NaturalZero
Adventurer
I mostly want to take the pieces I like from the editions I've played and slap them onto 5e.
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D&D General What editions of Dungeons & Dragons do you like?
- Thread starter Slit518
- Start date
DemoMonkey
Hero
I mostly want to take the pieces I like from the editions I've played and slap them onto 5e.
I know! It's just so frustrating that The High Council of Gaming prevents us from doing that.
I know! It's just so frustrating that The High Council of Gaming prevents us from doing that.
I'd say 5E is by far the best edition. I grew up with and played both AD&D during childhood, so they'll always have a place in my heard. I liked 3E and 4E initially, but they had fundamental flaws that I just couldn't overlook.
While I wasn't a huge fan of it, BECMI really should have been included. It's technically the longest running edition of the game.
While I wasn't a huge fan of it, BECMI really should have been included. It's technically the longest running edition of the game.
I'm pretty much doing this with Pathfinder 1st Edition/3.5 by slapping some 5E esque House Rules into it.
Alzrius
The EN World kitten
It's not quite the longest-running edition, but it's very close.
BECMI began with Frank Mentzer's Basic Set (the "B" in "BECMI"), which, presuming I have my dates correct, came out on May 1st, 1983. After this, the absolute latest I can find a BECMI-compatible product coming out from TSR is Troy Denning's The Classic Dungeons & Dragons Game: Epic Adventures with Wizards, Dragons, and Magic!, which came out on either May 2nd or May 4th, 1994 (I've seen conflicting listings). So BECMI lasted almost exactly eleven years.
(If you don't count that introductory boxed set as the ending point, then the last BECMI product would be the Poor Wizard's Almanac II, published on December 1st, 1993.)
By contrast, the AD&D 2E Player's Handbook came out in February of 1989, with the Dungeon Master's Guide following in May of the same year and the MC1 Monstrous Compendium Volume One following in June (I can't find exact release dates). Since the last AD&D 2E product was Die Vecna Die! (June, 2000), that means that if you start counting from when the PHB was released, AD&D 2E just barely edges out BECMI by a few months.
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Ath-kethin
Elder Thing
I should clarify that I play Rules Cyclopedia mostly with my 7yo and occasionally my neighbor or their kid. I replaced the combat matrix and AC system with an ascending AC and hit bonus system derived from it's numbers.
So even though my 7yo can add (and subtract) negative numbers, I decided to make it easier on everyone.
Frankly, changing that matrix is less impactful of a house rule than many I've employed.
loverdrive
Makin' cool stuff
4E was hands down best edition ever. It felt like it was actually designed by people who had a vision and knew what they are doing and also it had the best default setting ever.
Helldritch
Hero
I liked them all. But 3ed and 3.xed are too close in my mind to be different editions. The 3.xed is the correction of 3ed. So they're one and the same for me.
But where is BECMI? That edition was fun. We had a BECMI campaign going side by side with a 1ed campaign.
Although I love 5ed, I play 1ed and BECMI in a heartbeat.
But where is BECMI? That edition was fun. We had a BECMI campaign going side by side with a 1ed campaign.
Although I love 5ed, I play 1ed and BECMI in a heartbeat.
oreofox
Explorer
All the ones I've played. I may have played a game of 1e, but it was a single session 25 years ago that I don't even count it. So I checked all but 1e and 4e. Pathfinder 1e... I like it overall, but the type of people that played it ruined that edition for me. Too many people focused just on numbers made me quit. I think that's why I enjoy 5e so much. It came out at the perfect time for me, as my final game of Pathfinder happened in 2014, a couple months before 5e released.
I've thrown around the idea of merging AD&D and 5e (mostly taking the ability scores of AD&D and slapping them onto 5e)
I've thrown around the idea of merging AD&D and 5e (mostly taking the ability scores of AD&D and slapping them onto 5e)
Thomas Shey
Hero
I'm not really fond of any editions of D&D proper; I respect what 4e was doing though don't really like its effect, and while I liked OD&D and 3e at the time they came out, within a couple of years their limits (OD&D) and problems (3e) had put me off.
I do fairly well like PF2e, and think there's some real virtues to 13th Age and Shadow of the Demon Lord.
I do fairly well like PF2e, and think there's some real virtues to 13th Age and Shadow of the Demon Lord.
Jack Daniel
Engines & Empires
I would count Tom Moldvay's Basic Set as the starting point. (Just to give one example of why, prior to 1981, the original/basic D&D elf is a fighting man up to 4th level/magic-user up to 8th level; whereas from 1981 onward, the elf is a character class that goes up to 10th level. That doesn't change from Moldvay/Cook to Mentzer to Denning/Allston.) Since the last compatible product for this version of the game was the 1996 re-release of the Classic D&D Game, that means that Basic/Expert/Classic D&D was in print for fifteen years. Blows every other edition out of the water.
5e because it's the most accessible for people, so it's easy to find folks willing to join a one-shot or a new campaign. 1e for the nostalgia of playing through classic TSR and Judges Guild adventures, and because it was the closest match for B/X since that wasn't one of the options. In truth, the more I play OSE, the more I just want to play that and not 5e.
MGibster
Legend
While I'd rather use a cheese grater to remove scabs from a festering wound on the bottom of my foot than go back and play AD&D, I have at one time enjoyed every edition of D&D except for 4th edition. I have fond memories of playing Ravenloft with AD&D 1st edition, running games in the golden era of 2nd Edition settings with Dark Sun, Ravenloft, and Al Qadim, and what a refreshing breath of air D&D 3E was (even with that stupid double bladed sword) since by 2000 it had been 4+ years since I got rid of all my TSR stuff.
I played a brief campaign of 4E and utterly despised the system. The only nice thing I can say about it is that they did a great job making sure every class was useful during an encounter. No mean feat. But I felt like I was playing World of Warcraft.
I played a brief campaign of 4E and utterly despised the system. The only nice thing I can say about it is that they did a great job making sure every class was useful during an encounter. No mean feat. But I felt like I was playing World of Warcraft.