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Message: <blockquote data-quote="howandwhy99" data-source="post: 9520480" data-attributes="member: 3192">Second edition is my nostalgia edition. We had played some earlier games but 2e arrived when we were a little older and became serious about playing the game as more than children. I played all through high school and college and became a D&D fan. And like all fans at that time I questioned why the game was designed as it was. What was it trying to be?I went and listened to many of the older players who decried the end of D&D. Those who were older and adults, those who had DM'd and played for several years and engaged in the same pursuit through the 70s and 80s I was then that of asking, "why is this game designed this way?"It was concluded by many in the community that 2e was deeply flawed. And they left in the 1990s like so many others had when I joined. These flaws weren't the designers intention or even so much their fault. It had to do with not understanding the game. A phenomenon endemic to the hobby.I think now of post-Gygax TSR and D&D, originally his company and his game, as the second line-up of a famous rock and roll band. They inherited a band name and its legacy, they had the old hits they had to play, and they knew what the music sounded like, and honestly they could play. But they didn't really know how to create they way the original artists did. They didn't think the same way about the game. But they did know much of the popular opinion of what was considered flawed and what was good from the original works. They sold to and served those interests.90s TSR changed a considerable number of things about D&D. Not just the game, but the hobby itself. The 1e-2e divide was the most divisive and rancorous edition change I know of for an RPG. There was no coming out of it as a whole much less the same.This is when I learned about D&D, something I learned backwards in that era. First, we all learned 2e. Then we learned what came earlier and looked deeper for why the game was designed as it was. Those who knew this history forward were leaving. What was clear was 2nd ed, like every edition thereafter, didn't support the game for its originally intended play. For scoring points. For testing players ability at the game held in the imagination. For learning how to work together in a strategic, cutting-edge cooperative game design.2e was where I started but I can't say I enjoy going back except for the nostalgia. Even with the pleasure of gaming and exuberance we all felt, it was simply too painful to play and, ultimately, drove so many away. It is a time of childhood and fond remembrances. And I do believe much work can be redeveloped. But I believe most would take that era to an earlier or later time. To designs which better serve their preferences.</blockquote>

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