Tell me what you like most about the individual editions of D&D

[BlueBlackRed]

Without degrading into an edition war, please list out what about the editions of D&D did that was right (from OD&D to Essentials).

Granted some people will view some of them as negative rather than a positive (vancian magic, multi-classing), but I'm just trying to compile a list for myself for a personal project.

 

[R-Hero]

Without degrading into an edition war...

Good luck with that...



In a nutshell, I would have to say the very basic mechanics that have not changed (much) from Gygax's original design.

It was the idea of taking a human(oid) adventurer and breaking its physical and mental attributes down into a numerical value.

The ideas of Character stats, Hit points, Armor Class, and the like.

Every game system (that i'm aware of) uses something very similar.

Without it there is no pen and paper RPGs.
I would also think there would be no RPGs period.

 

[Viktyr Gehrig]

OD&D: Race as class. Each race is biologically and culturally distinct. The rules expansions in the Gazetteer series allow you to have multiple class variants for the racial classes, to represent non-standard race/class combinations like the Dwarf Cleric; Orcs of Thar introduces a much better multiclass system than either AD&D or anything following it. The Immortals rules.

AD&D 1e: Pure Gygaxian bliss. The last unfiltered, unprocessed, pure, raw version of D&D.

AD&D 2e: The campaign settings. Kits. Arcane Schools and Divine Spheres. Specialty priests. Player's Option. An amazing selection of classes and races. Weapon and Non-Weapon Proficiencies. Reams and reams of fluff on any topic.

D&D 3.X: Standardized, logical mechanics. Simple resolution. Critical hits. Unified XP. Flexibility.

D&D 4: At-wills and Ritual Magic. Paragon Paths and Epic Destinies. Simplified skill system.