D&D 5E what is it about 2nd ed that we miss?

[rabindranath72]

Interesting thread, and something I have been mulling over this same thing the last week. I DMed 2e the longest, from 1989 to 2002, and before that, it was BECMI. I had a brief stint with 3.0 (picked up again last year for a Dragonlance campaign) and then a very brief affair with 4e (ended sort of tragically when we discovered 13th Age two years ago; only recently picked up 13th Age again), and recently ran a 5e Birthright campaign (which went well, if not for the nerfing of most of the spells, which in 2e are much more powerful and can be used in mass battles).
And very occasionally I still run a BECMI game for my old Italian group (like, twice or thrice a year.)

Given the recent experiences with all these games, I started wondering what I really like in 5e, especially compared with 2e. As someone has pointed out, 5e may be simpler than 4e and 3.x, but it's still more complex than 2e. Now, I don't mind complexity on the players' side, but I also get to play with people who doesn't give the proverbial rat's arse about special abilities or "crafting" unique characters; they are happy with BECMI as with 2e.
On the DM's side 5e doesn't seem to bring a lot of interesting "stuff" to the table; monsters are marginally more interesting than 2e ones (only some of them are, really.) When I DM, I discovered that I enjoy 13th Age the most; reminds me of the nice 4e monster design, without the hassles of the rest of the game (most important: no grid! I don't like it, and I have currently a like-minded group of people who doesn't, either, so it's a win-win). But 13th Age doesn't seem to work for all campaign types, in my experience.

So, what good does 5e have, is that it's becoming sort of a "lingua franca", it's in print, it seems to be liked if not loved by pretty much everyone I have asked (an interesting emergent property of its design?) So I'll definitely continue playing 5e, but if I found interested people, I'd still play 2e.

 

[Tony Vargas]

So, what good does 5e have, is that it's becoming sort of a "lingua franca", it's in print, it seems to be liked if not loved by pretty much everyone I have asked...So I'll definitely continue playing 5e, but if I found interested people, I'd still play 2e.

This has prettymuch always been the strong suit of D&D. It may not be the best game, it's not the game everyone would play as their first choice, but everyone's familiar with it, and most probably started with it & wouldn't have stuck with the hobby if they hadn't liked it in those earliest experiences.
Lingua-franca is right, it's the 'Common' of RPGs.

 

[ChrisCarlson]

Rocking out to Pearl Jam's "Ten" and wearing plaid.

You don't just have my (close enough to) same name, you have my memories too?!?

 

[ChrisCarlson]

This has prettymuch always been the strong suit of D&D. It's not the best game, it's not the game everyone in the group would play as their first choice...

I think your "take" here is your own. And definitely does not speak for the general populace. Unless you'd care to back it up with some kind of gathered statistical evidence? Because it certainly doesn't match what I know of the countless people I've shared a gaming table with in my multiple decades in the hobby. I'll admit my own "take" is equally anecdotal. But since it runs counter to your stated opinion, I think its solid enough evidence that your statement, as presented, is certainly not true.

 

[Water Bob]

Yeah, I agree with Chris. Whenever, in the decades I've been playing with my friends, I've ever tried to play something other than D&D, it's always a harder sell. When I say, "Hey, we haven't roleplayed in a while. You guys want to get together and play?" They always assume I'm talking about D&D.

Now, we've had great times playing Top Secret TS/SI, James Bond, Star Wars D6, MegaTraveller and Classic Traveller (all older games, notice), but D&D is what takes up the vast part of their hearts.

Even today, I'm runing a Conan game, using the Mongoose rules (based on 3.5 D&D, but significantly different in a lot of areas especially tone), I think that, if they'd have their rathers, they'd choose to play straight old Forgotten Realms D&D.

It's a great game, to be sure. No perfect, but great.

 

[Tony Vargas]

Whenever, in the decades I've been playing with my friends, I've ever tried to play something other than D&D, it's always a harder sell. When I say, "Hey, we haven't roleplayed in a while. You guys want to get together and play?" They always assume I'm talking about D&D.

That's the meme, yes. You've found some other game you'd rather play (or run, or even just /try/), it's an uphill battle to get an existing group on board, or bring together a group who're all interested in that same alternate game. But D&D, everyone's knows it, it's easy for everyone to settle for it.

Like the D&D party having a conversation - its most likely in Common - not because no one in the party speaks anything else, not because everyone in the party loves speaking Common, but because it's the one they're guaranteed to all be able speak.

(A related one that I've seen play out all too often is the player who doesn't usually DM getting all excited about some game no one else in the group has even heard of, who really wants to play this game (whatever it may be), so finally offers to run it, screws it up (because he's not an experienced GM), and the group never plays that game again, much to his chagrin.)

 

[Athinar]

slow healing.

Fast Healing Long rest (reset) was made for players and DM's with ADD who don't have the attention span of a gnat

5e was made for players with ADD

Mod Note: Insulting people is a good way to get the hairy eyeball from a moderator. Don't do it. ~Umbran

 

[AaronOfBarbaria]

[MENTION=6781944]Athinar[/MENTION], I think you forgot an ampersand in your post... again.

 

[Ahglock]

A lot. I love 2e. It has flaws like how thieves work but overall I love it. Top things for me were the save/magic resistance. It allowed for true save or die spells without unbalancing things as even a low end monster has okay chances to save and mid to high end monsters frequently almost always succeeded. So yeah if you want to memorize and risk 75%+ fail chances you could cast that finger of death.