Changing to another edition

[Crothian]

A thread I recently posted on here asked a similar question, and the synopsis was that the migration away from D&D when 2nd edition came out is largely a myth. You'll find a lot of people who were perfectly happy playing 2nd edition.

I left for about 5 years then came back to it. By that time I feel that many of the problems had been worked out with the handbooks and the setting were realyl well done.

 

[diaglo]

i never left OD&D(1974).

i have been playtesting 2edD&D and 3edD&D since 1979. and playtesting 4edD&D since 1980. and playtesting 5edD&D since 1981. and playtesting 6edD&D since 1983. and so on...

i have been playtesting 1edADnD since 1979.

and playtesting 2edADnD since 1989.

and playtesting 2000ed since 2000. and playtesting 3.11ed for workgroups since 2003.

but i never left playing OD&D.

 

[Rl'Halsinor]

I belonged to three groups that started with 1E and we did not like the way TSR took the game the 2E way. We looked at it, studied it, but the amount of supplements plus cost was one of the major factors on why we stayed away. I would also have to say that at the time 2E became the fixture all of our groups members went their separate ways, i.e., further education, marriage, children, moving out of state, etc. Thus when we did manage to play we stuck with 1E until the advent of 3.5. We are really enjoying the system, though with modifications.

 

[Crothian]

So, you were unhappy with AD&D1 (or becoming unhappy), and were looking for AD&D2 to give you a reason to stay with D&D?

Quasqueton

Not unhappy with first edtition, just burnt out by promises we felt when unfulfiulled. We weren't looking for a reason to stay, but we did find stronger reasons to play other systems. Also, one has to consider theat at the time I was 15. The logic of leaving one system for another that you are looking for was not there. D&D weith second edition lost the cool factor it used to have. Newer games offered something that D&D did not, so we went with them.

 

[Kanegrundar]

I left D&D during 2E after several years of great campaigns. I played a little 1E, but I never owned any of the books. 2E got to point that the more I played the more I found wrong that I felt I needed to fix. It wasn't a matter of it changing too much or too little, it was a matter that THAT specific system didn't suit my needs in the least. Plus by that point, Alternity had come out and I found a system, that while didn't do it all for me I still liked a LOT better than 2E. Once 3E came out, I tried it, liked it (it looked a lot like my old 2E houserules in places) and never looked back. With the OGL and all the thrid-party support, I've got rules to play ANY type of game that I want to play. It's easy and it's fun.

Kane

 

[Ralif Redhammer]

I went from OD&D to AD&D 1e because of the new and expanded options. Also, the gaming group had become comfortable enough with the rules to upgrade to the advanced version. We switched from 1e to 2e because that was the direction our beloved game was going.

I didn't stop playing 2e because I was unhappy with the system, as a lot of people were. Rather, it was a confluence of life events. I moved to another state and went to college. I got into music and my band occupied roughly the same space as gaming had, as far as dedication.

About four years later, I discovered that most of my best friends happened to have been gamers in the past. We decided to give it another try, with the 2e rules. We knew that there was a third edition, but saw no need at all for it. We had a lot of fun for a single summer.

Some few years after that, I picked up 3e out of curiosity, to see where the hobby was these days. I told myself that I was only going to buy the PHB as a curiosity, but soon found myself immersed in the hobby again with a new, albeit small, gaming group.

 

[Quasqueton]

I'm curious about all this because I just don't understand the thought process.

See, I started with B/ED&D. Played/DMed for a year or so, then found AD&D1. AD&D1 had more options and more detail. We switched over to Advanced.

I DMed with the PHB, DMG, MM, and FF. Later I added MM2. UA was given to me, but I never really used anything from it. [I think one guy tried a cavalier, once.] I never bought or used DSG, WSG, etc. The Players just used the PHB.

Years later, when AD&D2 was released, I looked through the books. My statment at the time was, "They changed things that were fine, and they didn't change things that needed fixing." So I continued to DM AD&D1.

I ran a series of campaigns for about 15 years in AD&D1 without ever being concerned with what TSR was putting out during that time. I saw the DSG and WSG, AD&D2, and some of the supplemental books, but their publication didn't affect me at all with regard to my game. TSR could have put out crap on a stick and it wouldn't have affected *my* campaign. After the original core books (and the monster books), I didn't need "support" products for my game. If TSR had completely gone out of business, my game would not have suffered. So I just don't understand the concept of leaving a core game system because supplemental/optional/secondary/irrelevant products being bad.

When I quit D&D, it was because I quit RPGing.

Quasqueton

 

[Silverleaf]

Did anyone go from AdvancedD&D to Basic/ExpertD&D? Why?
Quasqueton

Yes!

I started out with the '81 Basic set back in the early 80's. Then moved on to AD&D, then AD&D 2e when I went into the military and had to buy new books (they were no longer printing 1e stuff). I played that and various other games until '94 when I went to college, and basically dropped gaming altogether in favor of other things (school, work, learning Unix, hacking code, playing online games, etc.)
I didn't really have a problem with any of the editions back then, though I preferred 2e for some of the cool stuff it brought to the table, like the schools of magic, priest spheres, simplified combat (never really felt up to figuring out 1e surprise, initiative and unarmed combat... had just used the Basic combat rules instead), etc.
A few years ago I wanted to do some gaming again, but none of the systems I tried really worked for me, and it felt kinda depressing. Eventually I ordered the '81 Basic & Expert sets from eBay, for nostalgia reasons. It turned out to be the only fantasy game that really sparks my imagination, and makes me want to play. I'm sure part of it is because it was my introduction to RPGs, but besides that it's a game that focusses more on fantastic adventure instead of the simulation aspect (it's almost devoid of crunch), and has very solid archetypes and a somewhat generic feel to it (no named spells, no devils/demons, no planar topology, etc.)

 

[der_kluge]

You'll also find plenty who did leave. These threads partially self-select, so the "data" isn't very good for reaching a conclusion one way or another. Personally, I believe a lot of folks did leave D&D during 2e, although clearly many moreso did not.

This may be true, but did they leave because of second edition? That's up for debate.

 

[Desdichado]

This may be true, but did they leave because of second edition? That's up for debate.

That's quite true.