I love 5th Edition because to me it seems like a damn near perfect fusion of all the best elements of all the previous Editions, including the good parts o 4th Edition, which I otherwise despise (good parts such as Ritual Magic and non-magic-using characters being able to learn to use Ritual Magic and magical Implements giving bonuses to Saving Throw DCs and To Hit bonuses... even though Ritual Magic actually began life in 3E Unearthed Arcana, I'll still give credit to 4E for fleshing it out more.)
I love 5th Edition for wedding the simplicity of OD&D and Basic to the feel of 1st Edition AD&D to the flexibility and the character creation customization options of 3rd Edition. All while bringing the number inflation under control and reducing the power levels down from
Infinity Gauntlet superhero levels to the feel of a good pulpy Conan novel power level. When you play 5th Edition, it really does feel like you're
actually playing through the kind of story you find in Appendix E! This isn't to criticize 3rd Edition superhero power levels, as I still love 3E and v3.5 and will still happily play them if a good DM wants to run a 3E campaign, but I just love 5th Edition
even more.
The same goes for 1st Edition... or even 2nd Edition! If one of my DM friends wanted to run a 2nd Edition Dark Sun campaign I'd
jump at the chance (last summer I bought a seriously mint condition unopened Dark Sun Boxed Set on eBay for 60 dollars... I just couldn't pass it up, it's beautiful! Ever since then it's been sitting on a shelf, where I intend to keep it in the best condition I possibly can... and I have also been absolutely
dying to play a good old 2E Dark Sun campaign, warts and all... the warts are part of the fun! I want to run or play a full-on, hardcore Dark Sun campaign, with Athasian Fighters using Battlesystem to command Stands of Thri-Kreen Gladiators! I've been dreaming about it! And I used to
truly hate 2nd Edition, as some other ENWorld old-timers like me may remember. But over time, I've learned to appreciate 2nd Edition for what it was and the things it did well, instead of comparing it to things I liked about 1st Edition that 2E did differently, and I've come to appreciate that it was its own thing and what it did right it did wonderfully, and for a setting like Dark Sun which was specifically designed for 2E I wouldn't want to use any other Edition. Just itching to play a Mul Fighter/Psionicist/Fire Cleric!)
Or a 3rd Edition campaign, or especially a 1st Edition campaign, I would very happily play in it (and, in fact, one of my friends started running a 1st Edition campaign that lasted for a good two years right after 5th Edition came out, and the reason it ended was because of outside factors, not because any of us lost interest or wanted to stop playing. Each Edition has its own distinct strengths, weaknesses, and flavor, and I love each one for what it does and how it feels. And I will still always happily play a 1st, 2nd, or 3rd Edition campaign if one of my friends wanted to run one (the only one I would refuse is 4th, but that's personal preference for the only Edition I actually despise. If other people like it, that's great and I am happy it exists for them, but I hate it; I gave it 6 months of my life to try to learn to love it and become convinced of its worthiness, but each month I only learned to hate it more and more as a videogame-flavored miniatures-based tactical wargame with the D&D name grafted onto it, and that did not sit all all well with this miniature-disliking role-playing heavy gamer. But I don't want to start an Edition War, I want to counter one.)
But 5th Edition is now my favorite.
The only good thing to come out of the tragedy that ended our last 1st Edition campaign was that it inspired my brother to finally begin the campaign that he'd been wanting to start since 5E was released, and on which he'd been slowly working at the maps and writing down details for years before that... and when he finally did begin, he turned out to be an
amazing, spectacular, superior Dungeon Master! (as well as any other Spider-Man superlatives you can think of!!) Far, far better than I ever was as a DM (although he still insists that he could never match me for real spookiness as Keeper for a
Call of Cthulhu campaign, I wouldn't be so sure of that... !
)
My brother hadn't DM'd since he ran an
Al-Qadim game for us back during my first year of college when he was about 14-15, which, honestly, hung together like a game DM'd by a 12 year old who had only been playing for 2 years, but now, after having played for 24 years, across 4 Editions (2nd, then 1st, then 3rd, then 5th) he is just
incredible. He has always been full of confidence and charisma, and he simply
shines as a DM. However, he has Dyslexia, which I think was a big burden to overcome in his previous attempts at DMing over the years... but this time it hasn't slowed him down even one little bit... which I attribute at least in part to the mechanics of 5th Edition, with the reduced number load and simplifications to the mechanics... simplifications without making the game simplistic, still allowing just the right amount of complexity in character customization and options to give hardcore character customizers like my brother and I all the options we could want, between (fully customizable!) Backgrounds (if none of the existing Backgrounds fit your idea for your character, it says right in the PHB that you can work with your DM to alter one of them or just whip up a totally new one!) the power of 5th Edition Feats, and the ability to learn Skills with nothing but money, time, and effort!
But anyway, this time he takes notes, keeps track of time, notes the passing of seasons, and takes great care with all the book-keeping aspects of DMing, things I have never seemed to be able to get a good handle on with my ADHD; every attempt at note-keeping I make just dissolves into a mass of disparate papers and scribbles I can neither keep straight nor keep track of. I think he is able to keep all of that together because he doesn't have to spend a lot of time worrying about the numbers and complexity of running the actual mechanics of the game or combat... that stuff just takes care of itself and is mostly a breeze to take care of. And he tells me he's been having a ton of fun doing it! My little brother ("little" 37 year-old, HA!) has been
spectacular, and I attribute that to the ease of running 5th Edition. In fact, he makes it seem so easy and fun that I want to give it a go again, but I know that once I do it will start off great like it always does, only to fall apart in a mass of contradictions and confusion after all my grand cool ideas and inspirations frizzle away into yet another mess of ADHD muck... but with 5E I think I could make it last just a while longer. If I was able to make a Pathfinder campaign last a whole year before 2 out of 3 players lost interest (my brother was still raring to go, bless him) with all the associated number-crunching that goes into that version of the game, then I really think I could keep a 5th Edition campaign together for at least a year or two. And after the amazing inspiration of my brother's truly wonderful, fun as Hell game, I am more and more tempted to try every day, and I largely attribute that to how well 5th Edition holds together.