Which is D&D? 4e or 2e?

[ironfang]

I'm an old timer, been playing D&D for over 20 years. Started with the basic set, moved up to 1e, and then 2e w/supplementals. When 3e came out, I was so familiar with 2e that it did not make sense even in the slightest to try 3e.

I'd follow some topics on 3e and say "hrm... thats strange and different". I was not a big fan (I was one of the nay sayers). Then 3.5 came out and I said "lol, looks like MMORPG on paper". Now I see 4e and say "WTF IS THIS???"

D&D today doesnt really look like anything I recognize from 20 years of play. If a 2e player says "I play D&D" and a 4e player says "I play D&D", they are not both playing the same game.

So what do we call 2e players, since the official company says 4e is D&D?

 

[Crothian]

It's all D&D. Don't get caught up in the mechancical differences. PCs still go into dungeons, kill things, and loot them.

 

[Maggan]

(we role play, not roll play).

I suggest you search the boards a bit, there are a lot of discussions about those aspects of the game you might want to read up on. Not the least to understand some of the responses you invariably will get to such a loaded statement.

So what do we call 2e players, since the official company says 4e is D&D?

Maybe "friends". Or "fellow gamers". Or perhaps just "D&D players". I don't think it's meaningful to try to call them anything else just because a new edition of D&D is out.

/M

 

[ironfang]

Essentially, there are a bunch of different games out there that have the "crawl, kill, loot" sequence to them. Heroes Quest is not D&D, but is the same principal. Myths and Magic, same thing, different game. The question is valid, and is not an attack on 4e (though I shouldnt have called 3.5 a MMORPG on paper).

When the mechanics differ greatly... the game has changed.

 

[Thanee]

It's all D&D.

And yes, it has changed... drastically.

It might not appeal to everyone, it might not be your D&D or what you like in D&D, but it's all D&D. Says so right on the cover.

Bye
Thanee

 

[Wisdom Penalty]

Well, clearly 2E is not D&D.

As soon as they changed Cleric to Priest I said the hell with it.

WP

 

[Fifth Element]

All editions of D&D are awesome.

And they're all D&D.

 

[Mathew_Freeman]

All editions of D&D are awesome.

And they're all D&D.

I support these statements absolutely.

No, the rules are not the same. But then, the code for Final Fantasy 1 and Final Fantasy 7 is not the same, yet they're both Final Fantasy games. So, 2e is D&D and 4e is D&D.

 

[Holy Bovine]

(we role play, not roll play).

...and that's where I stopped reading your post.

Anytime that tired old thing gets trotted out for some gamer to prove his D&D peener is greater than anyone's else is the time I say good day to you sir

 

[Mallus]

My long-running 2e campaign could kinda be described as "magical cyberpunk set in the Age of Pericles Mediterranean (except it was really a Dying Earth/post-Singularity far-future)". Which is to say, I bet my 2e was nothing like your 2e. Were we playing the same game?

(I also think 2e gets unfairly reviled)