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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Herschel" data-source="post: 5025587" data-attributes="member: 78357">Maybe the thread can stay level-headed. I suppose it is worth a shot. I'll give my own opinions a roll in about as short a format as I can. OD&D:Good: Started it all as D&D (from Chainmail). Box sets for tiers were a nice, cost-effective way to enter the game.  Bad: Limited in scope (to be expected). Fighters were good early, wizards were good later.  Ugly: Couldn’t find dice outside of the boxed sets originally. (The greatest horror of all!) 1E:Good: Ramped the game up and expanded it in almost epic proportions. Gave us the race/class splits we still see today and set up the classic game worlds. Also gave us classic adventures that taught us not to get too attached to a character. Bad: Started splatbook rampage with Unearthed Arcana. Tried to “fix” fighters with double specialization.  Ugly: UA also introduced Drow as a PC playable race. (second greatest horror of all!) 2E: Good: Wonderful settings and THAC0 was the greatest gaming term ever. Artwork expanded almost exponentially. Was the “Golden Age” as general popularity was likely at its highest.  Bad: Got a bit wonky with consistency. Skills & Powers and Combat & Tactics really pushed the splatbook production to full throttle. Ugly: Expandable Monster Manual was an interesting idea, but three-ring binders are NEVER a good choice. 3E/3.5E:Good: Gave consistent rules for attack and defense instead of inverse relationships. Also made better mechanics for concealment and incorporeal. Consistent level advancement was much more streamlined. Gave rise to the skirmish game and the marketing opportunity of DDM. Bad: Gave munchkinism a boost of amazing proportions. Rules bloat was everywhere and splatbooks were seemingly never-ending. Much of the artwork turned ugly and more anime-influenced with over-sized weapons, ears and steroid-laced characters. Redundant bad artwork was everywhere. Ugly: Really taxed the DM for creation time and headaches. Turned the role-playing portion in to roll playing with the ungodly number of rules and skills for out-of-combat gaming. Didn’t figure out how to have THAC0 work or another awesome acronym or term. BAB sounds like a sheep bleeting. Template madness for half-this-n-that (like dragons) and the new mapping convention for modules was terrible. 4E:Good: Balanced the game like no other edition. No more being spellcaster’s lackeys for fighting men. Makes DMing fun again and puts the role-playing portions back in to my hands. Skill challenges are a great idea. It’s mechanically a tremendous system. It put players back on an even playing field.  Bad: The original PHB reads like a technical manual. Healing surges are a great game mechanic, but awful from a flavor standpoint. The giant-to-titan advancement really annoys me.  Ugly: Dragonborn and Tieflings as player races. Drow are terrible, and these two new pet races really challenge the Drow for the title of worst player races ever. Certain superior mechanical choices are bad from a flavor standpoint.</blockquote>

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