D&D General When did you leave D&D? Why? For what game? And what brought you back?

[Micah Sweet]

I feel like it is fairly common for folks to decide they are "done with D&D" at some point (or multiple points!) and to leave for other games. It is also fairly common IMO for those same people to eventually come back to D&D.

So this thread is a place to talk about our experiences leaving D&D and returning it. This is not meant to just talk about now, but any time that it has happened to you and your group.

A note: the goal here is not to start edition wars or otherwise wallow in negativity. I am more interested in the kinds of circumstances and preferences that drive people to move out of and back into the active D&D playing community. Let's be honest and respectful and supportive.

Throughout my gaming career, the driving force that has pushed me out of D&D every few years has just been a frustration and exhaustion with D&Disms by and large -- the tropes, the expectations, the limitations and the rigidity of it all. I always seem to eventually get tired of dealing with D&D (in whatever form it is at the time) and try and find other games to run.

What usually brings me back is simply that it is a lot easier to find players. Eventually, those attempts to run other stuff often fail or collapse and I am stuck without a game to run. I get antsy to GM and after some failed attempts to get folks to commit to a non-D&D, I usually end up deciding to run D&D so I can fill a table. And it works every time.

What's extra frustrating is that I don't have any problems filling a non-D&D table at a con, but doing so for a regular game sometimes feels impossible.

Tell us about your journey in and out of D&D.

Please define what you mean by "D&D". Just the official game? Any edition? 3pp?

 

[lynnfredricks]

Never, really.

However, there was a long string of fantastic games that came out throughout the 70s and early 80s, and like a lot of regular gamers, I got the itch for 'more and different.' So yes, I played and ran other games. I only really skipped 4e and like many, enjoyed Pathfinder 1e instead.

 

[Kobold Stew]

Left in 2007/08, because Spirit of the Century (and other FATE games) looked more interesting to me than 4e.
Returned with the new playtest materials for 5e, which I think started in 2011, because my son wanted to play with his friends. His 11th birthday party was a D&D game that I ran (9th had been him running Kobolds Ate My Baby for his friends.).

 

[Reynard]

Please define what you mean by "D&D". Just the official game? Any edition? 3pp?

When did you decide you did not want to play Dungeons and Dragons anymore.

 

[Micah Sweet]

When did you decide you did not want to play Dungeons and Dragons anymore.

So, official then.

For decades, I played lots of games off and on, but never gave up on D&D. But at exactly the same time WotC officially declared they don't care about canon anymore, I started looking for something else to scratch that itch. I rediscovered the OSR and found some new parts of it, and followed Level Up from the beginning for my 5e-familiar players.

 

[Retreater]

Left 3.5 to try a more flexible system. Tried GURPS.
Left GURPS for PF1.
Left PF1 for 4E.
When D&D Encounters ended, I tried D&D Next, 13th Age, and Dungeon World.
Maintained 5e campaigns and other systems, including FFG Star Wars, Call of Cthulhu, and PF2.
Left 5e for PF2 and 4E. That's been about 9 months now.
I don't see myself returning to 5e (2014 or 2024) beyond one-shots.
Over 10 years is enough to give one system when there's an amazing variety of experiences and many games.

 

[The Sigil]

When did you decide you did not want to play Dungeons and Dragons anymore.

Let’s see..
Left BECMI and 1e to try new stuff. Talislanta, Rifts, Star Frontiers, GURPS, probably more stuff I can’t remember.
Came back to BECMI and 1e.
Stayed into 2e.
Left for home brew mashups of White Wolf, d6 Star Wars, Cyberpunk, Palladium, other stuff.
Started following some site named Eric Noah’s 3rd Edition Rumors & News.
Came back to D&D with the release of 3e.
Quit 3e as I had gotten married and had young children to raise.
Got into an MMORPG that is now defunct.
Coded a clone of said MMORPG with the original creator’s permission.
Came back to 5e when one of those kids got interested in D&D and asked me to DM for him and some of his friends at high school.
Stopped due to a medical emergency hospitalizing me for about a month followed by lots of rehab (still not fully back to normal).
Picked up PF2E and have been adapting D&D to that as I like the system better than 5e but I can run 5e if I need to. Not running as regularly as I would like due to recent move but it is just a lull, I suspect.
Next move is probably either recode the MMORPG or home brew a mix of ideas stolen from 5e, PF2e, DC20, Level Up, and any other sources I deem good. Setting? Mystara of course.

 

[Jacob Lewis]

I was first introduced to the game in the early 80s with the Basic set. Over the years, I moved into Advanced and continued with 2nd edition. Lots of settings, lots of novels, and plenty of computer games to keep me enthralled despite having few opportunities to enjoy these at a table with real persons.

3rd edition was an exciting time when the game appeared to be evolving for the first time in decades. And creators were given access to design and develop in a space that had been denied to the general public for so long. More importantly, the internet was making it easier to connect with more people to share ideas, opinions, and made it easier to play the game with others.

Up until this point, I had never been fully satisfied with the game itself. There were always aspects that I didn't like, or thought could be done better. Some areas were overly complex, while others were not developed enough. And every other system or clone just perpetuated the same flaws, the same expectations, and the same stereotypes. And while 3.5 fixed a few things (that should have been obvious with hindsight), I was not happy with the short turnaround that had me re-purchase my books only 2 years after buying into the new edition.

When 4th edition was announced, I largely ingored it. I was already burning out on what seemed like a constant cycle of purchasing new libraries of books in order to support my interest for something as basic as a "game". Likewise, Pathfinder failed to grab my interest for much the same reasons, though I figured their content would still be compatible with 3.5e, so I could continue indulging in what was otherwise a "perfectly usable" system that I still owned.

When I finally did get around to checking out 4e, I was blown away. This was actually something different! And interesting! And yet, familiar enough that I could still relate to the system and lore I had been investing for years! It appealed to me for many reasons, and on so many levels. It wasn't perfect, however. But it made running games and DM prep so easy and so fun for me. And with the Encounters program, I was able to meet the first real group of gaming friends in years! The experience at the game tables (virtual and real) were some of the best experiences I had with the game since I started way back in the 80s.

And then WotC took it away. And yes, I am still bitter about it. Not only did they cancel the edition I enjoyed and supported the most, they kept it locked down with a prohibitive license that won't allow anyone else to offer continued support, like a workabke VTT with usable content so I can throw money at rather than spending hundreds of hours learning code and input data by hand.

Despite all that, I still gave 5e a chance. Several, actually. And while I saw some appeal for the system itself, it just doesn't have the same zing like 4e did for me. Things that were promised never happened. And that was the end of DnD for me.

Since then, I have discovered my favorite RPG of all time: FFG's Star Wars RPG. It took some getting used to, and I had to get out of the DnD mindset to realize what RPGs could be. I learned that my biggest strength was being able to improvise on the spot, and learned to go with the flow, giving players much more agency with the narrative. This made for a better game where I no longer had to worry about getting the numbers right and memorizing useless details of every room, encounter, or reward to ensure everything stayed in balance. And, of course, it revitalized my love for Star Wars in general, which opened up more games, stories, etc.

In time, I did miss some of the tactical, crunchy goodness of DnD-style games. I really liked Starfinder as an alternative sci-fi, but couldn't really get into all the mechanics again. Pathfinder2 showed a lot of promise, with more than a bit of 4e-isms to pique my interest.

But at the end of the day, my heart still longs for a cleaned up and concise version of 4e. Even if that should happen (unlikely), I feel I am too old to do this anymore.

 

[Celebrim]

Left D&D for GURPS. Was frustrated by trying to document all my house rules for AD&D to fix it. Had difficulty verbalizing some of the concepts that I wanted to adopt. Just started feeling that it was too much work to completely rewrite a game system.

Got into GURPS because I thought it intuitively all made sense but started to realize that it read better than it played and started to see the warts in the system. Was busy house ruling GURPs now and getting very frustrated with GURPS from a GMs perspective and the 'character sheet as rule sheet' player centric approach seen in games like GURPS or HERO, when I encountered the 3e D&D Player's Handbook and just fell in love. This was the game I was trying to turn 1e A&D into. They had "attacks of opportunity" codified which was something I was trying to work on. They'd managed to replace the NWP system with a true skill system which was something I was trying to work on. They'd like me gone to all monsters have attribute blocks. They'd cleaned up and codified combat maneuvers which was something I was trying to work on. They'd rebalanced the 'thief' into something very playable. They'd even codified the 'scent' ability which was a longtime frustration for me.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

I feel like it is fairly common for folks to decide they are "done with D&D" at some point (or multiple points!) and to leave for other games. It is also fairly common IMO for those same people to eventually come back to D&D.

So this thread is a place to talk about our experiences leaving D&D and returning it. This is not meant to just talk about now, but any time that it has happened to you and your group.

A note: the goal here is not to start edition wars or otherwise wallow in negativity. I am more interested in the kinds of circumstances and preferences that drive people to move out of and back into the active D&D playing community. Let's be honest and respectful and supportive.

Throughout my gaming career, the driving force that has pushed me out of D&D every few years has just been a frustration and exhaustion with D&Disms by and large -- the tropes, the expectations, the limitations and the rigidity of it all. I always seem to eventually get tired of dealing with D&D (in whatever form it is at the time) and try and find other games to run.

What usually brings me back is simply that it is a lot easier to find players. Eventually, those attempts to run other stuff often fail or collapse and I am stuck without a game to run. I get antsy to GM and after some failed attempts to get folks to commit to a non-D&D, I usually end up deciding to run D&D so I can fill a table. And it works every time.

What's extra frustrating is that I don't have any problems filling a non-D&D table at a con, but doing so for a regular game sometimes feels impossible.

Tell us about your journey in and out of D&D.

2E Era.

Started playing AD&D 2E in 1989.

Almost immediately found out about other RPGs.

By 1992 2E was looking pretty bad compared to other RPGs, in just literally all ways except sheer amount of books. We started playing it a lot less.

By 1994 we'd stopped playing it entirely in favour of stuff like Shadowrun, Cyberpunk 2020, Rifts, Earthdawn, and the World of Darkness games.

But Planescape got us to start buying D&D stuff again, and to stay interested in D&D. Literally if it wasn't for Planescape we'd just have been entirely done with D&D then and there. We actually mostly didn't play PS, rather FR, but that wouldn't have happened without PS. Also D&D would have been abandoned by say, 1992 if it wasn't for Dark Sun.

3E Era.

Started when it came out, converted our existing campaign. Conversion was a disaster because 3E didn't play nice with multiclass or the like. No-one had fun.

Tried a number of abortive 3E campaigns, none went anywhere fun.

WotC kind of got lucky as d20/OGL caused absolute carnage in the RPG industry generally, with loads of companies abandoning what they were doing to try and jump on the bandwagon. Also helping WotC, other companies made some pretty ill-advised decisions - early nWoD for example didn't really have the same zeitgeist-y appeal oWoD had.

We moved to other RPGs (many of them d20 and not very good, sadly) and boardgames for the most part, but played a bit of 3.XE at the end with stuff like Book of 9 Swords and Gestalt characters.

EDIT - Also this was the most frustrating era, because it was where it felt like we were putting huge effort into trying to make D&D work, but it wasn't outputting fun for us. And it was the last era (for the moment) where we had a ton of free time and could do things like sometimes play 8-10 hour game days and the like. I think we'd have been a lot happier if we'd just ignored 3E entirely and gone back to some '90s RPGs.

4E Era.

Got back into D&D hugely. A lot of people might not have liked 4E, but for my main group it had the exact opposite effect - we loved it. We started playing D&D regularly again, and for several years we didn't really play any other RPGs, because none of them could offer the sheer fun that 4E did. The DDI was a major asset too, as people could update characters between sessions ands and look up rules at their leisure and so on.

Unfortunately we hit the levels where 4E drastically slows down, and whilst we tried to press though them, the endless Action > Reaction > Interrupt > Immediate Action swamp slowly drained the fun out of things.

So we switched over to Dungeon World, which we really enjoyed for quite a while. Played quite a few other RPGs as well in this era.

5E Era.

Largely stayed out of 5E until about 2017, still playing DW or other RPGs. Played 5E a bit as a player but absolutely none of the main group were enthusiastic about 5E.

What changed this was D&D Beyond, which at least made it possible for everyone to access characters and rules online. We started up 5E and had an okay time, but enthusiasm with it wasn't as high as other RPGs like DW, other PtbA games, or Spire.

However I did play a ton as a player, especially during COVID, which was probably the most 5E we played in a lot of ways. Beyond was vital here (with the Roll 20 Chrome extension).

I don't currently run D&D (I do play in a couple of campaigns though) and aren't hugely enthusiastic to do so (2024 looks "fine" - lots of minor improvements, a few minor screw-ups - but unlikely to change this). I'm basically waiting on a couple of Kickstarters/Backerkits to produce results before I'm likely to want to DM again (though I might run some more Spire or a PtbA game or something), specifically the MCDM RPG (unfortunately he seems to have entirely forgotten everyone but his Patreon supporters even exist so will probably forget his promise to have something for us to play by mid-2024 - I don't even mean that in a mean way, I literally think he's honestly forgotten MCDM RPG has any supporters/interest outside of the Patreon, despite being quite active on this for a few months after the Kickstarter) and Hollows by Grant Howitt et al.