Favourite D&D edition that’s not 5E

Monayuris · May 20, 2019

Voted OD&D - specifically meaning Basic/Expert '81. Which is my favorite edition (5E is the second favorite).

It is just such a well thought out and executed version of the game. I love the simplicity, while at the same time it has so much detail and subtlety.

I have a lot of success running Basic D&D for both private and public games. So, its not nostalgia... its alive and well.

Also, when I run 5E, what I'm really running is B/X with 5E rules.

Satyrn · May 21, 2019

ccs said:
Well MY favorite edition is 1e.
My 2nd favorite is 5e.
running very close in 3rd place is PF1/3x
4th place = 2e
5th comes B/X, BECMi, & OD&D

Yeah. I pretty much said my assumption was wrong. I was making a joke about making false assumptions and our very human tendency to think that our personal preferences are widely (universally even) shared. That is, since 5e is my favorite edition, it must be everybody's favorite, right?

Of course not! But that doesn't stop me from thinking it. :blush:

Yaarel · May 21, 2019

ccs said:
A rule for everything & then a few more for things you don't need rules for.

I get the appeal of 3e having a rule for everything. Wanting to quantify every possibility to simulate reality.

Now I probably prefer adjudication on the fly for less common events, so 5e probably strikes the right balance for me, leaning on the DM.

But I have to admit the appeal of rules. I care about what is ‘official’, because it helps gamers be on the same page. It also makes future support possible.

In 4e, there was a kind of intellectual challenge to ‘remove the DM’. Have rules be so elegant and sophisticated, that DM guess work was no longer necessary. This likewise placed players and DMs with equal authority, each consulting the same rules. This egalitarianism has a kind of appeal.

Both 3e and 4e are about rules. Maybe it is fair to characterize 3e as bottom up, rules from details. While 4e is top down, rules elegant enough to handle a variety of situations with some degree of nuance.

cbwjm · May 21, 2019

My favourite edition is 2e followed by, so closely as to be more or less 1st equal, BECMI (I started DnD with the Rules Cyclopedia which I still consider one of the best DnD books ever). 3e would be be next, I like what they did with prestige classes. After 3e, would be 4e. I loved a lot of what they did with 4e although I wasn't a huge fan of the AEDU system. 1e and OD&D are right down the bottom of the list.

Although earlier editions had their flaws (thief skills being the big one for me), I would still put my hand up to play them if someone asked if they wanted to run them. Thing is, I think everyone just wants to run 5e. Maybe I should put forward the idea of running a 2e one-shot, it will give my friends who have never played it a chance to see what its like.

ccs · May 21, 2019

Yaarel said:
But I have to admit the appeal of rules. I care about what is ‘official’, because it helps gamers be on the same page. It also makes future support possible.

Future support of an edition has always been possible. I have book shelves full of the proof.

As for being on the same page? That's a fine place to start. But I firmly believe that the game is better when it's then customized through house rules, 3rd party, etc to fit each individual table. Each individual campaign at each table in fact. If you're all doing the same thing, in the same way, in a tabletop RPG (who's tag line used to be "Products of your Imagination"),

Yaarel said:
In 4e, there was a kind of intellectual challenge to ‘remove the DM’. Have rules be so elegant and sophisticated, that DM guess work was no longer necessary. This likewise placed players and DMs with equal authority, each consulting the same rules. This egalitarianism has a kind of appeal.

As a forever 1e DM my response to this is just a dismissive grunt.

Tony Vargas · May 21, 2019

Yaarel said:
Describing the upside of 1e/2e as ‘enthusiasm’ and ‘charming amateurism’, resonate with me too.

To be fair, I only credit 1e with those qualities.

Also, the fluidity of the system is a plus, where each DM can reappropriate whatever rules were useful for whatever setting was of interest.
The 1e/2e really was the edition where it was true, "The only limitation is your imagination". All the other editions require system mastery, often with a baked-in setting.

I'd quibble with 2e, since it did pour on a /lot/ of er stuff.

But 1e and 5e both have something going on that isn't quantified in the rules or just the sum of the sub-systems or anything quite objective or tangible, it's the DM's freedom to explore way from the system that's a big part of it. 1e had that going for it more or less by accident, 5e went for it on purpose and caught that long-escaped lightning in its bottle.

Satyrn said:
Right. Eberron is the new battleground.

Will this be the /Last/ Last War?

DEFCON 1 · May 21, 2019

Sacrosanct said:
But I will link to one post, because I think it turned out to be pretty prophetic of the discussion that followed, made by [MENTION=7006]DEFCON 1[/MENTION] back in 2013, specifically:

"Player in Nebraska today: "If Next doesn't include the Warlord as a class, then I'm not switching to the game when it comes out!!! They've lost me as a customer!"

Cut to same player 3 years from now: "I can't find anyone to play non-Essentials 4E with me in my area!"

Holy jeez... did you actually remember that post from way back when, or did you just happen to stumble upon it? I barely remember posts I've put up two weeks ago, let alone ones that are six years old, LOL! I clicked on that link to read what I had said and then only barely remembered saying it.

Not that I was wrong mind you... no, in fact I was pretty spot on I think. Heh heh.

Tony Vargas · May 21, 2019

Sacrosanct said:
My argument was that fans of 4e are/were no different than any other fans because they acted the same as every other fan when their favorite edition ended,

Yes, and your argument is proven wrong by the conspicuous lack of an edition war raging against 5e.

I understand that you want to establish an equivalency between the more extreme demands of the playtest, and the extremes of the edition war, but they were fundamentally different: all the demands, posturing and vitriol if the playtest was fans wanting to get what they wanted into the coming new edition. The edition war was not waged to get missing bits added back to 4e - or it would have ended 9mo in when the gnome and the missing core classes appeared in the PH2.

Henry · May 21, 2019

I voted 2E, but I like several for different reasons:

- I said 2E because I ran two of my longest-running campaigns on it; it’s flexibility was such that I could pull in a lot of 1E material without throwing it out of whack, and I home-brewed that system the most by far. It was also the system under which some of the most awesome campaign settings ever were created.

- I love Basic D&D because it is the easiest to introduce to someone, create a character, and start playing immediately. It was also my first exposure to D&D ever.

-Finally, under “other”, I hold a fondness for Pathfinder, because other than 5e it’s the system I’ve most played with my current groups.

Dannyalcatraz · May 21, 2019

Yes, and your argument is proven wrong by the conspicuous lack of an edition war raging against 5e.

I suspect the lack of a visible edition war vs 5Ed may have as much to do with ENWorld policy against edition warring as anything else. I say that because I know there are PLENTY of people in my area not adopting the new edition. They’re griping, but not as much online.