D&D General How Long Did You Play the Different Editions of D&D? (+)

[Jack Daniel]

Been a while since I've broken this down. Let's see:

OD&D: Once or twice in the 90s and then seriously for the first few months of my freshman year of high school ('98) before switching to AD&D; and pretty much only this since 2006, which would make for at least a solid 15 years.

AD&D: 1998–2000 (2nd edition with some 1st edition mixed in); plus a couple of short campaigns in more recent years (which have been 1st edition with some 2nd edition mixed in). I don't really distinguish the two in my mind, because I've always blended both to some degree. 3 years, but most of that time was from when I was in high school, so we played constantly — seriously, I played so much AD&D in those 3 years that it almost doesn't do the idea justice to frame it in terms of dates rather than hours.

3rd Ed: 2001–2006, so 5 years. In terms of sheer quantity of time spent, my 3e gaming was probably about equal to my AD&D gaming.

 

[MacMathan]

Basic: 1982
1E: 1982-89
2E: 1989-2000
3E: 2000-2003
3.5E: 2003-2008
4E: 2008-2014
5E: 2015-present

 

[Charlaquin]

I list 1e and 2e together because while I technically started with 2e, I actually didn't realize there was a difference between the two for ages and used sourcebooks and materials from both. The Player's Handbook and DMG were 2e though.

I hear this sort of thing was a common experience. Myself, I came across a used copy of the AD&D (1e) DMG in a bookstore once, and I knew AD&D as that unbelievably fun-sounding game my friends’ older brothers played that they wouldn’t let us play with them. I was so excited to finally get to learn to play it… I was very confused by its contents. It felt like half the book was just missing; mostly it just seemed to meanderingly talk about rules that, as far as I could tell, didn’t actually exist anywhere, and what rules I could find always seemed to be missing vital context, alluding to other rules I couldn’t find anywhere.

 

[Zardnaar]

I hear this sort of thing was a common experience. Myself, I came across a used copy of the AD&D (1e) DMG in a bookstore once, and I knew AD&D as that unbelievably fun-sounding game my friends’ older brothers played that they wouldn’t let us play with them. I was so excited to finally get to learn to play it… I was very confused by its contents. It felt like half the book was just missing; mostly it just seemed to meanderingly talk about rules that, as far as I could tell, didn’t actually exist anywhere, and what rules I could find always seemed to be missing vital context, alluding to other rules I couldn’t find anywhere.

I had 5 books, MM, DMG, UA, OA, and FF.

No PHB though. Had to figure out class via UA and OA.

 

[Koppe]

BECMI: 1990 - present
AD&D: short stint in -92 or -93

Thank god for OSR. We had played all good original D&D and Dungeon Magazine adventures over ten years ago.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

Kind of depends how you count. Solidly play the game every year or just not completely stop? Like, with 2E, I feel like we played it from 1989 to 2000 but some years we played a ton and others we might not have played at all because of all the other RPGs we were playing, but we hadn't given up on it. I guess go with what feels right?

So:

2E - 1989 to 2000 - nearly stopped entirely in 1994, but Planescape saved it.

3E - 2000 to 2004, then like 2007 to 2008. The main group completely stopped playing it in-between but my bro kept buying stuff for it and ran a couple of campaigns in 2007-2008. Most years we were playing other RPGs too.

4E - 2008 to 2015, but in like 2014 and 2015 we were mostly running Dungeon World.

Edit: worth noting that we played a lot more frequently in the 4E years than the 3E ones, but how much was down to different life circumstances is an open question.

5E - 2014 to present but until 2017 we were only playing 5E occasionally, usually Dungeon World, Shadowrun (ugh) or other RPGs. I'm actually running other stuff ATM but also playing in two active 5E campaigns.

Edit: 5E is notable in that more old DMs seem to want to run it, whereas in 4E it seemed to attract new DMs, for our group. Like two people who had never DM'd before ran 4E, but three old DMs came out of retirement for 5E, whereas I gradually DM'd less and now mostly play. Peak group size was 4E but again maybe just life circumstances.

 

[Ogre Mage]

1E: 1986-1989
2E: 1993-94, 1998-1999
3E: 2001-2006
4E: 2012-2013
5E: 2015-present

 

[el-remmen]

Kind of depends how you count. Solidly play the game every year or just not completely stop? Like, with 2E, I feel like we played it from 1989 to 2000 but some years we played a ton and others we might not have played at all because of all the other RPGs we were playing, but we hadn't given up on it. I guess go with what feels right?

1. Always go with what feels right with these kinds of posts unless what feels right is to completely flout the question and talk crap about it. So, I think you're good.

2. And yeah, I just assumed people would include years where even if they didn't play the specific edition that is the edition they would have been playing or gone back to if they had decided to play D&D then. Of course, if people gave up on D&D altogether until a new edition came out to draw them back in, I would not count those intervening years.

 

[Plaguescarred]

• BECMI: 1987 - 1988 (1 year)
• AD&D 1E: 1988 - 1989 (1 year)
• AD&D 2E: 1989 - 2008 (19 years)
• D&D 3E: 2000 - 2008 (8 years)
• D&D 4E: 2008 - 2014 (6 years)
• D&D 5E: 2014 - 2021 (7 years)

AD&D 2nd edition is the only edition i continued playing after a new edition rolled out, keeping a campaign during 3E and playing another one during 4E.

 

[Tormai]

Time is weird. And when you've been playing D&D for nearly 40 years, the time you spent playing one edition over another can seem really skewed, as some editions can have an outsized influence on your view of the game even when you didn't play them that long. So I decided to try to break down how long I played/ran each edition.

• BECMI: 1983 to 1985 (2ish years)
• AD&D (1E): 1985 to 1989 (4ish years) [switched to it eagerly because "advanced" meant I was more "mature" ]
• AD&D (2E): 1989 to 2000 (11ish years) [switched reluctantly at first but then jumped in whole hog]
  • Used Combat & Tactics options for 2E from '96 to '00.
• D&D (3.xE): 2000 to 2016 (16ish years) [I was adopting 3E rules before it had even been released thanks to Eric Noah and picked up my PHB at GEN CON 2000]
• D&D (4E): One playtest session in 2008 [was skeptical, remain skeptical - but still adopted a rule or two from it]
• D&D (5E): 2019 to present (hasn't been two full years yet, but will be soon) [after a break from D&D and a move to a new city I was talked into starting a new game]
  
  So I was wondering what other people's breakdowns might be. I know some people play multiple editions with different groups at the same time, so in that case just break it down how it makes sense for you (maybe just focus on the most common and/or the one you preferred to play). I also know that some of you have not been playing as long, but that is okay - I am just curious when and if you shifted to each edition after playing the previous for however long. I am even interested in hearing about people who stuck with a previous edition or switched back to it after trying a newer one.
  
  For myself, 2E is always gonna have a large influence on my play and DM style and what I want out of a game, with a healthy dose of 3E's tactical focus (but without the "arms race" and "build" mentalities and sans the overly-granular rules), thus why I find myself enjoying 5E (which feels like a good mix of those two), even if some of its choices are not what I would have done.
  
  One other notable point: I have used material for or from each of the editions in each of the other editions that I played for any length of time and have never had any issue converting stuff (in fact, I find it fun). I still used the best DMG (1E) regularly and have barely cracked the 3E or 5E DMGs.
  
  Notice the "(+)" in the thread title. This thread is not meant to become an edition war. It is okay if you want to mention why you switched editions, but don't slag off on other people or judge their choices.

BECMI 83 to 88.
1E: Sunmer of 88
2E: 89 to 02 (stayed with it to finish a couple of campaigns
3E: 00 to 2020
4E: 2012, one session
5E: 2019 to present, but with a lot of table rules, my own Hard Mode, to offset the inherent hero complex built into the system

Been playing Pathfinder off and on since 2009 and heavily playing Star Trek Adventures since the play test.

2E will always be the version that most heavily influences my approach to the game.