What RPG(s) did you stick with an earlier edition?

[payn]

I might have done this anyway; it's impossible to be sure, but it's probably because I've owned an FLGS since I was 19 years old that I only ever play the current version of anything. Once a new one is out, I never go back. Not once.

Not even when I liked the old one better.

Is part of that being up to date on the talk so you can sell the products?

 

[Voadam]

Vampire the Masquerade 20th Anniversary Edition, which is a collation of stuff from Vampire the Masquerade Revised. This is me as a player as I have never run it but our group specifically chose this over Vampire the Requiem (despite the storyteller liking aspects of Requiem) and then again later over Vampire the Masquerade 5e.

We were all familiar with the old vampire rules and the Masquerade tropes like specific clans and such. While the storyteller liked the Requiem generation varying stuff from Requiem, for our group it was not worth it to abandon the VtM World of Darkness type lore (although Prometheus the Created ended up in the game anyway alongside Werewolf the Apocalypse tribes and Mage the Ascension conventions).

Again later when we did vampire again we had a couple hardcopies of the 20th anniversary rules, we were familiar with them, and no one wanted to get new 5e stuff or learn their new hunger mechanics or metaplot advancement.

Both times the storytellers did not want to be in places with existing sourcebooks (Like Chicago) or use any existing NPCs, but they wanted the existing backdrops of different clans and powers and the familiar rules.

 

[FitzTheRuke]

Is part of that being up to date on the talk so you can sell the products?

Yes. It's very rare that old editions remain available, and I'm not the kind of store that goes deep on "collectable" versions of out-of-print things (other than comic books) because I don't like asking high prices for things and having them sit around (not even on the comics - I ask reasonable prices and sell them quickly, use that money to buy more, repeat).

So I tend to sell out of old editions (including my own copies, which I would sell rather than keep), can't source more for what I would consider a reasonable price, and just carry the new, in-print thing. I it's what I have, it's what I need to show people and play in-store, so there's just never any going back.

I'd sooner avoid personally playing a game at all (leaving it up to others) if I don't like it, rather than "compete" with the available product by playing an older version.

This honestly goes for in-print, but more "niche" games as well, unfortunately. If it doesn't sell regularly, I just can't take the time to play it, even if I'd like to. I can mitigate that a little by pushing something small that I love, but if the customers don't bite - I have to move on.