wingsandsword
Legend
I've been thinking a lot over the last few weeks about the last decade and a half or so of D&D and what has happened to the gaming community.
When I started playing D&D in 1998, the various groups I knew that played D&D each played heavily house-ruled versions of AD&D 2e, modified almost beyond recognition. No two groups used the same modifications, you basically had to re-learn the game just to go from one group to another. Even one group that tried to be by-the-book and didn't want to change things ended up changing certain rules that were just too constricting. Many groups had jumped to homebrewed fantasy RPG's, or had just given up on fantasy RPG's and were playing Star Wars or CoC or Shadowrun.
Then 3e came out in August of 2000. It was like a breath of fresh air. D&D remade with a modern rules system, consistent rules, balanced and flexible rules. Rules existed which filled many/most of the function of the various house rules I'd seen over the years. We joked that WotC must have been spying on our sessions for ideas.
Over the next few years, I saw virtually every D&D gaming group I know convert to 3.x. I saw a group that had been playing 1e since 1980 go to 3.5e. I saw groups that had given up D&D for GURPS or other games return to D&D, at least to playing it sometimes. By 2005, the substantial majority of all gaming groups I knew played D&D 3.5e, at least sometimes. Most of those that didn't played a related d20 game like Blue Rose, Arcana Evolved, Iron Heroes or d20 Modern and still played 3.x occasionally or were at least familiar with it. Even players who would rather play another edition at least learned 3.5 and owned the PHB.
In retrospect, the early to mid 2000's were a Golden Age of D&D.
Then 4e came. The controversy was immediate, since it took what people liked about D&D 3e and threw it out in favor of something new and completely different. Incendiary marketing from WotC that outright insulted D&D 3.5 and its players didn't help. Volatile language on both sides of the edition wars escalated. Both sides saw the other as a tiny minority and their preferred edition as the only one people played. 3.5 players didn't buy 4e books, and the two camps began to grow apart.
Then Pathfinder showed a new way, now people who wanted D&D the way they liked it could get it. . .but not under the D&D name. A lot of people just walked away from D&D pretty much forever to their own fork of gaming over this schism.
I saw the Edition Wars break into real life like no other gaming debate ever did. When I was on Active Duty in the Army, I would meet fellow soldiers who wanted to game, but every time there was that cautious "whose side are you on" question when they would ask which edition you played. In my experience, most played 3.5, but some did play 4e. . .and the players of one never played the other. These were people I'd never seen before, from all around the country. . .the Edition Wars had become a Cold War among D&D gamers, as everybody was too tired of arguing to want to keep fighting, but the underlying cause was far from settled. Years of yelling, but to no effect.
I saw a gaming club I love slowly break apart as each faction didn't want to play the other games. The people who play 4e refused to play 3.5 or Pathfinder, the 3.5 players wouldn't touch 4e with a 10 foot pole and didn't see a need for Pathfinder since they were happy with their 3.5, and the Pathfinder players didn't like go back to 3.5 and had an "over my dead body" attitude about 4e. Whereas there was a general consensus on which game to play several years prior, now it was small camps that didn't want to game with each other.
Now, years later we have "D&D Next", 5e that is, on the horizon. . .and it doesn't look to be mending any fences. Too dissimilar to either camp to draw the majority in, right now it looks like at most it will create a 3rd faction (or 4th if you count Pathfinder as an edition) to the Edition Wars.
I miss when we were all on the same page, more or less. I miss when I could talk D&D online or in meatspace and not have to ignore half the conversations because I genuinely dislike the edition they are talking about, or when I could walk into my FLGS and actually see books I wanted to buy. I haven't bought a D&D book in about 6 years, because they stopped making anything I'd want to buy.
The sad thing is, I've got no idea what could fix this gaming schism. D&D Next (I still want to call it 5e) was meant to bring the factions together, but it's not seeming like it will do that. Personally I'll probably buy the PHB for it, but I've got faint hope that it will do anything other than break D&D gaming apart further.
When I started playing D&D in 1998, the various groups I knew that played D&D each played heavily house-ruled versions of AD&D 2e, modified almost beyond recognition. No two groups used the same modifications, you basically had to re-learn the game just to go from one group to another. Even one group that tried to be by-the-book and didn't want to change things ended up changing certain rules that were just too constricting. Many groups had jumped to homebrewed fantasy RPG's, or had just given up on fantasy RPG's and were playing Star Wars or CoC or Shadowrun.
Then 3e came out in August of 2000. It was like a breath of fresh air. D&D remade with a modern rules system, consistent rules, balanced and flexible rules. Rules existed which filled many/most of the function of the various house rules I'd seen over the years. We joked that WotC must have been spying on our sessions for ideas.
Over the next few years, I saw virtually every D&D gaming group I know convert to 3.x. I saw a group that had been playing 1e since 1980 go to 3.5e. I saw groups that had given up D&D for GURPS or other games return to D&D, at least to playing it sometimes. By 2005, the substantial majority of all gaming groups I knew played D&D 3.5e, at least sometimes. Most of those that didn't played a related d20 game like Blue Rose, Arcana Evolved, Iron Heroes or d20 Modern and still played 3.x occasionally or were at least familiar with it. Even players who would rather play another edition at least learned 3.5 and owned the PHB.
In retrospect, the early to mid 2000's were a Golden Age of D&D.
Then 4e came. The controversy was immediate, since it took what people liked about D&D 3e and threw it out in favor of something new and completely different. Incendiary marketing from WotC that outright insulted D&D 3.5 and its players didn't help. Volatile language on both sides of the edition wars escalated. Both sides saw the other as a tiny minority and their preferred edition as the only one people played. 3.5 players didn't buy 4e books, and the two camps began to grow apart.
Then Pathfinder showed a new way, now people who wanted D&D the way they liked it could get it. . .but not under the D&D name. A lot of people just walked away from D&D pretty much forever to their own fork of gaming over this schism.
I saw the Edition Wars break into real life like no other gaming debate ever did. When I was on Active Duty in the Army, I would meet fellow soldiers who wanted to game, but every time there was that cautious "whose side are you on" question when they would ask which edition you played. In my experience, most played 3.5, but some did play 4e. . .and the players of one never played the other. These were people I'd never seen before, from all around the country. . .the Edition Wars had become a Cold War among D&D gamers, as everybody was too tired of arguing to want to keep fighting, but the underlying cause was far from settled. Years of yelling, but to no effect.
I saw a gaming club I love slowly break apart as each faction didn't want to play the other games. The people who play 4e refused to play 3.5 or Pathfinder, the 3.5 players wouldn't touch 4e with a 10 foot pole and didn't see a need for Pathfinder since they were happy with their 3.5, and the Pathfinder players didn't like go back to 3.5 and had an "over my dead body" attitude about 4e. Whereas there was a general consensus on which game to play several years prior, now it was small camps that didn't want to game with each other.
Now, years later we have "D&D Next", 5e that is, on the horizon. . .and it doesn't look to be mending any fences. Too dissimilar to either camp to draw the majority in, right now it looks like at most it will create a 3rd faction (or 4th if you count Pathfinder as an edition) to the Edition Wars.
I miss when we were all on the same page, more or less. I miss when I could talk D&D online or in meatspace and not have to ignore half the conversations because I genuinely dislike the edition they are talking about, or when I could walk into my FLGS and actually see books I wanted to buy. I haven't bought a D&D book in about 6 years, because they stopped making anything I'd want to buy.
The sad thing is, I've got no idea what could fix this gaming schism. D&D Next (I still want to call it 5e) was meant to bring the factions together, but it's not seeming like it will do that. Personally I'll probably buy the PHB for it, but I've got faint hope that it will do anything other than break D&D gaming apart further.