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If you've ever left D&D, what made you come back?
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<blockquote data-quote="Tony Vargas" data-source="post: 7012557" data-attributes="member: 996"><p>I suppose there were a mix of things that drove me away from D&D, but the proximate cause, at the time was getting fed up with the quantity (and, I suppose, quality) of material coming out for 2e. 1e, it seemed like, maybe squeezed out a significant book per year - lot of modules and other junk either by TSR or nominally compatible, but serious, hard-bound rulebook maybe 1 a year or so - of course, I was really young, so a years seemed like a long time, too. 2e there was stuff coming out constantly, and it rapidly added up to a pretty darn broken pile of something. I mostly ignore settings, but they started pushing them a little harder in The Dragon, and Planescape really felt like it had jumped a shark of some kind. </p><p></p><p>I probably stuck with D&D longer than I would have because I was still running a campaign that had started in 1e (and I was staunchly ignoring just about everything coming out after the first year or so for it, sticking to heavily modded house rules), and because the BS of the roll vs role debate made me want to defend it. Ultimately, though, that campaign wound down (c1995) and D&D became something I read about more than I played, and finally, what I was reading was not worth it, TSR went under and WotC (whom I kinda resented for M:tG) took over. That was it. I stopped buying books, my subscription lapsed, D&D was over for me. </p><p></p><p>I had found a group willing to play things other than D&D in 1984, and while that group lasted I was playing a lot of Champions, then Storyteller in college and with a group that held together for a while after graduation. By the turn of the millennium, though those were both gone, too (Silicon Valley is a wonderful place in some ways, but I've spent my life saying goodbye to friends moving to somewhere with a lower cost of living).</p><p></p><p>So, c1999 the only gaming I was getting was one convention a year and a weekly boardgaming group. They'd all played RPGs at some point, but none were quite into it enough to get something started. 3.0 comes out and it generates just enough excitement to try it. It was just nicely nostalgic, at first, but the addition of feats, skills, and the brilliant/elegant/revolutionary (by D&D standards) new take on multi-classing & classes (particularly the simple/elegant/customizable design of the fighter, a class I'd formerly had some contempt for), sold me on it. Since then my biggest complaint has been the way WotC seems to compulsively roll rev too early. If each ed had gotten a 10 year run, I think we'd all've been happier. </p><p>Hopefully 5e finally gets back to that, it sure seems paced to hold up that long.</p><p></p><p></p><p>Edit: It occurs to me that the short answer of why I left D&D at the height of 2e was 'bloat' and that might seem inconsistent with staying through 3e & 4e, which were notoriously bloated. Thing is, in 3e, as long as I didn't try to run, I could just ignore the bloat. I just played from a smaller menu - mostly elaborate non-caster builds and the occasional Sorcerer (the fighter & sorcerer class designs really grabbed me, they were so customizeable on the player side). It also helped that the group I played the most with wasn't exactly powergaming to the hilt, either. In 4e, run or play, I could ignore the bloat because it was, overall, balanced enough you didn't need that sort of system-mastery-in-self-defense either to get a viable character or to keep your campaign from crashing & burning. 5e of course, not so bloated, and it's both familiar and amenable to the DMing style I mastered running AD&D.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Tony Vargas, post: 7012557, member: 996"] I suppose there were a mix of things that drove me away from D&D, but the proximate cause, at the time was getting fed up with the quantity (and, I suppose, quality) of material coming out for 2e. 1e, it seemed like, maybe squeezed out a significant book per year - lot of modules and other junk either by TSR or nominally compatible, but serious, hard-bound rulebook maybe 1 a year or so - of course, I was really young, so a years seemed like a long time, too. 2e there was stuff coming out constantly, and it rapidly added up to a pretty darn broken pile of something. I mostly ignore settings, but they started pushing them a little harder in The Dragon, and Planescape really felt like it had jumped a shark of some kind. I probably stuck with D&D longer than I would have because I was still running a campaign that had started in 1e (and I was staunchly ignoring just about everything coming out after the first year or so for it, sticking to heavily modded house rules), and because the BS of the roll vs role debate made me want to defend it. Ultimately, though, that campaign wound down (c1995) and D&D became something I read about more than I played, and finally, what I was reading was not worth it, TSR went under and WotC (whom I kinda resented for M:tG) took over. That was it. I stopped buying books, my subscription lapsed, D&D was over for me. I had found a group willing to play things other than D&D in 1984, and while that group lasted I was playing a lot of Champions, then Storyteller in college and with a group that held together for a while after graduation. By the turn of the millennium, though those were both gone, too (Silicon Valley is a wonderful place in some ways, but I've spent my life saying goodbye to friends moving to somewhere with a lower cost of living). So, c1999 the only gaming I was getting was one convention a year and a weekly boardgaming group. They'd all played RPGs at some point, but none were quite into it enough to get something started. 3.0 comes out and it generates just enough excitement to try it. It was just nicely nostalgic, at first, but the addition of feats, skills, and the brilliant/elegant/revolutionary (by D&D standards) new take on multi-classing & classes (particularly the simple/elegant/customizable design of the fighter, a class I'd formerly had some contempt for), sold me on it. Since then my biggest complaint has been the way WotC seems to compulsively roll rev too early. If each ed had gotten a 10 year run, I think we'd all've been happier. Hopefully 5e finally gets back to that, it sure seems paced to hold up that long. Edit: It occurs to me that the short answer of why I left D&D at the height of 2e was 'bloat' and that might seem inconsistent with staying through 3e & 4e, which were notoriously bloated. Thing is, in 3e, as long as I didn't try to run, I could just ignore the bloat. I just played from a smaller menu - mostly elaborate non-caster builds and the occasional Sorcerer (the fighter & sorcerer class designs really grabbed me, they were so customizeable on the player side). It also helped that the group I played the most with wasn't exactly powergaming to the hilt, either. In 4e, run or play, I could ignore the bloat because it was, overall, balanced enough you didn't need that sort of system-mastery-in-self-defense either to get a viable character or to keep your campaign from crashing & burning. 5e of course, not so bloated, and it's both familiar and amenable to the DMing style I mastered running AD&D. [/QUOTE]
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