What is your second edition experience (no edition war!!!)

[Remathilis]

This is just a simple poll to see how many people played second edition and if not, what D&D DID they play during those times.

It seems many of the people here didn't play it, or have very bad memories of it. I'm curious if it is a majority or a vocal minority.

Vote honest. Thanks!

 

[Jeff Wilder]

I responded that I began in 1E and moved on to 2E, but that's neither completely true, nor does it tell the whole story.

I actually began with the D&D Expert Set, then moved to the D&D Basic Set (yes, backwards, I know), then to 1E, then to 2E.

I enjoyed 2E for the first couple of years. Then kits and other stuff started getting out of hand and I dropped 2E more or less contemporaneously with the release of, I think, The Complete Nosepicker's Handbook. I thought I was done with D&D, to be honest, but, six or eight years later, 3E blew my socks off.

 

[Lord Mhoram]

Played BD&D, but moved to AD&D 1st within months.
When 2nd came out, I was playing Champions as my main system, but the wife and I still did 1st ed D&D solo with each other. We looked over the books, and decided that we preferred our house-ruled 1st ed rules. So that is what we played with D&D until 3rd came out.

We did get a couple of 2nd ed settings - we loved Spelljammer and used that a lot, and we got Dark Sun, just so a really high level character of my wife's could come in and fix everything and turn it into a normal happy world.

Never played under the 2nd ed rules though.

 

[Crothian]

Started with basic D&D then to first and when second edition came out we didn't move directly towards that. There were many other games out that frankly were more interesting the 2nd ed AD&D. But after about 6 years of that I did go onto second edition and really enjoyed myself.

 

[Scribble]

I began with basic D&D, moved onto second edition, but always tended to use a lot of 1e source material with my 2e stuff anyway. Had a LOT of fun with 2e, and have a ton of fun memories.

 

[Philotomy Jurament]

I started with Holmes and 1e AD&D. When 2e came out, I did try it (so "never played it" doesn't really fit, although that's what I selected), but I disliked it. I played other games and editions (mostly BECM) throughout the 2e period.

 

[Cadfan]

I selected "began in basic, never played 2nd." Technically I did play 2nd, but I didn't play very much of it and I didn't particularly enjoy it. Seemed too fiddly. Jumped in on 3e, though, which is way more fiddly... but you get more bang for your fiddliness there.

 

[el-remmen]

I kind of started with Basic/Expert. etc. . . and 1E concurrently, but by the time we switched to 2nd Ed we were playing AD&D only.

I ran some of my most memorable and fun campaigns using 2E, but can't imagine ever going back to playing it. I'd probably go back to using the Rules Cyclopedia first and get real basic.

 

[Ander00]

My only real experience with second edition was indirectly, through computer games and novels, as the one campaign I was going to play in never got off the ground. Since third edition's come out I've been playing that regularly.


cheers

 

[Ahnehnois]

I played 2e for a short time just before 3e came out. I didn't get much into it or understand the rules (or gaming in general) and was not really into it until I bought the 3e core books. Also played a fair amount of Baldur's Gate for whatever that's worth.

Thus, I'm not an expert but I've always felt that 3e was a clear and massive improvement over the convoluted mess of late 2e. I did miss some of the aspects of NWPs, esp. the drawback-type ones, as well as a few other things.