D&D General Which edition of D&D did you grow up with?

[Tony Vargas]

Based on the edition most chosen, I feel this is a bit of a demographic test...

The valid conclusion to be drawn from any/all EN World Forum Polls:
ENWorlders are old.

I mean, seriously, 5e is selling better than every RPG in history combined, including itself.*
And we have 1 respondent here who started with it?
Sampling issue.







* technically impossible, I know, but that's how it feels.

 

[Ancalagon]

The valid conclusion to be drawn from any/all EN World Forum Polls:
ENWorlders are old.

I mean, seriously, 5e is selling better than every RPG in history combined, including itself.*
And we have 1 respondent here who started with it?
Sampling issue.

What is interesting is that the board seems pretty pro 5e overall, clearly the edition is appealing to older members?

 

[Flexor the Mighty!]

The valid conclusion to be drawn from any/all EN World Forum Polls:
ENWorlders are old.

I mean, seriously, 5e is selling better than every RPG in history combined, including itself.*
And we have 1 respondent here who started with it?
Sampling issue.







* technically impossible, I know, but that's how it feels.

Youngins don't do forums these days, they are like old folks homes.

 

[RSIxidor]

Title of the thread and title of the poll itself have slightly different answers. I didn't play D&D as a kid. I started with 4E around 25 or 26. I loved it and hated it about equally. Now I play both 5E and Pathfinder and find that I also both love and hate each about equally. Somewhere in the middle I played some PBTA games (I realize not technically within the topic here) and I found I loved those more than I hated them but it's so easy to get someone to play a game of 5E or even a variant of 5E like AIME, so that's what I play the most.

 

[ART!]

I started with OD&D, but my most hard-core D&Ding - and memories thereof - are from AD&D. I am somewhat delighted to see AD&D getting about 50% of the votes.

 

[Tony Vargas]

What is interesting is that the board seems pretty pro 5e overall, clearly the edition is appealing to older members?

Absolutely. Appeal (or even mere acceptability) to established & returning players was one of the 90' waves in the perfect storm that swamped 4e, and they weren't about to repeat that mistake. 5e is a cunning/well-executed compromise among acceptability to the base, nostalgia for the returning player, and accessibility to the new.

(Also, I think one thing that's overlooked when considering 'appeal to new players,' is, however ironically, the importance of nostalgia. With a property that has a history & rep from a decades-ago fad, even new players often are drawn to it wanting that bygone experience - out of curiosity rather than nostalgia, but it demands the design make similar sacrifices. That kind of new player needs to hear the old-timers, however grumpily, acknowledging that, yes, this is the real thing.)

 

[Enrico Poli1]

The valid conclusion to be drawn from any/all EN World Forum Polls:
ENWorlders are old.

I mean, seriously, 5e is selling better than every RPG in history combined, including itself.*
And we have 1 respondent here who started with it?
Sampling issue.







* technically impossible, I know, but that's how it feels.

Exactly. I'm 41, but I didn't expect so many were in my age range.

Maybe Enworld needs to try to attract younger gamers...

 

[GreyLord]

I didn't really grow up with any of them per se, but my first exposure to D&D was with some people who were playing the Original Version. I didn't have any of the rules and just played as they played. There were boys around that allowed me in their little group of players.

I didn't get a set till later.

I eventually got the Original D&D but it was after I got the Basic Set that came out after them. It is sort of weird.

One of the oddities (and perhaps it is how we remember things) is I distinctly remember that the Holmes set that I originally received (didn't buy it, was given it) had in the rules that elves could be fighters or Magic-users but had to choose which one they were to be each adventure and could switch back and forth.

However, when I have asked later about it people say that was never in Holmes, and though I lost my original, the ones I have bought later have never had that rule in it either (elves basically play as they ended up being like in B/X instead). One of the weird things I've never been able to figure out.

 

[Twiggly the Gnome]

No sure how to answer this. I and my friends started with the red box, and muddled through a few sessions. We eventually got one of my friend's uncle to DM for us using 1E. Sometime later, I began to DM using a hybrid 1E/2E rule set. We got burned out on D&D, and branched out to other games. D&D adjacent, I ran a Alternity Dragonlance campaign. By the time 3E came around, I was pretty much "grown up".

 

[collin]

First game I played was basic D&D box set, circa late 1979. After that, I was introduced to AD&D 1e and went from there, playing fairly regularly during my later high school years and somewhat regularly during college (1e and 2e). I REALLY started taking an interest when 3e came out. I bought all of the books at that point.