D&D General Which Previous Edition (poll; read OP)

[GMforPowergamers]

The popularity of Pathfinder certainly kept the old hatred simmering when they would have otherwise dwindled as from previous edition wars.

At first, but I recall folks retreated to their camps and left each other alone for the most part. Did some chuckle head come along and say something incidnerary once in awhile? Sure, but things had restored to a reasonable decorum.

sort of... places like here segregated the boards into PF and 4e. I however saw IRL some MAJOR arguments at Cons, down to I swear 1 year at Gen Con I thought a fist fight was about to break out. I know my group split and I hear people lost friends over that edition war skirmish.

 

[billd91]

I know my group split and I hear people lost friends over that edition war skirmish.

Groups splitting to play different games that the other side of the group doesn't like, I understand that. In a number of ways, it's probably preferable so people get to play what they want to play.

But losing friends over it strikes me as so extreme. It's one thing to see people getting excessive and pissed off in arguments on a message board or other social media - the internet has a way of enabling people to be asshats to each other, and let's face it, there's only ever been one other ENWorld member here that I knew well enough to actually consider him a friend rather than an acquaintance. But losing a personal friend? Over a game preference? That's crazy.

 

[billd91]

At first, but I recall folks retreated to their camps and left each other alone for the most part. Did some chuckle head come along and say something incidnerary once in awhile? Sure, but things had restored to a reasonable decorum.

Surface decorum - sure. But the occasional ad hominem incendiary still flies around here, so I think a bit still lurks beneath the surface.

 

[payn]

Surface decorum - sure. But the occasional ad hominem incendiary still flies around here, so I think a bit still lurks beneath the surface.

Right, there will always be somebody that say, "lol thats dumb" always. Though, the frequency and ability to talk around that is variable. Also, these ad hominem attacks happen to every single system, 4E is not any kind of exception.

 

[GMforPowergamers]

But losing friends over it strikes me as so extreme.

there are people that take edition warring to extremes...

I am pretty vocal about being pro 4e and anti 3.5/PF1 although I am also vocal (lesser) pro 2e and basic. However I have seen people (admittedly not in the last year) that have 1 edition and they will accuse you as if you insulted god if you suggest a different one. On this very board there are people that seek out pro 4e threads/comments almost 10 years later to tell people "Well I don't like 4e" and in some cases spread lies like "We have the numbers 4e failed" when we do not have the numbers, but will then go to try to 'prove' themselves right in a very Obiwan Konobi way.

I also know that some people came to 5e from 1e and 2e having skipped 3 and 4e, and I bet most of them still know people who think that anything made by WotC isn't 'real dnD'

 

[Retreater]

I was telling my wife about this poll and asked her what she thought would be the number one response. (Keep in mind she basically entered the hobby with 5e and doesn't frequent game sites like this.)
"4e - duh."
There are people out there who don't know they're "supposed to hate" this system, largely because it tried to do something new and innovative.
I have a real fondness for it. It was the system that I never really got to finish my ideas with. I never got burned out of it.
Just for me...
In the case of 3.x/PF1 - I would rather not play than ever touch that stuff again. I am so sick of it - adding up micro-bonuses, measuring hypotenuses, tracking dozens of spell effects and magic item bonuses, grappling. I DMed it and wrote for the system for around a decade - and I still never want to look at it again.
The TSR-era game is frustratingly impossible (RAW), with characters so fantastically weak that they can't even be heroes.

 

[EzekielRaiden]

I was telling my wife about this poll and asked her what she thought would be the number one response. (Keep in mind she basically entered the hobby with 5e and doesn't frequent game sites like this.)
"4e - duh."
There are people out there who don't know they're "supposed to hate" this system, largely because it tried to do something new and innovative.
I have a real fondness for it. It was the system that I never really got to finish my ideas with. I never got burned out of it.
Just for me...
In the case of 3.x/PF1 - I would rather not play than ever touch that stuff again. I am so sick of it - adding up micro-bonuses, measuring hypotenuses, tracking dozens of spell effects and magic item bonuses, grappling. I DMed it and wrote for the system for around a decade - and I still never want to look at it again.
The TSR-era game is frustratingly impossible (RAW), with characters so fantastically weak that they can't even be heroes.

Interesting. Usually the narrative is that 4e was so alien and weird, it couldn't appeal to the average non-D&Der and was thus a problem. Cool to get at least an anecdote from one of the "silent" players that defies that stereotype.

 

[Voadam]

I chose 4e essentials. I like a bunch of 4e a lot, but I am not a huge fan of daily powers, I much prefer at wills and encounter powers so a bunch of the essentials class models are more to my taste. I also really like aura powers instead of tracking conditional effects on individuals for things like marking.

I loved B/X and AD&D and 3e and Pathfinder, but 4e and 5e solved a lot of the issues I had with them (easy death, lack of at will magic for casters, OSR imbalances, stacking magic in 3e, huge modifiers in 3e, complex things like tons of feats to track for high level 3e monsters, 3e imbalances).

 

[Reynard]

I was telling my wife about this poll and asked her what she thought would be the number one response. (Keep in mind she basically entered the hobby with 5e and doesn't frequent game sites like this.)
"4e - duh."

I would be curious to know, if she entered the hobby with 5E, why she thinks 4E. Is she just assuming the most recent is the most possible? Does she have any experience with 4E? Is she aware of the... shall we say "controversial" nature of the edition?

 

[billd91]

there are people that take edition warring to extremes...

I am pretty vocal about being pro 4e and anti 3.5/PF1 although I am also vocal (lesser) pro 2e and basic. However I have seen people (admittedly not in the last year) that have 1 edition and they will accuse you as if you insulted god if you suggest a different one. On this very board there are people that seek out pro 4e threads/comments almost 10 years later to tell people "Well I don't like 4e" and in some cases spread lies like "We have the numbers 4e failed" when we do not have the numbers, but will then go to try to 'prove' themselves right in a very Obiwan Konobi way.

And we also have those of us who didn't like 4e being told we're lying about our experiences on a periodic basis, even in threads that aren't specifically about 4e. So, there's plenty of it out there that crops up.