Forked Thread: Changeover poll

[lutecius]

I wasn’t playing dnd anymore, 3e brought me back. Almost every change seemed like a huge improvement over 2e (but I did like um… priest spheres)
Even though I wished they had gone further in some areas (AC as DR, completely ditch Vancian magic), 3e changes seemed like a natural progression. So it won me over quite immediately, the "problems" only became apparent after a while.

In comparison, even if I like some of the 4e changes, many more things have rubbed me the wrong way since the first few previews (weren’t they supposed to make me like 4e?) The release (or should I say the leak) only confirmed my doubts.
Which is sad because unlike many posters here, I wanted a new edition way before it was announced.

 

[hazel monday]

I switched to 3rd the day it came out. Had to drive to 3 gamestores before I found a PHB in stock on the day it dropped.

 

[Jhaelen]

After stopping to play AD&D 2E I didn't play any rpgs for a year. Then I played other systems for a couple of years.

When 3E came out, after some initial reviews, I got interested and bought the books. When I finally decided to give D&D 3E a try, 3.5 was published. Since we hadn't been playing for long, we immediately switched to 3.5 then.

Something similar may happen with 4E. I immediately preordered the books, but it may still be years before I start playing it.

 

[smdmcl]

I'm not exactly sure about the timing but I do remember that I had only purchased the 3.0 PHB about 1 year before 3.5 was released so I selected the "within 2 years" option. When 3rd edition was released I wasn't interested because our group was in a long campaign and we did not feel the need to change.

When that campaign ended we switched to 3.0 and very soon after that 3.5. When 4th edition was announced I was on the badwagon right away because there are persistent issues in 3rd ed. that constantly come up and lessen the fun of the game for me. I wanted a change from 3.5 a year before 4th was announced and it's arrival has been welcomed by the majority of our group (only 1 player out of 7 seems a little put off by the switch).

Shane

 

[Cadfan]

Switched upon release, except that I hadn't really been playing 2e at the time. It had been a long time since I'd played D&D, and 3e got me back into it.

 

[Piratecat]

We were playtesting, so we switched about a year, year and a half before release.

 

[DaveMage]

Switched upon release.

The end of 2E had diminished my group - 3E re-energized and expanded it.

 

[MerricB]

I began a 2.5e (Player's option) campaign 2 weeks before 3e got released. We incorporated what we knew about 3e in immediately (new AC system) and then upgraded as soon as I got the books.

Since then, I've been playing once or twice a week. I upgraded to 3.5e the week it came out, and the same with 4e. With 4e, I started two new campaigns instead of continuing the old, but I'd finished off my "Ulek" game a month previously, and although I intended to keep running Savage Tide, my players weren't enjoying it at all - se we started a new homebrew.

Cheers!

 

[Fenes]

When I read the 3.0 book I switched, it was so much better in my opinion than 2E.

 

[drothgery]

I didn't have a tabletop game when 3e came out, or for a little over a year after that. The first game I played post-3e was 3e, though.