Earlier quoted context omitted.
Actually, D&D is a very American thing. In Germany we have a pretty active Pen & Paper scene as well, but D&D is not so common. Instead, the "major" system is DSA (The Black Eye). But I have a feeling that we have a higher variety of systems played on this side of the sea. I played D&D once and didn't like it that much. Too much focus on being the hero, too much encouragement of powergaming for my taste. But that mig…
As an avid boardgamer, I've noticed there's a big difference between American and European board games (and probably also table top RPG frameworks) in the sense that the American tendency is to favour luck and hail Mary rolls to save the day. Eurogames tend to be focused on resource management and long term strategy. So definitely a cultural thing. Both systems do have their merits, but "rolling for combat" is tradit…
D&D especially since 4e, is very much by conscious design centered around structured resource management (that in 4e this was done in a very heavy-handed metagame way by way of, e.g., encounter/daily powers, I think, contributed to a lot of the complaints against; 5e’s short/long rest system is nearly equivalent in effect but ties the mechanic in a more organic way to the fiction.)
> I see that The Dark Eye does use rolling for combat, but it calculates armour differently, in a more predictable manner (for example, in D&D armour makes you less likely to be hit, whereas in The Dark Eye it makes you take less damage)
This is extremely common in American TTRPGs that aren't D&D or deliberate mechanical clones.