Where am I now?
Currently, the primary games I play are not D&D.
GURPS 4th Edition is my personal favorite. It has held that position for 2-3 years now. I often compare 5th Edition to it because the idea of a modular game is something I'm now familiar with, and, due to the GURPS Dungeon Fantasy line, I have what I believe is some experience with a modular approach to a D&D style game.
http://www.sjgames.com/gurps/books/dungeonfantasy/
Star Wars Edge of The Empire has also become a big focus for my primary group. I myself think very highly of it. While it's not exactly a fantasy game in the same vein as D&D, it's made a big enough impact on my primary group to compete with (and often win out over) D&D. For me personally, I find that between it (Star Wars EoTE) and GURPS, I have a really good balance between two games which have different styles. I've actually toyed with the idea (and have some great success) blurring the lines between the two; in particular, I use the idea of the destiny pool in a GURPS DF game I'm running. Overall, I think SWs has been a great palette cleanser to refocus the group on things like story and narrative. For a while, it seemed that our D&D sessions were somehow turning into an exercise in mechanics and optimizing. I'm not suggest that is the fault of D&D; I'm merely stating that was what happened. Anyway, the point is that SWs has become one of the primary games that my primary group plays. Though, to be honest, we haven't invested in the system beyond the first book and the beginner kit, so it remains to be seen how far we go with it.
http://www.fantasyflightgames.com/edge_minisite.asp?eidm=232
Now, if we shift the discussion to solely D&D, I would have the following to say...
4th Edition is currently the primary D&D game among my main group. On a personal level, I have some issues with it, but, with time, I've learned how to change the game enough to come to terms with those issues. Also, while I do have those issues, the areas where I feel 4E improved D&D were done well enough that I have a hard time going back to 3rd or Pathfinder.
When it comes to 5th Edition, I have recently started participating in playtest events and Encounters sessions hosted at the local gaming store. Thus far, I have a relationship with the new rules which are eerily similar to my early experiences with 4th Edition. What I mean by that is I like some of the mentality behind the game, but I am not convinced the mechanics currently reflect that mentality in the way I'd like it to. There seems to be a disconnect between the two aspects of the game right now. There is a direction I hope it goes in, and there is also a direction I suspect it will be taken in to appease people other than myself. Overall, I like some of the ideas, but I'm unsure that I like the execution. In particular, I currently have some doubts that the core of the system is strong enough to support a modular approach; even if it is, I suspect the particular modules I would want will not be released for quite a while. As I said above, I currently do have a game available to me which can give me a D&D-like experience which is modular, and it does so without many of the D&D aspects which bother me. In the end, while I like some of the ideas I've seen from the playtest, there are some aspects of the system which haven't exactly compared well to my other options. It's a game I'll play, but I'm still not convinced it's a game I'll buy.
Surprisingly, I have recently been invited to a D&D 3.5 game. It's been a really long time since I've done more than just look at my 3.5 books for the purpose of converting them to a different game system. I accepted the invitation for many reasons. Firstly, I want to have a fresher mind toward the various editions of D&D; I want that because I want to be able to approach the 5E sessions I'm playing in with a fresh memory of my D&D past (both 3rd and 4th.) Secondly, the group I've been invited into has no connection to the groups I primarily game with, so it's an opportunity for me to look at how people game with a fresh set of eyes; recently, I've become increasingly interested in some of the social aspects of gaming. It gives me a chance to have a broader view of how people play the game and approach it; that (I believe) allows me to approach some of the gaming discussions I involve myself in with a more educated perspective. Thirdly, I'd just like a chance to explore the game again. There are so many options in books that I've never gotten a chance to experiment with, that it'll be nice to try some of them. If nothing else, being introduced to another group gives me a chance to create a larger player base for some of the games I enjoy.
I still have the 1st Edition reprints that I purchased. I've never actually played 1st, but perhaps I'll take them off the shelf some day and try to get something going with my kids. They've started to dabble in tabletop gaming. Though, that being said, one of the hardest things to explain to them has been the idea of classes. I've run a few classless systems for them, and they've gotten the hang of that. It seems likely that the reprints will be little more than a decoration on one of my bookshelves.
