Flexor the Mighty!
18/100 Strength!
I never did "upgrade" my rulebooks until 3e hit.
Who skipped 2e and went from 1e to 3e?
Doc_Klueless
Doors and Corners
I was stationed in Augsburg, Germany at the time. I bought the books to see what was up with the new edition, but I never really played 2e. Once or twice, if I recall correctly. It just either 1) didn't do enough in the change department, or 2) did too much. I was always happy with 1e. I was familier with it, and, to be quite honest, by the time 2e came out, I was happily playing other games (Rolemaster, Palladium FRPG 1e, etc.)
I used to play 1e and I quit playing RPGs entirely around the time 2nd ed came out. When the new 3rd edition came out I was pulled back into the fold. I don't recall what got into my head to bring me back. It's strange now that I think of it since I didn't have any gamer friends, but here I am!
Barendd Nobeard
Explorer
I skipped 2e, but had even stopped playing 1st Ed. by the time 2e came out.
Got into 3e because I had moved to Milwaukee, GenCon was here, and it was the "big thing" that year (2000). Right before GenCon, my father and sister drove out and dropped off 20 boxes of "stuff" my mother had stored for about 15 years. Ah, there were my three copies of "Deities & Demigods" (2 with Cthulhu)....all the 'classic' 1st ed. module (G1 falling apart at the seams). I was hooked all over again, though I didn't find a game until spring.
I had lurked in two (and played in one 2e) email games for almost a year before 3e came out, and so was interested in getting back to 'face to face' games. 3e was a natural thing to wait for--no sense spending money on 2e books with 3e right around the corner.
Got into 3e because I had moved to Milwaukee, GenCon was here, and it was the "big thing" that year (2000). Right before GenCon, my father and sister drove out and dropped off 20 boxes of "stuff" my mother had stored for about 15 years. Ah, there were my three copies of "Deities & Demigods" (2 with Cthulhu)....all the 'classic' 1st ed. module (G1 falling apart at the seams). I was hooked all over again, though I didn't find a game until spring.
I had lurked in two (and played in one 2e) email games for almost a year before 3e came out, and so was interested in getting back to 'face to face' games. 3e was a natural thing to wait for--no sense spending money on 2e books with 3e right around the corner.
I had moved on to other games when 2e came out and never got into it. 3E & d20 has brought me back.
UniversalMonster
First Post
I almost did! I have been a 1st edition and basic D&D guy since 1978. Quit AD&D when I went to college and switched to a variety of things (Palladium, Torg, Earthdawn, I moved around a lot and got a sampling of most games that were available).
If it hadn't been for 1 Spelljammer campaign I joined in college, and getting into Planescape in 1999 I would have missed out on 2e entirely.
The Spelljammer campaign was soon after 2e's release (I remember Tome of Magic came out at the same time as we were playing, so around that time), and I hated the changes that were made, (and the changes that were NOT made that needed to be) and it totally put me off ever really getting into AD&D2. I went back in 1999 after someone told me my Everway campaign ideas were "a lot like Planescape".. so I got Planescape to check it out, and I really fell in love with Planescape. I rewrote a bunch of AD&D2 so I could run Planescape. (Mostly just the magic rules- I wanted low-level spellcasters to get more spells) and added in a skill system, and used some magic item ideas from Earthdawn, which was one of my favorite games.
Then 3e came out and blew away everything.
It's all I really care about now. I could probably be tempted to play anything with a competent GM (maybe even Gurps, which I think is a really really awful rpg) but all I want to run is D&D3 fantasy with an occasional foray into other genres. d20 solves that nicely.
If it hadn't been for 1 Spelljammer campaign I joined in college, and getting into Planescape in 1999 I would have missed out on 2e entirely.
The Spelljammer campaign was soon after 2e's release (I remember Tome of Magic came out at the same time as we were playing, so around that time), and I hated the changes that were made, (and the changes that were NOT made that needed to be) and it totally put me off ever really getting into AD&D2. I went back in 1999 after someone told me my Everway campaign ideas were "a lot like Planescape".. so I got Planescape to check it out, and I really fell in love with Planescape. I rewrote a bunch of AD&D2 so I could run Planescape. (Mostly just the magic rules- I wanted low-level spellcasters to get more spells) and added in a skill system, and used some magic item ideas from Earthdawn, which was one of my favorite games.
Then 3e came out and blew away everything.
It's all I really care about now. I could probably be tempted to play anything with a competent GM (maybe even Gurps, which I think is a really really awful rpg) but all I want to run is D&D3 fantasy with an occasional foray into other genres. d20 solves that nicely.
spacecrime.com
First Post
Me too.
I was in college in 1989, and our gaming clique all hated 2nd edition, mostly because we were college sophomores and didn't know any better.
(In retrospect, I think we were right -- AD&D2 was poorly designed compared to AD&D1. But at the time our disdain had more to do with our egos than our critical faculties.)
Most of us used AD&D2 grudgingly for a few months and then abandoned it for other systems. GURPS the game of choice for years afterwards, and those who played AD&D usually played 1st edition.
I can't speak for anyone but me now, but when 3rd rolled around there were enough obvious improvements to entice me to try it. Once I tried it, I decided I liked D&D3 much better than either of the previous editions, and I've run a lot of it since.
I should note that it's still not my favorite game -- I run it for business reasons more than personal reasons. But it gets the job done and it's what most of my customers want to play.
yours,
I was in college in 1989, and our gaming clique all hated 2nd edition, mostly because we were college sophomores and didn't know any better.
(In retrospect, I think we were right -- AD&D2 was poorly designed compared to AD&D1. But at the time our disdain had more to do with our egos than our critical faculties.)
Most of us used AD&D2 grudgingly for a few months and then abandoned it for other systems. GURPS the game of choice for years afterwards, and those who played AD&D usually played 1st edition.
I can't speak for anyone but me now, but when 3rd rolled around there were enough obvious improvements to entice me to try it. Once I tried it, I decided I liked D&D3 much better than either of the previous editions, and I've run a lot of it since.
I should note that it's still not my favorite game -- I run it for business reasons more than personal reasons. But it gets the job done and it's what most of my customers want to play.
yours,
Desdichado
Hero
I stopped D&D-ing before 2nd edition came out; probably had more to do with my perception of D&D as a "game" filled with junior high dick-wielding folks who were more concerned with "the most +'s" than anything else. In fact, I got out of role-playing entirely for some time, except for one-off games of something here and there.
Later, I jumped into some other systems, including White Wolf (never cared for Vampire much, though: I was more of a Werewolf guy) and others, so I was constantly looking through the 2e stuff to see if it looked interesting to me. I probably read some books almost entirely in the store, but 2e did nothing much for me.
3e, on the other hand, was the first D&D I'd played in years, and right now it's the best "big" system out there, IMO. Sure, it's got some legacy problems, and it's probably not the game I'd play if finding like-minded players wasn't a problem, but I'm still having lots of fun with it, because it's flexible enough to allow you to still do lots of things. Once (if!) d20 Modern and d20 Cthulhu comes out, and I can see if the system really is flexible enough to play any genre with relatively slight modifications, I'll probably just move completely into d20 and not look back.
Later, I jumped into some other systems, including White Wolf (never cared for Vampire much, though: I was more of a Werewolf guy) and others, so I was constantly looking through the 2e stuff to see if it looked interesting to me. I probably read some books almost entirely in the store, but 2e did nothing much for me.
3e, on the other hand, was the first D&D I'd played in years, and right now it's the best "big" system out there, IMO. Sure, it's got some legacy problems, and it's probably not the game I'd play if finding like-minded players wasn't a problem, but I'm still having lots of fun with it, because it's flexible enough to allow you to still do lots of things. Once (if!) d20 Modern and d20 Cthulhu comes out, and I can see if the system really is flexible enough to play any genre with relatively slight modifications, I'll probably just move completely into d20 and not look back.
Moulin Rogue
First Post
Had some 1e books but with no one to play D&D with in my home town, I started playing the PC games instead (early '90s). When I got tired of that, I was tired of all RPGs and completely missed the 2e rulebooks. In the past year, only through the internet and leafing through used 2e books at stores have I figured out what it was all about.
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