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

[TheHand]

BECMI: Got started with the Tom Moldvay (Erol Otus cover) basic set in 1981, played till about 1982 when we discovered we could be Advanced!
1e: 1983-1989
2e: 1989-1993 - Stopped playing regularly right around the plethora of "Kit" books.
(1994-1999: Wasn't doing a lot of D&D playing; I remember a lot of Storyteller, Champions, Star Wars d6, Gamma World, Shadowrun, MechWarrior, etc etc)
3e/3.5e: Played this on and off when it came out, as with 3.5; didn't have a regular D&D group. (played in Exalted and a bunch of eclectic games here. Everything had gone "D20" engine and I was burned out on it. I rebelliously tried played anything that wasn't a d20 engine, haha)
4e: 2009-2019: Ironically, the much maligned 4e pulled me back in after I tried out a 1-shot. However, after running campaign, my 4e games became very heavily modified by the end (and I was using the 2e Planescape setting as the backdrop). Some of my players dubbed it "Franken-Fourth Edition".
5e: 2015-present: I didn't like the early DND next materials very much, so I didn't jump onto 5e at launch. But then sat in with a group, ended up DM'ing their second campaign, and now I'm currently running two 5e campaigns

 

[Yora]

I played 3rd edition for eight years and then Patfinder for another five, but I didn't actually play much during that time.
And since then, I've been trying out various oldschool D&D variants for the last eight years, and ran one 5th edition campaign for four months.

 

[glass]

I think this is about right:

AD&D 2e: 1989 or 90-2000
D&D 3e: 2000-2008
D&D 4e: 2007-2019
Pathfinder PF1: 2008-present (including playtest)
D&D 5e: 2012 (playtest) and 2015ish (just a few sessions of the finished version)
Pathfinder PF2: 2018-present (including playtest)

_
glass.

 

[Thomas Shey]

Got into OD&D in 1975. Played and ran it until 1978, then abandoned D&D for a number of years.
Ran a bit of AD&D2e, hmm, want to say, 1990, because I wanted something less interactive than other systems I was using for play-by-post. Probably lasted a couple years.
Came back to it when 3e came out in the early 2000's; ran a campaign for a couple years until the warts became too obvious around level 15.
Most recently, have been playing Pathfinder 2e for the last couple of year, and played a campaign of 4e a year or so before that. Haven't run either.

 

[Hex08]

For the Basic/Expert sets and 1e I am giving my best guesses, best guess on the start of 2e but the end year is right and after that the years should be pretty accurate
Basic/Expert Sets: 1981 - 1982
1e: 1981 - 1986, very sporadic after 1983
2e: Early/mid 1990s - 2000
3.x: 2000 - 2008
Pathfinder Beta/1e: 2008 - present
Castles & Crusades: 2016 - present

AD&D 2e is probably the one I remember most fondly and most of my favorite characters and campaigns are from that edition. I spent the most time playing 3.x/Pathfinder but I only continue with it because it's what a lot of my gaming group knows best; even then I passed the DM reigns to one of my players a few years ago and I just play. On the rare occasions I still DM D&D it's using Castles & Crusades running old school 1e and 2e adventures. Mostly I run campaigns using other systems now, such as Savage Worlds.

 

[Pawndream]

B/X: 2014-present
BECMI: 1984, 2009-2013
1e: 1984-1989, 2011-present
2e: 1990, 1997-2000, 2012
3e: 2000-2001
3.5e: 2004-2008
4e: 2008-2011
5e: 2017-present

 

[Nikosandros]

OD&D: Never played
Holmes: Never played
B/X: 2020-present
BECMI: 1985-1989 (I played in a few one shot games in recent years)
AD&D 1e: 1986-2000, 2005-present
AD&D 2e: I never played a campaign, but played many games through the years and from 1989 to 2000 I heavily hybridized it with 1e.
3e: 2000-2003
3.5: 2003-2007
4e: 2008-2011
5e: 2014-present

 

[S'mon]

I tend to overlap systems a lot. I started 1e AD&D ca 1985 (after Fighting Fantasy in 1984) and never fully switched to 2e, just used the 2e PHB and MM as supplements. Have run it intermittently since, most recently last year, but I tend to find 5e can do most of what I want in 1e.
Went for 3e in 2000, I think I last ran 3.5e in 2010. GM'd 4e regularly 2011-2016 and more intermittently thereafter, would be GMing 4e today if a player hadn't dropped. It's a 'live' edition for me. GM'd 5e from I think Jan 2015 to now, definitely my main system (though my most played system in 2020 was Mini Six!). Ran a Pathfinder campaign most of 2014-15, then swore never again! Oh and I ran BECMI for a few years ca 2015-2017.

 

[ART!]

It's hard to track my earliest D&D playing.

I think I was playing whatever came out before the blue box OD&D, and then the blue box edition, from about 1977 until AD&D came out, which we played relentlessly. I played a smattering of 2E in the early '90s, and a bit of 3E when it first came out. We played a fair amount of 4E - for a couple years, I guess. Playtested D&D Next, played a bit of 5E when it first came out, and have been playing 5E weekly since January of 2017.

 

[haakon1]

AD&D 1e: 1982-1988, 1996-2002 (12 years, player then DM)
AD&D Oriental Adventures: 1986*-1988 (DM)
AD&D 2e: 1988* (player)
D&D 3e: 2001-2003 (player & then DM)
D&D 3.5e: 2003*-present (18 years, primarily DM)
Pathfinder 1: 2009*-2016, 2021 (sporadic only at PaizoCon, plus Kingmaker on Xbox in 2021, player only, but borrowing rules and modules for 3.5e DMing)
D&D 4e: 2008*-2009 (player)
D&D 5e: 2015-present (but only rarely, around 6 total session, player only)

* denotes started playing at or near release