D&D General Making and surviving the break…

[Eyes of Nine]

Posted recently that I pretty much skipped 2e and 3/3.5. But my RPG life was not dry, our group was just really into GURPS, with at least 2 campaigns of Shadowrun 1e and a campaign of MegaTraveller in there too.

Also, I was super super into Vampire the Eternal Struggle (fka Jyhad) CCG from it's 1994 release until 2010 (I still have all my cards and have bought new cards and would play if I lived close to an active playgroup)

Oh, I also managed then owned a comic and game store in LA from 1994 to 2006

I did not suffer from my break from D&D. In fact my gaming life was richer than it had ever been

 

[overgeeked]

I started with B/X in 1984 and quickly switched to AD&D. We played AD&D through 2E, 3E, and 3.5. We switched to 4E when it came out and again to 5E when the playtest dropped.

What makes folks (you) stay with an edition?

2E wasn't different enough to justify buying new books. We house ruled what we liked about 2E into our AD&D games. It wasn't much so it wasn't hard. What we saw of 3E and 3.5 was not enticing at all so we kept on keeping on with AD&D. 4E did a lot that we absolutely loved so switching wasn't hard. But by the time the 5E playtest rolled around we were tired of the overly-long combats. If we keep playing name-brand D&D, it'll likely be 5E with some 2024 revisions as house rules or we'll switch back to AD&D. We're also branching out into the OSR with Old-School Essentials and DCC RPG.

What are the costs of being left behind? How does it change your gaming life?

Depends entirely on what the rest of the hobby does. It's mostly fear of missing out. Depending on the popularity of the editions you're talking about you can go from having as many weekly games as you can handle to not playing for years. If you stake your claim to an unpopular edition and a wildly popular edition comes along, unless you have a solid group, you're sunk. Or unless you can find others to play with, which is easier with so many people playing online now...but it's still hard to round up groups for non-D&D games. Certain editions (the more popular ones) are easier to find games for but the unpopular editions, you're lucky to find 2-3 people who like it, much less are willing to play it.

 

[Golroc]

I'd say it matters how you and your group feel about the new edition. Excited? Go for the switch - enthusiasm is a great driver for fun. On the fence? Try it out, see if it makes sense to switch, to grab some of the new rules or to simply stick with the existing editions. Negative towards the changes? Don't go there - it will probably taint your fun and cost you money to boot.

In reality groups can have mixed opinions, and that makes it hard. You can be in multiple groups - and it might feel bad to invest in a new edition simply because of some tables you're part of. There is no easy answer. Your opinion may also change over time as may that of other players.

I'd say we're lucky in this day and age to have such a massive wealth of material to draw on. Even if you stick with an older edition you won't run out of material. And you can always adapt the material you like from new editions. If someone wants to play 2nd edition D&D in Ravnica, they can do that. It doesn't even take that much work to adapt across editions - or even systems. Never be afraid to adapt material. You were around when 2nd edition hit, it sounds like - so you probably remember just how much adapting had to be done in those days. Most settings had a ton of material referencing mechanics from the last edition. Or even just material in 1st edition you didn't have, like Unearthed Arcana stuff, which not everyone used.

 

[Maxperson]

I have mentioned many times before I have been an every other edition guy so I can answer the questions for myself.

I am interested in hearing how it is for others!

I played AD&D 1e, 3e and now am fully entrenched in 5e.

What makes folks (you) stay with an edition?

What are the costs of being left behind? How does it change your gaming life?

what makes me stay with an edition are interesting new mechanical options(spells, feats, classes, magic items, etc.) on a fairly regular basis. 5e is failing dismally at this and I have been on the verge of going back to 3.5e for a while now. Interestingly, one of my players is giving me a break from DMing and is running 3.5e and we are having more fun than we have had playing 5e for some time now. It's looking less and less likely that I will be continuing on with 5e once I am back to DMing. WotC would have to make a fairly substantial change to their policy which it doesn't look like they will be doing, so...

 

[cbwjm]

I started with the RC, moved to 2e, moved to 3e, dabbled in 4e but didn't get anything long-term going, and then moved to 5e not long after it came out, bought the books before talking with anyone, but soon got a group together, then another couple groups together. Mostly I play the latest because that is what others want to play. Now though I've given up 5e for the moment as I got a little burnt out on it, but I have another friend who loves OSE so I've joined his game. In a sense, I've gone full circle.

 

[aco175]

My group has seemed to play the new edition and swap over when we finish a campaign and want to start a new one. I recall the 3e snapshots/countdown in the Dragon Magazine for months before 3e came out. Things looked interesting, but half my group did not see them and were kind of meh about it. Same for all the other surveys and outreach for 4 and 5x.

Each new edition has been fun to play and we liked each one and will swap out to the new one next year with the hopes that it improves things like 3.5 did.

My new issue is the 5e clones that have come out or are coming out. Do I change to one of them or add one to my 5e game and expand things. Some of the new changes look good and adding them could enhance things. I did tend to overspend on 3e books and things from the 3ppublishers

 

[Lanefan]

I've never been one of those people who just has to have the New Shiny, be it in RPGs, cars, tech (especially tech!), or anything else. If something works now it'll work until it wears out or falls apart (which RPGs don't generally do, bookbinding notwithstanding) so there's rarely a reason to change just for the hell of it.

I get furious when I (and others) have to toss out perfectly good functional still-working tech just to stay on the treadmill.

 

[Cruentus]

Over 40 years, we started with 1e (brief B/X look-in), but jumped at "advanced", even though we weren't back in 7th grade. As each new edition came out, we jumped onto that one, all the way up until 4e. When 4e hit, our "forever DM" got the books, and we tried it, and bounced off hard. Or at least I did. They may have pressed on a little, but it didn't have a long play time. Instead, we did things like Stormbringer, GURPS, Amber, Mechwarrior RPG, Cyberpunk, and a bunch of other stuff that was out, but never got a look. Then we picked up 5e late to the game, around 4 years ago (so, 2020?), played it for several campaigns each about 1.5 years, and became disillusioned with it. I even picked up DMing, since we had been bouncing duties around. I tried one campaign, and I stopped it after about a year, as it was just too draining to fight the system.

I've since picked up and am running a couple of B/X/OSE/Beyond the Wall campaigns, and several of us went back to the beginning and are having a blast. We're not even looking at the new 5e, aside from keeping an eye on the UAs to see how much further they can go away from what we like when we play. We might pull things into our games, but we're not buying or playing the system anymore.

So, overall, I've gone from B/X > 1e >2e >3e >3.5e >4e >5e > B/X/OSE. Right back to the beginning, and this is where I'll stay.

 

[Richards]

I started with AD&D 1E, then went to AD&D 2E, and finally to 3.0 and 3.5. And by that time, I was one of the more frequently-published freelancers in the pages of Dragon and Dungeon magazines. But when 4E came out, I didn't like what I saw, as there were too many broad, sweeping changes that would have made continuing on with an existing campaign almost impossible - too many things no longer worked the way they had before, too many previously established "facts" were now no longer so. Fortunately, I had amassed enough 3.0/3.5 material to last me my entire gaming lifetime, and my gaming group had no desire to switch from 3.5, so we haven't. When 5E came out, I gave it a peek, thought "interesting," and have ignored it completely since. We're still gaming with 3.5 and having a blast.

Of course, it kind of sucks that I'm no longer a freelancer, but I wasn't willing to move on to 4E just to be able to continue with that particular hobby. If I ever lose my gaming group and no longer have 3.5 campaigns to keep me occupied, I may invest in whatever the current version is and dip my toe back in the freelancing pool, but I'm not really planning on it.

Johnathan

 

[payn]

What makes folks (you) stay with an edition?

First and foremost, I like the mechanics and game design. Typically, for me, that will be strategy over tactics (but not excluding) and a healthy customization kit for making (N)PCs. Secondly, good setting(s) and adventure support.

What are the costs of being left behind? How does it change your gaming life?

My personal experience has been in groups of 4-6 players. Out of those, Id say any given group has only 1-3 hardcore players. By that I mean players who enjoy buying gaming gear, participating on forums, and GMing. These folks are usually the tastemakers of groups and drive what edition/system the group ultimately uses. Being a hardcore means I have mostly been able to lead my groups to my own tastes. So, edition change impact has been low.

Some folks have a deep connection to the D&D brand. For many years I houseruled and homebrewed and always saw D&D as a kit, but not really a formed brand. I didnt see a particular way of play hard-lined, or any given setting as default. I know this is much different for some other folks who feel wrong or like they are missing something if they are not playing D&D specifically. I dont have that tie. So, while I want D&D to suit my tastes, I am comfortable if it doesnt. Right now 5E is neutral to me. I wouldn't run it, but I might play it if a GM pitches an appealing game.