D&D General When did you leave D&D? Why? For what game? And what brought you back?

[EzekielRaiden]

Since someone's gonna ask: have you looked into PF 2e yet? Because it's closer to 4e DnD than any other edition thereof. I suspect you have but you didn't mention it.

It's not as openly high-magic as 4e, which I do miss and also can't find people to play with, but it definitely scratches the "DnD but the rules are actually clear" itch beautifully.

I have, but was disappointed by some of the design choices I saw.

 

[pemerton]

We struggled to get Traveller to work in that era as well. Everyone could see it should be brilliant, and I would devour Andy Slack's White Dwarf column each month, but we couldn't quite get play to spark into life.

I think the problem for us was that sci-fi was defined by a range of brands - Star Wars, Star Trek, Battlestar Galactica, the Stainless Steel Rat, Neuromancer, Blake 7, Doctor Who - and Traveller didn't give you those. Or Rogue Trooper, Strontium Dog, or ABC Warriors from 2000AD. It wasn't built from recognisable sci-fi. It was more like the computer game Elite - it did it's own thing, and you had to appreciate that thing for itself.

Yep, that was definitely a part of our problem. I think another part was similar to what you say with RM - even if the genre/"point" had been clear, it wasn't clear how to get to that destination using the tools provided.

In my Traveller Renaissance period (which started in the second half of 2017) I've approached prep and resolution in a way that is closer to Apocalypse World (something I had no idea how to do in 1978, when I got the books, or in the early to mid-80s when I dabbled with playing them). And the genre has been more "conspiracy"-oriented than action-oriented, which is a departure from the sci-fi I knew was a kid (Star Wars, a bit of Trek, Dr Who, Dan Dare).

 

[Wofano Wotanto]

Whoops, wrong thread. Never mind.

 

[Eyes of Nine]

Played D&D in Jr and High School. Took a break for 5 years. Got a job at the FLGCS. Worked there. Someone started a D&D campaign with the staff (maybe it was 2e? I don't know, I didn't buy any of the books) but the GM moved away shortly after we started, so maybe only 2-3 sessions were played.

And THEN Shadowrun came out, and we got the video promo, which in 1990 was so cool but is super cringe now, and we had all read Tolkein AND Gibson. So we played that in the store. Eventually we ended up playing GURPS, and MegaTraveller, a session or two of Toon, another campaign of Shadowrun, and then more GURPS for a loooong time. Meanwhile I had moved away and was driving 2 hours to play every Sunday and then had kids so that was the end of that.

In 2006 I moved back to that town, and in late 2007 or early 2008 I saw the self-same FLGCS I used to work at a flyer for 4e - the points of light flyer. Super cool I thought!. And then I ran into one of my buddies from our old group and said "hey, great to see you - what do you think about trying out this 4e?" We got a bunch of the old crew together and some new folks too. Various people dropped and re-joined - but that group is still going strong. We got a forever GM for that group, which has given us some stability. So... you could say my group is 34 years going, or 16 18 years going, depending on how you want to parse it

 

[EthanSental]

4th edition, but I wasn’t done with DnD, just waited and hoped 5e was good and it is/was so I’m back (been back since 2014).

 

[Scott Christian]

We were playing AD&D as teenagers, and then sometime around 19 or 20, we started perusing other books. MERP caught our eye for the art and the simple fact we already knew the lore. So we played that, then that turned into Rolemaster, then Rolemaster turned into Dangerous Journeys, then Dangerous Journeys turned into Earthdawn, then Star Frontiers, then Gamma World, then James Bond 007, then Top Secret, then back to D&D. Seems crazy, but all that was in a four-year period. Some of the games we played three or four sessions and then stopped. Others we played for an entire campaign.

I think what brought us back to D&D was that we missed fantasy (we were doing space and spies for a while, and that really wasn't our jam. The other reason is all of the 2nd edition splat books. We just ate them up. Then we all moved away from one another, so I took a 15-year hiatus. Still bought the core rulebooks because I liked to read them. But career and marriage were the driving points at that time in my life. Jumped back in right when 4th edition came out.