Editions of D&D you have played the most in your life

[Doug McCrae]

2e and 3e the most by far, though I've played or run every edition except OD&D at some point.

I got back into gaming after a hiatus around 1990 and 2e was massively popular in the gaming society I joined. We all thought the rules were much clearer and more consistent than 1e, which wasn't played at all.

Then when 3e came out everyone I knew, which was a whole different group of people by then, was really into it, buying loads of splatbooks, etc. At that time I loved the crunchy tactical side of it, and even quite enjoyed the character build subgame.

 

[AngryTiger]

1. 3rd edition. I discovered D&D when third edition came out and played it from 2000 to 2014.
2. 5th edition. Switched to 5th edition when it came out and played it since then.

That's all the editions of D&D i have played.

 

[CleverNickName]

My gaming timeline looks like this...

Born in 1974
Played BECM from 1985-1993
Life happened from 1994 - 1999
Played 3E from 2000 - 2006
Life happened again from 2007 - 2009
Played 3.5E fro 2010 - 2015
Played Pathfinder from 2015 - 2017
Playing 5E from 2017 to present.

Along the way I dabbled in AD&D a bit, and I was part of the test groups for 4E and D&D Next. I've played more of 3.X than all other editions combined, but 5E is my favorite version so far.

 

[g4m3kn1ght]

I have played every edition, but I think 4e hit the sweet spot of in college with free time and nearby friends/roomates who played this edition. From there it goes 5e, 3/3.5e, AD&D, and 2nd edition in that order. Unless you count time spent playing computer rpgs like Balder's Gate and Neverwinter Nights which would adjust the list more significantly than I care to admit.

I have come to the conclusion that all these rule sets have faults and benefits, and that if everyone at the table is willing you can have fun with any edition. AD&D was the first edition I played, I often miss how quick the tables could turn in that edition (monsters were less familiar and harder to plan for, magic items had rough curses, you did not always get saving throws) and how often retreat was an acceptable strategy. I only played a little of 2nd edition, it mostly just felt like more features tacked onto first edition. 3/3.5 seemed great at first, but it was just such a fiddly and clunky game system. You really had to fight with the rules to have fun sometimes. 4e could be tedious at times, but the designers really gave players and DMs the tools to build almost anything you wanted mechanically. It was not very organic, more playing with legos than with play doh in comparison to other editions. I appreciate the streamlined approach 5e takes for the most part, in a couple places it seems like they unlearned some lessons they did in 4e. It is definitely the easiest to play edition and is inherently friendlier to homebrewing than other editions were.

 

[The Thrasson]

1e, by far. There were many local games going on. Many of the players in my group had their own campaigns, all homebrew. Dave ran an excellent Tolkien campaign. Gem ran Conan. Larry ran his own creation. Steve ran a very unique middle east/time of David, very grinding and gritty campaign. All late 70's + early 80's. You know how it is, when you first discover RPG's, you get hooked. Later you get a little choosey about the DM and who you play with. This leads to playing less. I need to be careful, romanticizing the past can be misleading.

 

[Jacob Lewis]

I had to think on this a while. I've played in groups, one-shots, computer games, online and single-player, PbP, and even organized play. And I now realize that it was 4th Edition, by far. I was running weekly Encounters at the local shop, running one-shots, joining short campaigns and adventures, sitting in on Encounters and Living FR games on weekends, and running a fantastic PbP with two groups simultaneously for the better part of two years. The format was so easy to plan for a session where the encounter would be some elaborate spectacle, and the rules were so well organized and easy to manage. The game was truly a dream for me as a DM who didn't always have a lot of time to prepare for longer sessions, but I could whip up some really great encounters. Even scaling and making unique monsters was a breeze. Man, I wish I could get that back!