What's your gaming history before coming to 3e?

My first D&D experience was in 1990. I was finally given the chance to play and have been hooked ever since.

The fourth option almost perfectly describes my situation. I began playing AD&D, then stopped for a while after five or six years of gaming, before picking up 2E. It didn't take long for me to throw in the towel of 2E, and now I'm back gaming consistently (and almost exclusively) with 3E. In fact, I probably play more D&D now than at any point previously.

Hmmm... looks something like this

[1982]

D&D Basic
D&D Expert (lots of campaigns)
AD&D 1E (lots more campaigns)
Customized D&D-based homebrew

[1985, went to college]

Fantasy Hero 1E (lots of games)
GURPS Fantasy 2E (lots of games)
Traveller
Spacemaster (shiver)
Star Frontiers
Worked on (but never played) several homebrews

[1988, quit college, almost no gaming at all]

Fantasy Hero 1E
Fantasy Hero 3E

[1992, resumed college, still not much gaming]

GURPS Fantasy (3E)
Fantasy Hero 3E

[1995, graduated college, got married]

GURPS Conan solo adventures
GURPS Conan
GURPS Conan (again)
Friend's homebrew system
AD&D 1E
Fudge
Basic D&D
Warhammer FRP
Freeform (no rules, no dice) with my wife
Fudge
Aria RPG
GURPS Fantasy (3E revised)
Fudge conversion of D&D
Fudge conversion of Ars Magica
The Fantasy Trip
Aria "interactive history" game

[1998 or so, formed a new group]

Fudge conversion of D&D (again)
Basic D&D "nostalgia game"

[2000(?), 3E PHB released]

D&D 3E demo game
D&D 3E started campaign

[early 2001, took a short break]

continued previous D&D 3E campaign
converted campaign to Basic D&D (rules cyclopedia)
converted back to D&D 3E

[late 2001, took a much longer break]

Fudge "rescue santa claus"
Fudge version of friend's homebrew system
resumed D&D 3E campaign
Hackmaster demo game
resumed D&D 3E campaign
converted campaign to Fudge
converted campaign to AD&D 1E

Hero 5th edition (too rules heavy)
Friend's homebrew system
Munchkin card game
GURPS Prime Directive (too rules heavy)
D&D 3E (one-shot with no rulebooks)

[taking another break]

After lots of waffling I don't think I'll play 3E again, at least not in the foreseeable future. I like the game and it *looks* fun, but every time I actually play I quickly grow frustrated and want to play something else instead. I think mostly it's that I'm burned out on "heavy rules" systems like 3E, GURPS, and Hero, to the point where I just don't enjoy playing any more. Those were my favorites in college but I think my tastes have changed because I can hardly stand the complexity and detailed rules any more. My available "prep time" has also shrunken drastically. I think having a family is a major factor, since all my players love complicated rules and spend hours out of the game reading rulebooks and dreaming up characters and stuff -- but they have no kids. I've seriously considered cutting d20 down to a simpler lightweight system resembling Basic D&D, but decided it wasn't worth the effort when I could just play Basic instead.

Currently I'm leaning strongly toward Fudge and Basic D&D, or maybe some "indie" games like Donjon, or possibly just quitting the hobby altogether if I can't find anyone who wants to play them. My sons will be old enough to play in another 3-6 years, and then I'll form my own gaming group and teach them how to play. That'll be sweet, and well worth the wait.

Mike

I've been playing since early 1st ed (although I believe I actually played Basic first, it didn't last long), and I've stayed with the game right on through. Each edition has been a massive quality leap over the previous. When 2nd ed came out, I couldn't believe how unified and sensible the rules were (at least until the later Complete Guides), and my reaction to 3rd ed was basically the same, except that I had drifted into also playing Rolemaster. 3rd ed cured me of that by including all the parts of Rolemaster I liked (Thanks, Monte!), and I've never looked back. I tried playing 2nd ed at a con about 6 months after 3rd ed came out, and it was heck. All those rules and charts and things that don't make sense! 1st ed was of course a huge step worse. I pull out those old books to marvel occasionally that I actually played that game, and knew the rules.

--Seule

Hmm...whilst I've played all editions (well aside from Skills & Powers 2e) of D&D my history is a little more complicated. My memory is a little to foggy to place 'em all in a chronology though. From the point that MERP came out in '86 I pretty much stopped playing D&D (aside from online or in CRPG's as well as a brief sojourn playing with the D&D Rules Cyclopedia) and through all rest of the 80's/90's I mainly played MERP/Rolemaster, Shadowrun and Earthdawn...with some dabbling in Marvel Superheros, Feng Shui, Megatraveller, Paranoia, Toon, and others.

Then in the late 90's our group suffered a mini-collapse but eventually got back on track with a semi-regular home-brew campaign which used Rolemaster and GURPS. That suffered a collapse about 3 years in, and in the meantime 3e and Scarred lands came out. Some (well one of the remaing 4) players still had a mindless hatred for D&D, thus our Rolemaster based Scarred Lands game was born. Sadly due to real life the game really had trouble going smoothly with large gaps between sessions. Then, finding a local 3e group here on ENWorld it was decided to put the Rolemaster game on hiatus. Thus now I'm involved in my first 3e game, plus I'm actually a player rather than a GM which is a NICE change of pace.

I play 4e (HackMaster) about as much as 3e.

i owned the basic set, and various 1ed rule books, but played very little...

then i played a bit of WFRP, but didn't get back into gaming properly till i was 19, when i started playing 2ed. we played a fairly basic version of it tho, with no specialty priests, no skills and powers and almost no kits.

when 3e came out, we converted almost immediately and started playign much more and got more involved in the game, played more and all us players lernt the rules better and now i love the game. absolutely love it.

hello fellow old timers

I see a lot of words like "basic" in the other posts. Its good to see that there are so many fellow old timers out here. I started with basic d&d, moved to expert (briefly) then played AD&D for many years, 2e now 3e but I've played a lot of other RPG's.

In my youth I knew a few people that had played chainmail but that was old school back in'80 when I started.

Started with Basic, onto Expert, discovered 1st-ed, flip-flopped with that and the Companion set. Discovered Gamma World (yay!!!) 2e. Avoided 2e AD&D until i saw Spelljammer, followed by Darksun, Ravenloft, Council of Wyrms, and Planescape (got kinda crazy there). Now its more D20 than 3e.

I started playing 1e back when I was in fifth grade (about 7 years ago) with my grandma and some neighbors--they had played in the 80s with my uncle. By 8th grade, my grandma's group had really stopped playing for a while, so I was wanting to get a game going, and I started DMing 2e Forgotten Realms. I've been really hooked ever since, and made the switch eagerly to 3e.

I started out with only 2 players and now have 8... gosh that makes me happy...