D&D General Did You "Return" because of some Edition of D&D?

[DarkCrisis]

Started with 2E and never stopped.

I have RETURNED to 2E though because I'm quite tired of 5E at this point.

 

[Tales and Chronicles]

Yeah, 4e brought me back because the math-heavy 3.5rd edition was a major turn off for many friends and 4e (and the off-line builder) was way more approachable for my more casual friends who only had experience with board games or video games.

But the time consumed by the big set-piece battles at higher level is also what eventually disinterested us from the edition. Came back at the tail end of the Next playtest with new players.

 

[Stormonu]

I strongly doubt it. Because the people I played with never bought any games themselves - I was always teaching games to people and they'd be using my books.

By 1997 even people I'd taught to play D&D were saying "can't we play something less confusing" when I'd ask about it. They would rather play Torg or Vampire than D&D because both of those systems were consistent and "made sense" to them. And even folks who played D&D before I got to them and taught them other games - after they learned other games they never wanted to go back to D&D.

There was just something in the water around me over those years. Did a whole lot of roleplaying, but nobody wanted to touch D&D. But some of those same folks became voracious 3e players once the new edition dropped. Because it was a system that was consistent and "made sense" to them.

Yeah, I had a similar experience. Once the Storyteller system dropped onto the scene, everyone I knew had either dumped D&D for MtG* or switched to more "modern" systems citing D&D as too archaic and confusing.

* MtG, for a lot of people I knew hit that sweet spot of "let's have a wizard's duel!" sort of instant action, without having to slog through a "boring" adventure to get to the spicy fights.

 

[Reynard]

Yeah, I had a similar experience. Once the Storyteller system dropped onto the scene, everyone I knew had either dumped D&D for MtG* or switched to more "modern" systems citing D&D as too archaic and confusing.

* MtG, for a lot of people I knew hit that sweet spot of "let's have a wizard's duel!" sort of instant action, without having to slog through a "boring" adventure to get to the spicy fights.

Sure but 97 is really late to drop D&D for either WoD (91?) or MtG (93?).

 

[bedir than]

Twenty year layoff from 94-14.

 

[jmartkdr2]

I strongly doubt it. Because the people I played with never bought any games themselves - I was always teaching games to people and they'd be using my books.

By 1997 even people I'd taught to play D&D were saying "can't we play something less confusing" when I'd ask about it. They would rather play Torg or Vampire than D&D because both of those systems were consistent and "made sense" to them. And even folks who played D&D before I got to them and taught them other games - after they learned other games they never wanted to go back to D&D.

There was just something in the water around me over those years. Did a whole lot of roleplaying, but nobody wanted to touch D&D. But some of those same folks became voracious 3e players once the new edition dropped. Because it was a system that was consistent and "made sense" to them.

Honestly I sound like one of those people - AD&D was just convoluted, especially compared to the more actively supported stuff available in the late 90's. Not necessarily more complicated, but AD&D was about as unintuitive a game as I've even seen.

 

[cbwjm]

I played a lot of Becmi and 2e back in highschool, switched to 3e and played that with friends for a while. Came back and tried out 4e, but friends moving away meant we didn't get that into it. I did keep up on the game, but didn't really return to play until 5e had been out for a while. Then I got the hankering for it, bought the books, and got in touch with my friends and started playing again.

 

[DrunkonDuty]

I never went away from gaming, although I do have spells when it has been hard to get regular games. I'm in such a spot now.

3rd edition brought me back to DnD after a decade or so playing other games. I'd still run a Pathfinder game, but only in E8 style.

 

[Crimson Longinus]

I strongly doubt it. Because the people I played with never bought any games themselves - I was always teaching games to people and they'd be using my books.

By 1997 even people I'd taught to play D&D were saying "can't we play something less confusing" when I'd ask about it. They would rather play Torg or Vampire than D&D because both of those systems were consistent and "made sense" to them. And even folks who played D&D before I got to them and taught them other games - after they learned other games they never wanted to go back to D&D.

There was just something in the water around me over those years. Did a whole lot of roleplaying, but nobody wanted to touch D&D. But some of those same folks became voracious 3e players once the new edition dropped. Because it was a system that was consistent and "made sense" to them.

This makes perfect sense to me. AD&D was a riot of separate disunified mechanics. It is a hard sell compared to more modern games with unified mechanics. The latter is far easier to learn and to intuitively grasp.

 

[Crimson Longinus]

Also, I'm not sure how to answer the poll. I haven't ever stopped gaming, though there certainly has been long periods of me not touching D&D...