Favourite D&D edition that’s not 5E

billd91 said:

The terms of the poll don't allow you to infer that, even from the answers there. The poll is about favorite edition and says nothing about what an individual participant's second favorite is.

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Unless we assume that everybody's favorite edition is 5e (a rock solid assumption if ever there was one), in which case this poll is saying exactly what our second favorite is.



(Protip: There is no such thing as a rock solid assumption.)

2e for lore, 4e and 3.5e for rules.

S'mon said:

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.

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Consider that this is being asked in 5e forum. The most effusive praise I've heard of 5e has come from 2e fans. 0e/1e/OSR and 3.x/PF fans have their things, so may not drop by here. 4e fans, by definition, were those most willing to give a new ed a chance.

So what you're seeing isn't absolute popularity of editions, but a prevalence of 2e & 4e fans within the 5e community.








Or, y'know, D&D eds may just be like Star Trek movies.... ;P

Tony Vargas said:

Consider that this is being asked in 5e forum. The most effusive praise I've heard of 5e has come from 2e fans. 0e/1e/OSR and 3.x/PF fans have their things, so may not drop by here. 4e fans, by definition, were those most willing to give a new ed a chance.

So what you're seeing isn't absolute popularity of editions, but a prevalence of 2e & 4e fans within the 5e community.








Or, y'know, D&D eds may just be like Star Trek movies.... ;P

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I don’t think this is true. When 5e was announced, 4e fans weren’t the most likely to give it a chance. They were pretty upset about it, with a daily post about how WotC forsaken them and treated them like garbage by having a new edition. Many posters even said they would do their best to sabotage the game (don’t ask me how that was to be done).

Those reactions of course made all the rest of us who were fans of prior editions all roll our eyes because 4e fans were now experiencing the same thing all the rest of us did when our edition was discontinued. Only I guess they expected us all to believe it was a new thing now, and we should feel sorry for them?

Also, 5e was able to bring a lot of the OSR crowd back in (and not just 2e). Many people such as myself who stuck with 1e have said 5e brought us back to a new edition.

Sacrosanct said:

I don’t think this is true. When 5e was announced, 4e fans weren’t the most likely to give it a chance.

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Fans of 4e were necessarily drawn from the segment of the fan base most willing to give a new ed a fair shot. You had to be, to look past the rocky introduction and the vitriol of the edition war, and form an honest impression of the new ed.

5e's introduction was a lot more considerate and measured, there may not have been a lot of enthusiasm for Next, but when season 19 rolled around, we played HotDQ....

...and remembering what a mess KotSf was, didn't hold it against 5e, either.

They were pretty upset about it, with a daily post about how WotC forsaken them and treated them like garbage by having a new edition. Many posters even said they would do their best to sabotage the game (don’t ask me how that was to be done).

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Yeah, no.

Where's the edition war?
Where's the 4e clone?

There's been some disappointment registered, there's been surprisingly patient calls for the return if 4e options cut from the 5e PH (warlord!), there are surely a few tables here and there running 4e instead of 5e rather than as well as it.

But no 5e books are being burned, no new terminologies invented, no misinformation spread, no sabotage.

Those reactions of course made all the rest of us who were fans of prior editions all roll our eyes because 4e fans were now experiencing the same thing all the rest of us did when our edition was discontinued.

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Not quite the same, no. For one thing we have the lessons of the edition war to learn from.

For another fans of 4e weren't just more inclined to adopt a new edition, they have no SRD or clone to defect to.

OSR and PF meant that fans of older eds could have live-and-let live, their own preferences being wll-supported, but, they committed enthusiastically to fighting the edition war (and, really, still are - thus the freak-out over 4e doing somewhat well in this very small-sample, self-selected poll).

Well except maybe for 2e, there was never a clone specifically of 2e. Hackmaster was more 1e,as was OSR, which also covered 0e and B/X(ECMI).

So, yeah, maybe it's not surprising, just on a practical level, that 4e and 2e fans seem a little over-represented on a 5e forum.

Also, 5e was able to bring a lot of the OSR crowd back in (and not just 2e). .

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A lot, yes, but clearly not all, as OSR and PF have hardly vanished. So with 1e/0e/BECMI and 3.x fans having other options pulling them away from 5e, and the 5e forum, there a tad under-represented in this one, teeny, unscientific poll.

Why is that so upsetting?

Probably 2e for me, but I want to give 1e more of a chance. Have never played 3e, 3.5 or 4e.

trancejeremy said:

Seems odd to have OD&D include B/X and BECMI, since both of those came out well after AD&D and aren't particularly close to OD&D, having race as class most notably and somewhat different monsters (no demons for instance)

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I think it has to do with the Basic line having developed from the original game along a separate trajectory from the Advanced line. Personally, I’d lump Holmes Basic in with OD&D as pretty much a restatement of the original game’s first three levels with only a handful of tacked on innovations. But Moldvay Basic, while it used Holmes as a point of departure, was a new game unto itself. I think “Other” should be repurposed to cover B/X and BECMI.

Hriston said:

I think it has to do with the Basic line having developed from the original game along a separate trajectory from the Advanced line. Personally, I’d lump Holmes Basic in with OD&D as pretty much a restatement of the original game’s first three levels with only a handful of tacked on innovations. But Moldvay Basic, while it used Holmes as a point of departure, was a new game unto itself. I think “Other” should be repurposed to cover B/X and BECMI.

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Agreed.

MockingBird said:

Kinda surprised 4e is leading. Maybe now that it isn't the D&D more people are open to it? I picked 2e cause it was my first D&D game. I remember getting the FR box set and looking at the maps and all the possibilities that filled my head. I miss setting box sets.

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I'm surpised, too, as there always seemed to be a bias against 4e on these forums.

Tony Vargas said:

Yeah, no.

Where's the edition war?
Where's the 4e clone?

There's been some disappointment registered, there's been surprisingly patient calls for the return if 4e options cut from the 5e PH (warlord!), there are surely a few tables here and there running 4e instead of 5e rather than as week as it.

Not quite the same, no. For one thing we have the lessons of the edition war to learn from.

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Lots of selective memory in this post.