Favourite D&D edition that’s not 5E

Immortal Sun · May 19, 2019

Charlaquin said:
4e was much better received than popular opinion might lead one to believe. In fact, it was very successful with new players, its problem was that it didn’t appeal to established players, who were very much necessary to bring in new players at the time.

True, perhaps once "new players" become a more established group we'll see a 4E revival.

Charlaquin · May 19, 2019

Immortal Sun said:
True, perhaps once "new players" become a more established group we'll see a 4E revival.

Sadly, the lack of established players bringing new players into 4e severely bottlenecked the edition’s growth. There’s definitely a market out there for an updated 4e clone, but it’s a niche one.

Immortal Sun · May 19, 2019

Charlaquin said:
Sadly, the lack of established players bringing new players into 4e severely bottlenecked the edition’s growth. There’s definitely a market out there for an updated 4e clone, but it’s a niche one.

I always try to offer to run 4E for folks, but always get dirty looks when I do.

Imaculata · May 19, 2019

Well, I still play 3.5, so my answer is obvious.

Raith5 · May 19, 2019

While I played a lot of 1e and 2e, I think 4e is a my favorite edition. It wasnt perfect and I understand why many people did not roll with it, but I really appreciated the new take on D&D and was ready for something different when it came out. I really liked the variety and unpredictability of the monsters, the way that martial characters worked and the tactical options in combat.

MerricB · May 19, 2019

I went with AD&D (1st edition). There's a certain purity in the concepts of the game back then, and it's had enough time for some of the oddness of Original D&D to disappear. Yes, it's got lots of things that are still odd about it, but we ignored most of those when playing it.

2E did a lot of interesting things with the game, but I felt that, mechanically, it lost something, even while making things more consistent. For one, I don't like how 2E deals with specialist wizards - the original illusionist was far more to my taste.

I've run a fair deal of original D&D of late, but I think that if I was planning to do another long-form non-5E campaign, I'd run AD&D again.

Cheers!

Leatherhead · May 19, 2019

Most of my favorite D&D books are from 2nd.
However, I will admit some of my favorite mechanics are from 4e.

Shiroiken · May 19, 2019

Interesting how close everything is from 1E to 4E. I'm a bit surprised that OD&D doesn't have more, since it includes BECMI, which had a solid following through most of AD&D.

For me, it's 1E if only one can be chosen. Like many, we played 1.5 edition, which was a mishmash of both editions, taking the best of both. While both 3E and 4E revolutionized the game, I was never quite comfortable with their "crunchiness." I obviously believe that 5E really is the best edition, because it kept the style/flow of AD&D and installed just the best crunch from 3E and 4E.

S'mon · May 19, 2019

Went with 1e as the definitive edition. For actual play I prefer Swords & Wizardry, an ODnD clone.

Interesting how different these results are from what is recorded as being played out in the wild, where BX clones are popular and 2e and 4e are unloved.