When I was in fourth grade, my school's gifted program was an hour-long mini-class you'd leave your normal class to attend. They ran original red-box D&D for a while (at least a month, I think), but I wouldn't count it as the version I started with, because it really didn't grab me. Maybe it was a lousy GM, or lousy players, or it just wasn't interesting enough to make me want to play, I don't know. In fact, I think I started "ditching" the gifted section and just stuck around my regular classroom until they'd shelved D&D and gone back to doing advanced course material instead. (Yeah, I know, what a nerd!

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Then I started playing AD&D2e with my friends in high school, and while I never liked the system (with or without the elaborate house rules they'd developed), I had enough fun to make it worth my time. But honestly, the moment someone showed me a game with a non-fantasy setting, a decent ruleset, and an actual skill system, I never once felt any desire to go back to 2e. 3rd edition's actually the D&D version that's impressed me the most.
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which i guess is some kind of heretical position, but i've heard that heresy is cool this year
ryan