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

[billd91]

I never left the hobby and answered the poll accordingly. D&D has been a part of my participation in the hobby the whole time, though not always the most recent edition (we went back to 3.5 after giving 4e a try for most of a year). So I guess I’m a lifer.

 

[pukunui]

Started with 2e in the 90s. Played that all through high school and college. Gave it up when I moved countries to get married and start my "adult" life. Didn't expect to ever play again. But then some of my siblings-in-law convinced me to join their game, and they happened to be playing 3.5e. I expect I would have joined no matter what they were playing, but I voted for 3.5e just the same.

 

[jdrakeh]

Between 2002 and 2009 I played only a little bit of 7th Sea and Dark Heresy (1e). Maybe five or six game sessions. I didn't really get back into RPGs regularly until 5e came out an my friend ran a weekly campaign for myself and five or six other friends. We played in it for almost two years, start to finish. After that I got involved with Adventurer's League and have been doing that pretty regularly ever since.

 

[Thomas Shey]

I returned to D&D because of 3e for a while (and then mostly left again), but I'd never left gaming.

 

[Bill Zebub]

Cannot vote. I have in fact essentially stopped playing D&D specifically (and the hobby at large, other than as DM) because of the current edition, which pretty openly told me "all the things you love suck, and you should feel bad for liking them."

I suppose if you want to interpret it that way it's up to you. But wouldn't it be kinder to tell yourself "all the things you love are an acquired taste...sort of like hoppy beer...and most of the market doesn't have your connoisseur's nose for excellence?"

 

[payn]

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.

I shadow this experience. 1E-2E was a series of failed groups that never got going. My interest was piqued again during 3E era, and just liked it better than 4E. So, PF1 guy I became. Its still my preferred even over PF2 and 5E, both of which I think are fine games.

 

[ART!]

I've played every edition, but generally less so with each edition since AD&D (but that's setting a high bar - I played that edition a lot!), but the group I was in in the late-'90s and 2000s drifted apart.

I ran 13th Age for a bit, and people liked it, but that fell apart, too.

I played a bit of 5E during the playtest and soon after the release, but wandered off.

A couple years later, aching for gaming and hearing good things about 5E, I knew if I offered to run D&D I could easily get a good, solid group with little trial and error. The wheel that squeaks gets the grease, I guess, because a friend gifted me a PHB and DMG soon thereafter.

In January of 2017 I started running, and we've been playing 5E wekkly ever since.

 

[Mannahnin]

Kind of split between saying I never left vs. 3rd ed.

I never stopped gaming, but in the late 90s into early 2000s, I had maybe a four year period when I was doing very little tabletop RPGing, spending my hobby time more on LARP and Warhammer (FB and 40k). Then some of my Warhammer buddies started up a D&D group with 3rd ed, which brought me back to D&D.

 

[Ancalagon]

I did not stop gaming, but I did step away from D&D in the later 3.x era and more or less skipped 4e (played a lot of warhammer 2nd ed in that period). I returned to D&D with 5e.

 

[Lord Shark]

I have never stopped gaming, but I stopped playing D&D during late 3.5E, came back with 4E, and left again with 5E.