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lowkey13
Guest
*Deleted by user*
What do you love about your favorite edition that ISN’T rules related?
Sacrosanct
Legend
Yep. That's why I said above re: the 80s. T Rex's shooting lasers. Katanas cutting through tanks. In D&D terms, things like Expedition to the Barrier Peaks. The DMG even had a section for combining your Boot Hill PC with your buddy's Gamma World PC into your other buddy's D&D campaign.
And I really do miss the humor. Not just in the DMG, but Dragon magazine had Dragon Mirth. Humor was part of the game.
Laurefindel
Legend
I know the OP mentioned Vancian Casting as an example of undesirable subject but, here I go: Vancian Casting
Not as a game mechanics - that is not being discussed here - but as an in-game (fluff) property of magic. Spells are magical constructs, entities of their own, held in the magic-user's mind like individual bullets in a gun. Casting (releasing) spells isn't hard to do (just like pressing the trigger), holding multiple complex spells is. If one had the time and funds to do it, a magic-user could use another medium - like a wand or a scroll - to hold the spell for them and relieve their mind of that burden, but spells remained their own entities. Even the spells scribbled in a spellbook were "live" and in a hurry, a magic-user could rip the page off and cast the spell as a one-off, erasing it from the present spellbook. Because that made sense in that particular paradigm.
5e has brought this back to a certain extent, but there are so many exceptions that it isn't really "how magic works" anymore. I used to dislike this concept back in AD&D days. Now I find it has a certain poetry to it, and i surprise myself missing it.
Not as a game mechanics - that is not being discussed here - but as an in-game (fluff) property of magic. Spells are magical constructs, entities of their own, held in the magic-user's mind like individual bullets in a gun. Casting (releasing) spells isn't hard to do (just like pressing the trigger), holding multiple complex spells is. If one had the time and funds to do it, a magic-user could use another medium - like a wand or a scroll - to hold the spell for them and relieve their mind of that burden, but spells remained their own entities. Even the spells scribbled in a spellbook were "live" and in a hurry, a magic-user could rip the page off and cast the spell as a one-off, erasing it from the present spellbook. Because that made sense in that particular paradigm.
5e has brought this back to a certain extent, but there are so many exceptions that it isn't really "how magic works" anymore. I used to dislike this concept back in AD&D days. Now I find it has a certain poetry to it, and i surprise myself missing it.
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lowkey13
Guest
*Deleted by user*
Blue
Ravenous Bugblatter Beast of Traal
AD&D 2nd.
Because it was a good enough system for a great DM to run ridiculous amounts of interwoven games with multiple campaigns in the same world while I had plenty of time to play (HS & college).
In other words, my best memories of playing D&D came from AD&D 2nd. Nothing really about the system or lore - though there was a good enough of FR lore back then.
Even 5e, which is my favorite from a mechanics perspective (both as DM & player) still has a long way to go to eclipse those time-goldened memories.
Because it was a good enough system for a great DM to run ridiculous amounts of interwoven games with multiple campaigns in the same world while I had plenty of time to play (HS & college).
In other words, my best memories of playing D&D came from AD&D 2nd. Nothing really about the system or lore - though there was a good enough of FR lore back then.
Even 5e, which is my favorite from a mechanics perspective (both as DM & player) still has a long way to go to eclipse those time-goldened memories.
Tony Vargas
Legend
The art: 1e art had a charm and enthusiasm that the technically more professional art of later eds, or even later 1e, for that matter, would never re-capture.
Steal from the best: When I was introduced to D&D, I found animated sword-fighting skeletons, out of Harryhausen, zombies out of Night of the Living Dead, viscous (not just vicious) monsters out of The Blob, and just the general B-movie attitude that fearsome monsters could be defeated if you just knew how they worked and had the right 'weapon' that worked on them - even if it was a fire extinguisher or table salt or something.
The Dragon: again, enthusiasm & charm over professionalism & slick production made the early D&D magazine something that could never be imitated.
...and, yeah, it's mostly nostalgia, but I'm not sorry, nostalgia counts...
Steal from the best: When I was introduced to D&D, I found animated sword-fighting skeletons, out of Harryhausen, zombies out of Night of the Living Dead, viscous (not just vicious) monsters out of The Blob, and just the general B-movie attitude that fearsome monsters could be defeated if you just knew how they worked and had the right 'weapon' that worked on them - even if it was a fire extinguisher or table salt or something.
The Dragon: again, enthusiasm & charm over professionalism & slick production made the early D&D magazine something that could never be imitated.
...and, yeah, it's mostly nostalgia, but I'm not sorry, nostalgia counts...
Giltonio_Santos
Hero
As a fan of 2e, I could just say "campaign settings" (and I believe most 2e fans would agree), but I'll go for something more specific: the Ravenloft modules. They're not all real gems, but I love most of those that I've played/run.
Jacob Lewis
Ye Olde GM
1e for the classic adventure modules that would define our expectations of what this game was really about: exploring dungeons, fighting monsters, and gaining treasure!
2e for expanding on the basic ideas and pushing the limits of imagination with different settings, rules, and worlds that give us more than just the standard garden-variety experience with D&D.
3e for opening the rules up to the fans, and for the most comprehensive and interesting version of the Forgotten Realms in print.
4e for taking bold steps trying to bring new ideas to improve an old game despite protests.
5e for compromising to be the best version of the game for everyone else (and letting me off the hook to finally explore more games that have become my new favorites).
2e for expanding on the basic ideas and pushing the limits of imagination with different settings, rules, and worlds that give us more than just the standard garden-variety experience with D&D.
3e for opening the rules up to the fans, and for the most comprehensive and interesting version of the Forgotten Realms in print.
4e for taking bold steps trying to bring new ideas to improve an old game despite protests.
5e for compromising to be the best version of the game for everyone else (and letting me off the hook to finally explore more games that have become my new favorites).
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