Why Play Dungeons and Dragons?

This has been bopping around in my head for a while. Although it has become the case that Warhammer 40,000, as a tabletop game, has become something that has a far greater cost than benefit to me, I can barely even contemplate selling my Dungeons and Dragons books.

I ask myself "why," and the answer comes easily: D&D and tabletop RPGs give you the best bang for your buck.

For an example, to play several classes and have everything I need to play in D&D just as a PC, I need to blow 30 to 40 bucks on one of the Player's Handbooks, 10 dollars for dice, then with some pencils and paper I'm ready to rock. Let's assume it took 60 dollars to get you into D&D with one book. That is an equal cost with one tank, one TANK, the Landraider, for Warhammer. That's without one's Codex, Rulebook, dice, or measuring tape.

Cost-benefit wise, D&D really beats other tabletop games as far as I'm concerned. Let me rephrase that into "tabletop RPGs." Sometime I want to play Deathwatch, cuz everyone wants to be a space knight. But anyway, tabletop RPGs have a relatively small buy-in for PCs, and I think you get a lot more out of it.

Why?

Well, let me go ahead and say that a good game of 40k takes a couple hours, yet a good D&D session can go on for twice, or even four times that amount. There is something to say of the time commitment required to play either game, primarily that 40k, at 2000 points, requires two hours, while a short D&D session may only have one encounter in that time frame, spliced in with settling in, as well as role playing.

And I think here is the real reason I never want to stop D&D: role playing.

You wouldn't think that acting would be fun in a game of all things, but it requires you to assume a different persona, and adds such immersion to the game that I am generally referred to by my friends as "dwarf," hence the whole Stout and Bearded concept. Nothin to do with me being short, stocky, and rockin a great beard.

When it comes to playing a game with someone in 40k, one of the problems I generally have is that all the interaction I have with that person in-game comes from us shooting eachother with futuristic weaponry. Now, you do get to speak with that person post-game about what went wrong and whatnot, yet 40k isn't really an immersing game. Higher level of play makes one callous to casualties, yet such is one of the only ways you're going to get better at the game, which comes from trading melta-hunter units for an enemy's expensive vehicle, such as a Land Raider.

So, what does this come down to?

I like the role playing aspect of D&D, as well as all the options allowed in just one of the books. Regardless of the version you play, the role playing aspect is what's been kept the most constant among D&D's appeal to the gaming population. Unfortunately, I think that detracts from it and only adds to the strange mysticism associated with D&D after all that crap happened in the 70's.

To me, it just seems that D&D is a better hobby for me than Warhammer.

Warhammer is expensive, takes time to paint the models (which I hate), and you don't get to interact much inside of the game. Sure, you talk about Warhams a lot outside of the game, which is really fun, but in it (excepting beer and pretzels) you're trying to mercilessly beat the other person down.

D&D is comparatively cheap, doesn't require much outside of a decent imagination, as well as a willingness to role play and not metagame what's happening. It's all kinds of fun, and I have far more hilarious stories about D&D than Warhammer, both of which I happened to start at the same time.

I think what I'm finally getting at here is that Warhammer 40k, with it's prohibitive tabletop costs, is only going to lose people because of all that's required to even play the game. I have a lot more fun with Dawn of War and Space Marine. Which only cost 40-50 bucks per game, just like D&D.

Just some cost-benefit for dinner.