1E/2E/OD&D, 4E, and finally 3E

[HelloChristian]

The OP describes my frame of mind these days. I have no interest in 4e. I am running a 3.5 game now and as the PCs hit 6th level, the complexity level is starting to increase. When this campaign runs it's course, I think I'll be done with 3.5. I've run some fun campaigns, but there's nothing else I want to do with it.

I have really been digging Labyrinth Lord and would even enjoy an in print 1e clone.

 

[Philotomy Jurament]

I think skills and feats work far better than non-weapon proficiencies did with AD&D.

I suspect most of us would agree with that. My impression is that most old-schoolers don’t use NWPs.

Yep; I think skills + feats is a better design that NWPs, for what both systems try to do, but I don't like what they try to do, so I reject them both. Happily, ignoring NWPs is easy and doesn't break anything, since they're optional.

 

[Mephistopheles]

I'd put my group in this category.

During the time of 3E the enthusiasm of my long term group for the game waned as we got bogged down in increasingly long and complex combats. Eventually we were meeting so infrequently that I considered the group more or less disbanded. We got back together to run through a few sessions of Keep on the Shadowfell and the game didn't capture us: even more focus on fiddly battlemat tactics along with races and classes that in some cases were difficult to reconcile with their namesakes. Unfortunately it took us that long to realise that we should never have stopped playing 1E when 3E came along.

(As an aside I think it's possible that 3E could serve as our game system but it would have to be a pretty cut back approach, something along the lines of the revisions joethelawyer has mentioned his group uses.)

I'm playing 4E with two other groups - I want to give it a fair run before judging it - but I'm not sure how long I'm going to keep at it. I don't think it's a bad game, but I do think it has deviated a little too far from its roots for me to consider it a new edition of the same game.

The difficulty now is trying to get the old gang back together for a 1E game or, failing that, starting up a new 1E group.

 

[Mythmere1]

Made that switch in 2004, away from 3e into first C&C, then to 1e, then to 0e. I've played 4e, but it didn't grab me as an alternative to 0e. Whoever mentioned that he was looking for the 1e rules, they're for sale in pdf form, and if you want them free, download OSRIC as a starter kit before moving on to the real stuff. Same with Swords & Wizardry if you're looking at 0e. Or Labyrinth Lord for Moldvay Basic. All the retro-clones are good introductions to the rules of the original games, which make assimilating the original rulebooks themselves a bit easier.

 

[Akrasia]

I ran two 3e campaigns (2001-2002; 2003-2004) before deciding that the system wasn't for me.

Since then, I've enjoyed running 'Castles & Crusades' and the Moldvay/Cook edition of Basic/Expert D&D (the rules from 1980-81). Also, I've always been a fan of the RC, although I haven't run it in recent years.

When 4e was published I bought the core rules and read about half of the PHB before deciding "I simply do not care to take the time to learn this game."

I'm presently planning on running a 'Swords & Wizardry' campaign (see sig).

 

[Simon Atavax]

This is just a curious aside on the discussions on 4E and an increased profile regarding "old school games" in the form of a simple question:

How many people out there, while finding 4E unsatisfactory, find that at the same time they have no desire to run/play 3E anymore, and now look to "old school" games for their D&D fix?

I love 3.5 *in theory*. In other words, I flip through the books and I am simply amazed at what a rich, intricate, magnificent system it is. I love the art (minus a few dungeonpunk-type pics), the layout, the rules, everything.

In theory.

But once I try to run or even play 3.5, the sheer weight of rules, the sheer complexity, the sheer density of it weighs me down and stresses me out.

4e? I was initially enthused. But I can't do it. I can't get into the "powers" thing, I can't get used to dragon-men and demon-men in the frickin' CORE, I can't embrace a game where the sole purpose seems to be moving your opponent around one square at a time in combat. Yuck.

I'm VERY pumped at getting back into 1e after many, many years. We'll see how that goes.