What do you love about your favorite edition that ISN’T rules related?

Jack Daniel · Jun 14, 2019

Original/Basic: the logo and the boxed sets (all of 'em) are just so damned iconic. I love boxes. This is my edition of choice for lots of reasons; and among them are the groovy hipster-factor and the fact that I started with the Grand Auld Game.

1st edition: the vibe is utterly unique; OD&D might have come first and it might be the more fun game to play, but AD&D gets to define what D&D -is-.

2nd edition: I have all the nostalgia for the black-covered reprints from the late 90s; but frankly, both before and after the reprints, 2e had the best color art ever from any edition of D&D. It is the definitive edition for fantasy artwork.

3e: when this edition came out, there was just so much excitement for playing D&D. I might not like the rules all that much (although 3.0 without splats is actually surprisingly tolerable with the simple tweak of not adding spell levels to save DCs), but I do remember the heady days leading up the big release right here on EN World. D&D was never more exciting.

4e: while again I don't much care for the execution, I at least love the idea of a game which is for all intents and purposes "D&D: Tactics." If I ever want to play a Fire Emblem tabletop campaign, I'm resigned to the fact that I'll have to teach myself this edition.

5e: I guess it's cool that people actually play this edition without stigma, and it's kind of the first time that's happened. If 3e was the most exciting D&D, 5e is the most popular and mainstream.

Paul Masao Wisham · Jun 15, 2019

Sacrosanct said:
Yep, anything rules or mechanics related is verboten. So no comments about attack matrix, or healing surges, or vancian casting, or AEDU. I’m talking about what sort of things do you love about your favorite edition that are apart from the rules.

My favorite edition is 1e, and in large part because it captured the pop culture of fantasy in the late 70s and early 80s. IMO the 80s were the best decade for fantasy. It really took off in the 80s to be mainstream rather than something obscure that only stoners who listened to prog rock in their painted van were into. We started seeing big budget movies with A list action stars. Fantasy literature took off. Video games became a thing in every household with actual graphics.

But the best part was how anything went. The 80s were wonderful in that things never took themselves too seriously and going over the top into a bit of silliness was perfectly OK. I mean, just go watch some of those 80s movies and you know exactly what I’m talking about. Conan the destroyer (still the best and most accurate D&D movie to date), Ice Pirates, Krull, Dune, Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome, Willow, Predator, Time Bandits, Goonies, Raiders of the Lost Arc, etc. D&D 1e captured all of that really well.

It was also the edition with the best art, IMO. Black and white art is just as good as color art, just different, and I think modern editions really suffer by excluding black and white line art.

It was the era that also had the D&D cartoon, and a toy line, and a mainstream comic book line.

So yeah, for non mechanical reasons, those are the big ones why AD&D is my favorite. It’s not nostalgia. It’s attitude and aesthetics of that era.

Same here!!! Plus The nostalgia!

cbwjm · Jun 15, 2019

Sacrosanct said:
Don’t get me wrong, I like 2e, but it had the worst art of any edition. Some great art, sure, but when the reprints came out (the ones with the black borders)? Worst art I’ve seen. By a mile. Well, OK, OD&D was pretty bad, but they had an excuse. Mid 1990s big game company had no excuse for the horrid art in those books.

I thought the artwork for 3e started out well but by the end of it, with all of the books being pumped out, the artwork turned rubbish. I also think 1e had some pretty bad artwork in its various monster manuals. 4e had a mix of good and bad. 5e has some great artwork but there is some that I feel someone went "well, it's too late to change now." Actually thinking about each edition, I guess all editions don't have consistently good artwork, just a spectrum of good to bad.

ssvegeta555 · Jun 15, 2019

My favorite edition is 3.5 and I absolutely love how the start of each chapter was just simple sketches related to the chapter on an old yellowing page. Gave it a cool "you're reading an ancient tome filled with knowledge" feel.

Not to mention the sketches for all the weapons and armor and races in the PHB is cool.

cbwjm · Jun 15, 2019

Now that I've thought about it, what I loved about 2e was the settings, they all felt evocative and interesting and, in many cases, different. Dark sun vs Alqadim, vs planescape, Birthright focusing on domains, it was all very cool. Even the updated settings of forgotten realms and dragonlance, I came across them first in 2e and loved them.

I also loved all of the complete race and class books. Not just for the mechanics but for the ideas they inspired. I also liked the books themselves.

thanson02 · Jun 15, 2019

Sacrosanct said:
Yep, anything rules or mechanics related is verboten. So no comments about attack matrix, or healing surges, or vancian casting, or AEDU. I’m talking about what sort of things do you love about your favorite edition that are apart from the rules.

My favorite is 4E

What I loved is that it felt like it put narrative first (killing sacred cows and such) and I LOVE the cosmology! There was so much missed potential for campaign settings in the Astral Sea and the Elemental Chaos. The lore itself could have kept the game going for another 10 years.

not-so-newguy · Jun 15, 2019

Sacrosanct said:
Yep, anything rules or mechanics related is verboten. So no comments about attack matrix, or healing surges, or vancian casting, or AEDU. I’m talking about what sort of things do you love about your favorite edition that are apart from the rules.

My favorite edition is 1e, and in large part because it captured the pop culture of fantasy in the late 70s and early 80s. IMO the 80s were the best decade for fantasy. It really took off in the 80s to be mainstream rather than something obscure that only stoners who listened to prog rock in their painted van were into. We started seeing big budget movies with A list action stars. Fantasy literature took off. Video games became a thing in every household with actual graphics.

But the best part was how anything went. The 80s were wonderful in that things never took themselves too seriously and going over the top into a bit of silliness was perfectly OK. I mean, just go watch some of those 80s movies and you know exactly what I’m talking about. Conan the destroyer (still the best and most accurate D&D movie to date), Ice Pirates, Krull, Dune, Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome, Willow, Predator, Time Bandits, Goonies, Raiders of the Lost Arc, etc. D&D 1e captured all of that really well.

It was also the edition with the best art, IMO. Black and white art is just as good as color art, just different, and I think modern editions really suffer by excluding black and white line art.

It was the era that also had the D&D cartoon, and a toy line, and a mainstream comic book line.

So yeah, for non mechanical reasons, those are the big ones why AD&D is my favorite. It’s not nostalgia. It’s attitude and aesthetics of that era.

It wasn’t painted and it was actually the 90’s, but I miss my sweet sweet van

Garthanos · Jun 15, 2019

Zardnaar said:
The settings of 2E, fluff, lore, niche.

They had in my opinion the best flavor text / class descriptions of any edition it's not my favorite edition but I can appreciate things from multiple ones.

I think I can say terminology is separate from mechanics but what the hell
In 3.5e I remember reading the Book of 9 Swords and finding the terminology was evocative Stances / Strikes and Martial Disciplines / Maneuvers (4e lost a lot of this in translation)

5atbu · Jun 16, 2019

Oops, that was a rule

Vael · Jun 16, 2019

Only for the ones I've played:

3.5: Eberron. I realize there are rules, but the Eberron campaign setting is my favourite DnD world, and it has its roots in 3.5. This is also the first edition of DnD I played, so it'll have sentimental feelings for that.

4e: While I do recognize its flaws, a couple of pure lore things. The Primal power source, giving Druids a fluff reason to stand apart from Clerics of Nature. Power Sources, in general. While "Martial Power" was a little nebulous (and like the Rogue, often a hilarious typo), it gave a reason Fighters and Rogues could stand toe-to-toe with magic users. Also, Points of Light, aka, Nentir Vale, as a generic setting was actually more interesting than I initially gave it credit for and I wish it had been dug into more.

5e: This might be my disappointment with 5e. Almost all that I like has been very rules focused, I find that there hasn't been much interesting or new lore or fluff wise.