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

[Voidmoji]

I left D&D when 4e died and 5e was revealed. For myself and my style of games, 4e was the best edition of D&D. I found 5e to be a big step back from what I wanted from D&D. I have often said that if 5e was instead the fourth edition of the game, and the actual 4e D&D never existed, then I might have liked 5e. But as it is now, and continues to be, I just find it to not be to my tastes.

Chances are nothing will bring me back to D&D. It is effectively a dead game for me. I am still interested in it, as you can tell from me reading a D&D subforum, but it is much more of an academic thing. I am not even running 4e any longer. There are things about it that now don't quite vibe for me. I might get over that and run it anyway, if only there was a robust VTT module that integrated with everything available for the system. These days my gaming is all virtual, and so I need games that work well virtually.

The sad thing is, nothing has really replaced it. Fantasy is my favorite RPG genre, and while I am not much into dungeon crawls and resource attrition, there is a lot that I see in "generic D&D fantasy" that I still really like. But I have yet to find an actual replacement for D&D that scratches that itch, and doesn't have the same issues I have with 5e. Or, have a bunch of issues separate for that. For example, I want martial characters to have just as many meaningful abilities and choices as spellcasters. 4e ingrained this in me. There are game that try, but often don't succeed by my standards, or simply have other things I dislike. These days I simply play other games that aren't D&D-style fantasy.

This is why I started on creating my own fantasy RPG inspired by 4e, though rather different in a lot of ways; it's not a retroclone. I have a lot done for the system, but tons more needs to be done. Crafting a system like this is a rather daunting task, one which I waiver between diving into design with gusto, to being overwhelmed by it all and not touching it for months at a time.

 

[Reynard]

I left D&D when 4e died and 5e was revealed. For myself and my style of games, 4e was the best edition of D&D. I found 5e to be a big step back from what I wanted from D&D. I have often said that if 5e was instead the fourth edition of the game, and the actual 4e D&D never existed, then I might have liked 5e. But as it is now, and continues to be, I just find it to not be to my tastes.

Chances are nothing will bring me back to D&D. It is effectively a dead game for me. I am still interested in it, as you can tell from me reading a D&D subforum, but it is much more of an academic thing. I am not even running 4e any longer. There are things about it that now don't quite vibe for me. I might get over that and run it anyway, if only there was a robust VTT module that integrated with everything available for the system. These days my gaming is all virtual, and so I need games that work well virtually.

The sad thing is, nothing has really replaced it. Fantasy is my favorite RPG genre, and while I am not much into dungeon crawls and resource attrition, there is a lot that I see in "generic D&D fantasy" that I still really like. But I have yet to find an actual replacement for D&D that scratches that itch, and doesn't have the same issues I have with 5e. Or, have a bunch of issues separate for that. For example, I want martial characters to have just as many meaningful abilities and choices as spellcasters. 4e ingrained this in me. There are game that try, but often don't succeed by my standards, or simply have other things I dislike. These days I simply play other games that aren't D&D-style fantasy.

This is why I started on creating my own fantasy RPG inspired by 4e, though rather different in a lot of ways; it's not a retroclone. I have a lot done for the system, but tons more needs to be done. Crafting a system like this is a rather daunting task, one which I waiver between diving into design with gusto, to being overwhelmed by it all and not touching it for months at a time.

Have you looked into Pathfinder 2E? Many people suggest it shares some qualities from 4E.

 

[overgeeked]

Let's see. I started in 1984 with B/X and quickly moved to AD&D. The group I was playing with was 8-10 years older than me and moved off to college. I played the hell out of WEG Star Wars and World of Darkness. Around 2007-2008, most of the old guard was back in town so we started playing D&D again. Instead of picking up with AD&D we switched to the current edition, 4E. We absolutely loved it. The only drawback was combat took too long. We never even talked about switching back to AD&D. Just did all the typical tricks to speed up combat. But by the time the 5E playtest dropped we were about done with 4E. We played the hell out of 5E for a few years, but it quickly started grinding away our patience. COVID stopped us playing for a bit, but we adapted, like most everyone else. We recently switched to DCC RPG and we're all ecstatic.

 

[DarkCrisis]

4th ed ruined Faerun for me and this is an MMO on paper.

5th ed kind of fixed both issues.

 

[R_J_K75]

I've played every edition since 1E AD&D and some of the basic sets. I honestly can't remember the last time I played D&D, but I think it's been close to two years. Looking back D&D hasn't really felt like D&D since the launch of 3E. I played Shadowdark a few times last year, and liked the streamlined rules, but overall, something was missing. I will give the revised 5E rules a shot but realistically without a new edition of 6E I don't think the changes will be enough to win me back over. I don't think the rules have evolved enough since 2000/3E to hold my attention, and IMO the game has stagnated and feels dated.

 

[CleverNickName]

My gaming group bounced off of 4th Edition back in the day, and switched to Pathfinder for a hot minute. We eventually went back to 3.5E, then switched to 5E when it was announced.

 

[Thomas Shey]

About the time AD&D came out, I'd left for RuneQuest (and later other games) and did not return again until the 3e period. I played a 4e campaign and then left again after that, though I've played some D&D-adjacents such as PF2e and SotDL, and am running 13A now. I have no interest in D&D 5e.

 

[der_kluge]

I took a large hiatus (real life) from gaming after 4e came out. I never made the switch to PF, though liked what I had seen of it. When I started my in-person game back up I briefly debated whether I wanted to use PF or 5e rules, and I opted for 5e because it just had far fewer books. I basically started running 5e without even having read any of those books, and we learned it as I went - and found it fairly straightforward. Although I really hate some of the rules are just buried in paragraphs of text.

I just finished a 16-month long campaign, and am building a campaign set in Ravenloft. I wanted something grittier, and wasn't sure 5e was going to give me the right vibe for that. So, I'm switching to Low Fantasy Gaming (LFG). It's not a huge leap from 5e rules-wise, but is simpler. I haven't ran it yet, so who knows, maybe I'll hate it. Unlikely - it seems pretty easy to fix stuff if I want to.

I'm also switching systems because I hate WoTC.

So, I guess the answer to your question is - I'm currently leaving 5e.

 

[GetInTheHole]

Left in the late 80s when my friends and I all discovered cars, girls and hanging out at the lake over playing 1E and BECMI.

I did carry my 1E/BECMI materials around with me through college and then moving multiple times to where we have a house now. I did occasionally look at 2E/3E materials in the bookstores, but never really had more than a passing interest.

During COVID, I poked my nose into 5E and bought the DMG/PHB/MM. That led to getting almost every single WOTC 5E hardcover. Which also led to scouring Ebay to backfill my Orange Spine 1E shelf to replace what I had lost/misplaced or never had. And then branching out into a lot of B/X, OSE, OSR type material.

I still haven't played an actual session since the 80s though. I'd consider myself a nostalgia collector rather than a D&D player/DM.

 

[Zardnaar]

4E got me to play PF1 and Star Wars Saga Edition. Then OSR stuff.

5E brought me back.