D&D General What Is Your D&D Survivor Edition?

[Retreater]

This is a thought experiment. Under the hypothetical premise, you can keep and play only a single edition of D&D for the rest of your gaming life.
Which one would you pick? If you feel like discussing in the thread why you picked the one you did or anything else, feel free.

(For this poll, I have merged several similar editions together. For example, I am aware there are various editions of Basic D&D - Moldvay, Cook, Rules Compendium, etc. I'm just curious to see an overview on where my fellow ENWorlders stand. I am also not including retroclones like Swords & Wizardry, Old School Essentials, or Pathfinder.)

 

[overgeeked]

B/X, BECMI, and Rules Cyclopedia. Covers everything from basic dungeon crawls on up to immortality, with castles and domain management in between. Simple and quick system. Straightforward and only needs a few house rules to run. So many classic modules and the Known World, Mystara, Hollow World setting can’t be beat. Almost anything not designed for it (settings and modules) can easily be run with B/X.

 

[Tales and Chronicles]

Probably one of the rare one who'll vote for 4e.

Give me a working builder and I'll play it anytime. The others are all pretty good, but 4e was my first edition of real D&D gaming and I just love the symmetrical character progression. What people called same-y, I actually love. These day I work on a D&D chassis using 4e, but with 5e's proficiency bonus instead of the +1/2 level progression and no feat + no magic items treadmill.

 

[Helldritch]

I concur with @overgeeked. The rule cyclopedia has it all in one book. No need for more.

 

[Helldritch]

Probably one of the rare one who'll vote for 4e.

Give me a working builder and I'll play it anytime. The others are all pretty good, but 4e was my first edition of real D&D gaming and I just love the symmetrical character progression. What people called same-y, I actually love. These day I work on a D&D chassis using 4e, but with 5e's proficiency bonus instead of the +1/2 level progression and no feat + no magic items treadmill.

You will not get hate from me. 4ed was better than a lot of people think. I think it's a good choice too.

 

[overgeeked]

You will not get hate from me. 4ed was better than a lot of people think. I think it's a good choice too.

Same. If only it played smoother/quicker it would easily be my second choice.

 

[Charlaquin]

Tough call for me between 4e and 5e, but I went with 4e. I think a lot of what I like about 5e has more to do with me getting better as a DM than with the system itself.

 

[commandercrud]

BECMI. No question.

 

[Helldritch]

Same. If only it played smoother/quicker it would easily be my second choice.

It is only at high and very high levels that the game slows down. And yet, it is possible to make it quicker with a good design encounter balance and judicious use of minions.

Also, a sandglass can be used to time a player's turn. Once the sand is all down, the player's turn end. A one minute sand timer is quite enough. We were doing this and it was surprising how fast a combat was. Come to think of it, it maybe time to try it in 5ed too...

 

[overgeeked]

It is only at high and very high levels that the game slows down. And yet, it is possible to make it quicker with a good design encounter balance and judicious use of minions.

Also, a sandglass can be used to time a player's turn. Once the sand is all down, the player's turn end. A one minute sand timer is quite enough. We were doing this and it was surprising how fast a combat was. Come to think of it, it maybe time to try it in 5ed too...

Thanks, but this isn't the thread for that.