D&D General Did you get your start playing D&D, and what do you play now?

[Gnosistika]

How hard did you find it to get an AGE group together or did/are you running for your already established group? I'd like to play/run more of it, but haven't figured out how to sell it to others.

I do like that Foundry VTT has an unofficial AGE ruleset that is coming along nicely and that Green Ronin has stated that they have people making/converting the rulesets for Foundry, Roll20 and Fantasy Grounds which should really open up potential audiences...

Back to your regularly scheduled thread...

I'm running for two established groups - the one is the ad&d group I started with way back and the other group been together for 10 years now.

I also run short campaigns for a few groups now and then. I find that the old school guys I run for, happily embrace the system.

 

[manduck]

I started playing rpgs with AD&D through some friends, in high school. We branched out to Shadowrun 2E and Rifts. From there it's been a life of trying all sorts of new games along with always coming back to D&D. So I got my start with D&D and still play it with other games. So many awesome games.

 

[Sword of Spirit]

This poll might work better if it were in the general rpg subforum instead of the D&D general. In the D&D subforum you aren't going to get many people who no longer play D&D. Although for best results you'd probably want to ask in both places and request people to only take it once.

 

[Hex08]

I chose "I was introduced through D&D, and only play non-D&D RPGs:" but I am not sure that's a fair description. I played D&D starting with the boxed Basic & Expert sets up through 3.5. By the time 4th ed. was coming out I didn't like what I saw in the new edition and that combined with my unwillingness to spend more money on a game that I had already spent a small fortune on (especially with 2nd ed. and 3.5) I wasn't willing to give Wizards any more of my cash. Plus, I had so much stuff I really didn't need to buy any more to play the game for years to come. I haven't played D&D since (other than one session of 5th ed. as a player). However, once I heard about Pathfinder and that it was backwards compatible with 3.5 I jumped onboard and played it as my primary game around a decade, including during beta. About two or three years ago or so I was getting burned out and stopped running Pathfinder and one of my players stepped up and started running it instead (we switch off running games). I will also occasionally run Castles & Crusades. Since Pathfinder and Castles & Crusades are forks of D&D the argument could be made that I am still playing D&D but neither are the "official" version.

It wasn't long after I was introduced to D&D that I started playing other RPGs: Boot Hill, Star Frontiers, Gamma World ,Top Secret, Toon, Traveler, Champions, Villains and Vigilantes, Call of Cthulhu, Alternity, World of Darkness, TORG, FASA's Star Trek, Wizards' Star Wars and others. Even though I played a lot of other games D&D was my primary one as DM and player although for a time WoD had supplanted D&D and Cthulhu was a close second. Now that I have stopped running Pathfinder my primary game is Savage Worlds, I love that there are so many settings to run in and the plot point mechanic is far superior to traditional modules and adventures, IMHO. As a DM, I have no interest in running any more D&D or it's clones (other than C&C because it is rules light and I can convert classic 1st & 2nd ed. adventures easily when I am feeling nostalgic).

 

[Gilladian]

I started with OD&D in about 1975-6, and have played MANY other games. 3.5 has become my comfort game, but I like just about anything else somebody else will DM.

 

[Ath-kethin]

Tried 5e during the pandemic and it's fun, but, to me, just unbearably dumb. Feels like you're fighting against the current to do anything interesting that isn't tactical boardgamey whatever.

I prefer simpler editions of D&D most of the time - one of my main games these days is actually Dungeon Crawl Classics. But it's interesting to me that you'd scribe 5e as both "dumb" and "tactical" (I don't think I'm putting words in your mouth here; please stop me if I am).

Can you expand on that a bit? Many would argue that dumb and tactical are opposites when it comes to TTRPGs.

 

[Gnarlo]

Started with Holmes Basic and moved to 1E after that. Moved from 1E to Rolemaster, CoC, Gamma World, Paranoia... probably a couple more. Took a long break, then started up again with 3E. Another long break and reading/collecting 5E now. My philosophy on D&D is the same as the Vacation movies; only the odd numbers are any good

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

I started wit AD&D in 1977, and soon thereafter discovered Traveller, TFT/ITL, and Champions (which became HERO).

That was most of what I played until 1990, when I joined a group in Austin, and learned another 60+ RPGs in a few years, including a couple of play tests.

 

[glass]

For purposes of the poll, I would consider them [Pathfinder, 13th Age, etc] non-D&D.

Ah, went back and changed my vote on seeing this.

Me too. I started with WFRP briefly before moving on to AD&D 2e. These days, I mostly play D&D-adjacent games (with a smattering of others - CoC, Starfinder, Savage Worlds), but I have not played actual branded-D&D since they shut down the 4e online tools.

Our current plans are for more PF1 and PF2, with maybe a little Mythras thrown in (although I am not sure if/when the latter will happen now). And the guy who ran CoC is talking about a sequel, although he has not written it yet.

_
glass.

 

[Grendel_Khan]

I prefer simpler editions of D&D most of the time - one of my main games these days is actually Dungeon Crawl Classics. But it's interesting to me that you'd scribe 5e as both "dumb" and "tactical" (I don't think I'm putting words in your mouth here; please stop me if I am).

Can you expand on that a bit? Many would argue that dumb and tactical are opposites when it comes to TTRPGs.

I mean dumb in terms of game design--prioritizing combat above all else, the uselessness and fiction-breaking nature of levels 1-3, and avoiding giving you a default setting, which creates what seems like a generic fantasy game but that still has goofy meta-genre stuff like Mimics--and tactical insofar as having to measure out exact ranges on maps, and other rules details that took me right out of any sort of high-fantasy mythical tone. Fights don't seem desperate or dramatic to me, just fiddly and about as dangerous for the PCs as an American football game.

I'm not really a big fan of any D&D iteration or similar deal, but I think I'd be more into something like DCC than 5e.