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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Salamandyr" data-source="post: 7921878" data-attributes="member: 40233">D&D has gotten progressively simpler over the decades:5e is the simplest, from in front of the dm screen and behind it. It has a simple resolution method, easily applicable to nearly every situation---as a player, you have a handful of flavorful actions on your character sheet that grant the illusion of variety. A DC 15 is a moderately difficult task, regardless of what that task is. It's predictable. And except for some cases where the DM drastically changes the rules, plays the same regardless of dm's.4e is next--it has a lot of moving parts, but those moving parts fit together in predictable ways, and once one facet is mastered, all other facets work similarly.B/X & BECMI are next--fewer moving parts than either 4e or 5e, but there is no universal mechanic to help out, and task resolution changes depending on the task--maybe 2 in 6, maybe 1 in 6. Perhaps you roll 2d6 and consult a table. Or maybe you have a percentile chance. Who knows? There is very little a player can do, mechanically, to affect his chances--like all pre-3rd edition systems, the REAL game goes on in the mind, with the player using his imagination to come up with a solution that minimizes the "dice game" and maybe, just succeeds by fiat "I look up" "You see the net" rather than relying on a role. However, since that part of the game is subject to DM fiat--what works at one table works entirely differently at other tables.3rd edition is deceptively complex; at first it seems simple, introducing as it does the universal mechanic. And universal mechanics are easy. The deceptive part is that DC's don't mean the same thing. A DC 15 strength check is different from a DC 15 skill check which is different from a DC 15 saving thrown. And add to it, if you choose to go down that path, each individual skill has a completely separate method of calculating DC. On top of that, there are over a dozen modifiers, each of which could come into play to modify your roll. And from a player perspective, there are a steep system mastery aspect, with seemingly innocuous choices potentially crippling the long term effectiveness of your character. And then there is the illusion of flexibility, wherein the system promises the ability to do all things, but where unless you have built specifically to do something it's usually a foolhardy endeavor.2e is next, on balance for being a little more clearly written, though some of the subsystems don't work at all. But you can generally default to stat checks for everything but combat and it works out. Not RAW, but it works.1e, has the B/X problem on steroids. Every system is different; mastery of any system doesn't lend itself to anything else; some things like psionics feel like they're bolt-ons from other games. It's so abstruce that modules will often include mechanical resolution systems for situations the game already covers, but with a different resolution mechanic. And the last few years of its existence, the game company nearly quit selling the main game, in favor of short rule summaries in their modules (with ability checks taking over for all the previous mechanical subsystems).Finally 0D&D--largely on the basis that no one really owned the game--it was more of an idea of a game, than a set of rules that someone could point to.  Any given table you sat down at might as well be playing a completely different game.  Ironically, it was just this that led to Advanced D&D - intended to standardize the game, but itself so complex that one really couldn't hold it all in ones brain at one time.Something to keep in mind--OD&D & 1e might appear simpler for the player than 5 or 4e, and definitely than 3e, but that's only because much of the heavy lifting for the game gets pushed on the Dungeon Master. In fact, for everything before 2e, the resolution method could be boiled down to "roll what the DM tells you". The major complexity comes that the real gameplay isn't what happens with the dice, but with the player describes and the DM judges. There's no rule for setting up an ambush to get a greater chance to surprise a monster--and no text instructing the DM to take player efforts into account, and adjusting surprise chances based on the player preparation--but that sort of thing is a core part of the early game-that's almost completely missing in the rules text.None of the above is meant as a criticism. AD&D and B/X are actually my favorite editions of D&D and the easy to use 5e is my least favorite, while 3rd edition, which I rake over the coals, is the edition that has, in my opinion, the greatest potential (which Pathfinder quite awe-inspiringly manages to completely fail to invoke in any fashion).</blockquote>

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