What is your second edition experience (no edition war!!!)

[wedgeski]

Played and ran most of the original boxed sets Basic through Immortals, moved onto 2nd Edition as soon as it came out, mostly because it coincided with my first summer job so I had the pennies to buy all the books without having to wait for birthdays or Christmas.

That, plus the coincidence of meeting all of my subsequent Best Friends 4 Life at around the same time via gaming at school, means that 2nd Edition probably holds all of my best D&D memories. The system itself seemed fine, we were never bothered by its differences to the original Gygax game and it served us all very well through dozens of campaigns.

I'm a firm believer that the system is what you make of it.

 

[Tervin]

Me and my friends moved into 2E on the day it was published, having consumed all the previews we could find. At the time we were running an annual kind of prestigious AD&D tournament, where we took pride in including the very latest official rules. As the tournament took place in late September we really had to learn quickly - we even made a little extra booklet for our DMs, so that they would know the main differences that mattered in our adventures.

Personally I loved 2E back then, it felt like quite an improvement to the old rules. We stuck with all the complete books for a while but lost interest in the end - I did my last writing for that tournament in 1992 and its last year was 1997 I think. In the early 90s I fell in love with the Storyteller games instead, and ran Vampire 1E and 2E for a number of years - more or less till D&D 3E won me back from the dark side.

Looking back at 2E I think the best parts of it has little to do with the crunch and everything to do with the fluff. Dark Sun, Ravenloft and Planescape offered the best campaign worlds that I think D&D has had yet.

 

[chromeraven]

I began at the tail end of 2e. I didn't really care for it, having been raised in a pro ICE (RoleMaster/Middle Earth RP) household and not really understanding some of the weird restrictions on non-humans.

3.X was like a breath of fresh air: almost the versatility of RM without all of the pointless math.

4e I'm liking so far, but mostly because it seems to distill the action experience satisfactorily rather than the customization aspect.

 

[Steely Dan]

I started playing in 1987 with 1st Ed and then moved on to 2nd Ed in 1989 (took a break from D&D from 1995 to 2005).

I have played more 2nd Ed to date than any other edition, though my favourite editions are 1st Ed and 4th Ed.

 

[ExploderWizard]

I started with Basic D&D, played 1st Ed. and got 2nd Ed. as soon as it was released. We played 2nd Ed. for about a year, got the first few complete books and realized it wasn't really our thing. I sold my 2nd Ed. books and started playing GURPS in 1990. Started playing 3rd Ed. when it came out and now will probably play more GURPS.

 

[jonesy]

I replied "began in Basic/OD&D, but never played 2nd Ed" but actually we did play two campaings of 2nd. It just didn't really take off. The group got fed up, went back to OD&D, and realized it (that is, 2nd) was the edition we'd been fed up with. The other editions we play from time to time, but OD&D is still the favourite, and 2nd the least favourite.

 

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

I started gaming around 1999/2000, with Shadowrun. I had to find a new group, and I did - guys who were all a few years more experienced then me in RPGs, and they began playing 3E then (but also played other stuff).

I am not interested in playing any older edition. I have the impression they have too many mechanical flaws that would get in the way of me enjoying them. I am a "kid" of my time, and that means Shadowrun or D&D before their 3E are uninteresting to me.

 

[Mercule]

pardon my ulterior motive...

Why?

This seems to be a reoccurring theme among some older gamers; I tried 2e, then went back to 1e (or moved on to another system, but I want to focus on the former).

In truth, 1e and 2e were almost as close as 3.0 and 3.5 -- at least when the 2e PHB was released. That means that the people who prefer 1e over 2e are doing it for some minor reasons.

For example, I liked how 2e allowed the thief to select which skills to advance, gave the ranger stealth (which I'd already house-ruled into 1e), and customized priests/clerics. I disliked rangers as solely divine casters (I always figured them as opportunists, as far as magic goes) and focused on TWF, non-weapon proficiencies, the illusionist without illusionist-only spells, the general handling of the druid, institutionalized THAC0 (which was actually a late 1e thing that I tried to ignore), and a few other bits.

It was easy enough to continue to play 1e and just grab the few 2e bits I liked. I only moved to 2e when all the new players coming in only owned the 2e PHB (which was college). The game play didn't suck until the splat books became overwhelming, but I still found it inferior to 1e.

 

[Mallus]

Hello, I'm Mallus D. and I have a confession to make: I loved the long 2e campaign I ran.

Whatever the deficiencies the system might have had were rendered totally unimportant by the way the friends I was running for took to the campaign and the homebrew setting I (we) created for it.

If anything 2e taught me the game is what you make of it. Rules-wise, barely enough is often plenty, and the rules, in the end, simply aren't the game (I know a lot of people feel this way about OD&D... and I might too, had I started with it).

 

[Voadam]

I've always liked Greyhawk; the 2e-period's treatment of Greyhawk was just pathetic. The premier dungeon of the setting released as a joke module? Gargoyle? Childs Play?

Castle Greyhawk, the joke module, was 1e, not 2e.



2e was not all joke adventures for kiddies, Return to White Plume Mountain and Slavers, for example, are also 2e GH modules. From the Ashes is a dark update of the setting unleashing war and fiends upon the lands.