skill. I sit down to play Settlers because this is the game I want to play, and the skill set I want to use.

If I don't want to play Settlers, I don't try to turn it into a deck builder. I simply play Dominion, or Wingspan, or whatever. Each game gives me the chance to reset my skill level and master a new challenge. That's part of the fun of learning new games.

Where's the mastery in D&D?

It's in being a DM. Someone who brags about being a good D&D player is maybe a little dorky. Someone who is a great DM can earn hundreds of dollars an hour and draw thousands of viewers. We don't watch great D&D players. We watch great DMs.

(Being a great player is a skill, but to most TTRPG enjoyers that skill rests in interacting with the players and DMs, not beating the DM in a game of skill.)

So how does that make D&D a platform rather than a game?

The purpose of a TTRPG is to enable a DM's creativity, to give them the framework they need to build a world, campaign, adventure, or encounter. The rules are a language used to create a shared, conceptual space in play.

This is why DMs tweak and twist D&D to suit their needs. Most DMs using D&D in radically different ways do so because the language and framework of D&D is what they know. They can use that as a vessel for whatever type of game they want to run.

As a platform, D&D has to change to keep up with its audience. When the audience advances beyond what the rules can support, the rules need to change. That pressure can come from other games, from a shift in what people expect D&D to do, and so on.

The platform must snap to the user's grid. It enables the user's vision and fills their need. A traditional game, OTOH, presents a barrier. You become good at Settlers by working within its limits. In D&D it's clever to work around the rules. In Catan it's cheating.

A game challenges you to overcome an artificial limit.

A platform enables an activity.

For that reason, I see D&D and other TTRPGs as platforms, not games.

You play a game with D&D, but D&D itself is not a game.