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

DND_Reborn · Dec 2, 2021

Basic Set (Holmes): 1978-1981 (Started at 5 y.o.)
B/X-BECMI: 1981-1991
AD&D 1e: 1980-1990+
AD&D 2e: 1990-2018
3e: 2005
4e: never played
5e: 2018-present

So, what I consider the "AD&D years" was roughly from 1980-2018, nearly 40 years, really it was a 1E/2E hybrid. Most of what I am doing now is trying to bring that "feel" into 5E.

I only played 3E for less than a year before returning to AD&D since I was never very impressed with it. Oddly, though, the d20 Star Wars I enjoyed a lot and consider it the best d20 system and the best Star Wars version.

jmartkdr2 · Dec 2, 2021

Basic: 1987-1990 or so? Then I switched to White Wolf games until 1998.
1e: 1999-2005
2e: never
3x: 2000 - 2004
4e: 2013-2015
5e: 2015-present

S'mon · Dec 2, 2021

DND_Reborn said:
B/X: 1978-1979 (Started at 5 y.o.)
BECMI: 1979-1991

B/X was published in 1981, and BECMI in 1983.

DND_Reborn · Dec 2, 2021

S'mon said:
B/X was published in 1981, and BECMI in 1983.

Updated. Happy?

pming · Dec 3, 2021

Hiya!

Sure, why not?

(31yrs) B/X/BECMI: 1981 - 2012
(32yrs) AD&D 1e (Pure): 1981 - 2015
(3 yrs) AD&D 2e: 1991 - 1994
(15 yrs) Hackmaster 4th: 2001 - 2016
(2 yrs) D&D 3rd: 2000 - 2002
(0!!) D&D 4th: ...hehe...no thank you Evil!

(5 yrs) D&D 5th: 2014 - 2021

In those I consider a game "still being played" if we played more than a 'one or two off'. Like a full adventure and/or over at least two months of play (at a session a week, minimum). Also, typically but not always, playing in the same "campaign world timeline" (or, as it was known in Ye Olden Days of Yore, "A DM's Campaign"). If we include any version I've played, even a one off, then I think 2e would be bumped up a few more years because we did do the odd "one session, maybe 2" set in Dark Sun or Birthright...but not really any "campaign play".

Oh, and yeah, Hackmaster 4th Edition (the first version Kenzer & Co made) is AD&D as far as I'm concerned. It's more "D&D" than any "D&D" version after it...and maybe before, in a manner of speaking!

^_^

Paul L. Ming

gamerprinter · Dec 3, 2021

My first game was technically White Box, but that was just one session, and it wouldn't be until 2 years later that I'd find others in high school playing it, but I joined at the start of AD&D 1e, which would have been 1979. I played 1e from then until I got out of the US Army in 1987, which was about the time AD&D 2e came into existence. I started playing with a long running group through the entirety of 2e, until we lost our DM in an auto accident, then had a 5 year hiatus from the game. Our lost DM's daughter had grown up, and glommed unto 3.5, and wanted us to play with her and her friends, so we did, but technically, 3.5 had already been going for a couple years, before we finally started playing that. We played for 5 years, which was about the time that 3.5 got pulled from the shelves, and there was a wait to a 4e, which was about the time Pathfinder Beta came into existence. Because I'd been looking to publish a Japanese horror setting, and was looking at 3.5 to do it in, when 3.5 ended, so rather than wait for 4e, I eventually published it using Pathfinder, and have been using PF for all that time, until about 3 or 4 years ago, when I started getting interest in sci-fi games again, and a year later Starfinder RPG was released. So I've been publishing for Starfinder as third party since it's inception and still going strong...

I've played other games, mostly back in the day when I was playing 1e in the army. I played Runequest, Elfquest, Twilight 2000, Aftermath, Star Frontiers, Space Opera, Paranoia, and Human Occupied Landfill.

David Howery · Dec 4, 2021

I bought the Holmes basic set, but never actually played in a campaign with it, a couple of one shots for a couple of months. I quickly found out about AD&D and played it off and on (in college, out of college, moving around) from 1980 to 1989, when 2E came out, which I played only for a couple of years, after which my job started moving me around and I fell out of gaming in general...

Mark Hope · Dec 28, 2021

Cool thread

B/X: 1982 - 1984
AD&D: 1984 - 1989
AD&D 2e: 1989 - 2002
D&D 3e: 2003
D&D 3.5e: 2003 - 2008
Pathfinder 1e: 2008 - 2018
AD&D 2e: 2014 - present

I've run a few additional AD&D and B/X sessions over the years since moving onto 2e, and have returned full-time to 2e in recent years. I've played 4e once or twice and 5e a handful of times as well, but not enough to warrant a separate note. Also, all of the above is a single, continuous campaign.