D&D 5E If you've ever left D&D, what made you come back?

[Parmandur]

Left the RPG scene in the 4E kerfluffle. Saw an ad for D&D Kreo in front of the Lego movie, got excited about 5E.

 

[Gwarok]

I stopped playing at 4th Ed. As a stand alone system it was fine, and I even liked some of the mechanics, but just didn't really feel like DND anymore for reasons I can't quite put my finger on. The other thing I didn't like was the rather blatant attempt to wring more money out of us by splitting up the content into so many volumes, each one with new races/classes that were clearly designed to be better than what came before to encourage purchase. Felt like I was buying expansions to an MMO. After Player's Handbook 9 or whatever came out I was done.

I came back for 5E obviously. I'm very happy with the new incarnation.

 

[JonnyP71]

Hmmmmm....

1983 - got Red Box
1984 - got 1E AD&D
1990 - school friends scatter to universities all over the country, discovered beer, clubs, women and illegal substances.
1993 - dabbled again due to money shortages at University, but one guy spoiled it for everyone else, books got put away, graduated, Uni friends scattered finding work, chasing women, etc
1999-2000 - books got thrown in the bin when I bought a house with fiancee - "never needing these again", but continued to have a little yearning, played some Baldurs Gate and Icewind Dale
2003 - played Neverwinter Nights - "But this said D&D on the box? Nice game, but the rules are all wrong. It's not D&D as I know it and I couldn't imagine playing this game with dice and real people!". Continue to drift in and out, replaying various Baldurs Gates, NWN, etc, reminisce a lot.
2010 - browse a pdf of some 4E rules, "And what the hell is this???? Who are these 'Wizards' of the Coast, and what have they done to my game?"
2013 - find some old 1e/2e stuff that survived my 2000 purge, play a few games with my daughter. Find local group playing old school games. Make point of avoiding 3e and 4e.
2015 - find more local gamers, embrace 5E, play/DM several campaigns at levels 1-10, love it
late 2016 - get annoyed with 5E at higher levels, introduce people to 1E, play some BECMI too

Life has come full circle

 

[Raith5]

The main impetus for leaving is that I get burnt out by problems in various editions of the game - especially in high level play which I have found to be a repeating (and annoying) problem in D&D from 1e onwards. I gave up on D&D during the 2e period - I found high level 2e unplayable and gave up for 4-5 years, hell I even tried to make my own RPG (which was pretty awful). 3e drew me back again but it again burnt me out as DM at high level and I gave up playing for awhile. 4e drew me in and its the only version of D&D I have liked playing at high level and I still play and like it despite its flaws. I play a bit of 5e but mostly at low level.

 

[Sacrosanct]

Technically I never left, but I did not buy any D&D stuff after the mid 90s. We stuck playing AD&D when 3e and then 4e came out. 5e brought us back, largely because it allowed us to play in the style we liked (rulings over rules) in a format that was much cleaner and better presented than AD&D. Combat is fast again, ability checks are as simple as they were back then, no crazy numbers bloat, etc.

 

[Tony Vargas]

ability checks are as simple as they were back then,

Which ability check variant did you use? Roll under?

I was never quite happy with degree of success on those, though and settled on a roll high w/o going over tweak...

 

[Rhenny]

I started fading after 4e, but getting involved with D&D Next playtest energized me and brought me back for 5e.

 

[discosoc]

I guess 5e brought me back, even though I don't really like the rules. Enough other people did that we were able to restart our groups though.

 

[TarionzCousin]

I quit late in the 2E era after learning that:

A. Very few places had steam tunnels;
B. Even fewer places had accessible steam tunnels;
C. None of the demon/devil summoning worked; and
D. Worshiping Satan only emptied my wallet for genuine black wax candles which accomplished nothing.

I came back during 3.5 when a friend ran a mini campaign for four of us ex-D&D types.

I suffered through 4E and am happy that 5E is what it is: fun.

 

[Sunseeker]

A lot of people play it. There's a lot of support for it. It's easy to get new players into it for both of those reasons.

So yeah, as a system I have my gripes, but frankly, a lot of support and a lot of players will make a game much more enjoyable for me than a good game that has little support and few players.

My heart is always in the group, not the game.