Why all the Second Edition Haters?

[Sargon the Kassadian]

The books have great ideas and great writing, as I noticed when I read back through them a little, but the rules are confusing and don't make much sense. I did like the feel and atmosphere of 2e rather than the rather mechanical sense I get when I look at 3e, but the rules of 2e are terrible.

 

[BiggusGeekus]

I don't hate 2e in much the same way that I don't hate pineapple on a pizza. I just prefer my pizza with veggies, not fruits.

(there's a grand allegory in there somewhere, I'm just too tired to find it right now)

 

[jgbrowning]

I don't hate 2e in much the same way that I don't hate pineapple on a pizza. I just prefer my pizza with veggies, not fruits.

(there's a grand allegory in there somewhere, I'm just too tired to find it right now)

No tomato pizzas? You're nuts.....

joe b.

 

[Nareth]

I found the system for 2e to be very convoluted and complex. I loved playing, but there was so much to fix, so many options that didn't work well together, and so many things that needed a house rule to make it work, that the 2e system was just no fun. The games themselves, on the other hand, were always fun. When you have good enough players, you can work around rules problems, and still have a good time.

 

[Kanegrundar]

I'm right in the middle of the "I had a great time with 2E despite the rules" camp. The #1 thing I hated about 2E is that no matter what race a character played, two fighters were almost identical (the same happened for most of the other classes). I hated the multiclassing rules, hated level limits, and hated class restrictions (the latter two I fixed immediately IMC's). The system was much too rigid to truly be that fun in and of itself. Skills and Powers tried to correct this, but did a poor job honestly. All the fun I had with 2E was from good story and character interaction moments. I left D&D because of 2E, thankfully, 3E was much better, IMO.

Kane

 

[Derulbaskul]

I --hated-- the system (ditto for 0E and 1E); it simply didn't appeal to my semi-autistic need for a basic logic to underpin design decisions, something that 3E does.

But I really miss so much about 2E products:

- Dungeon adventures that were interesting (mainly because there was no need for long stat blocks) and whole issues that were simply outstanding;
- Arne/Arnie Swekel's B&W art in the later modules;
- Dark Sun and even Spelljammer;
- many of the later Steven Schend written or influenced FR products (so little crunch but enough fluff to build worlds);
- books on deities that weren't filled with pages of useless, stupid stats (that don't even use Epic progressions... que?).

Anyway, I love plundering my old 2E products to run my 3E (and now 3.5E) games. And I love finding old Dungeon magazines to add to my collection.

 

[Crothian]

Second edition got me out of D&D and sdecond edition brought me back in. When it first came out, I really didn't like it. I was a bit tired of D&D and it did nothing to conter that feeling. So, I went to other games for many years. But in the late 90's a friend wanted to start a campaign and it was great. Not becasue the system was great, but becasue the group was. I learned my lesson that campaign, the system is not near as important as the players. I don't hate seocnd edition, I have quite a few of the books. But without a good group it just wasn't fun.

 

[Zappo]

I have lots of fond memories of playing 2E, and I have lots of fond memories of Planescape. But the 2E system itself - I'm glad it's behind me.

 

[Wombat]

I have no fond memories of 2e

Nor of 1e

I dropped out when "1st ed" came out. I played in D&D very, very infrequently after OD&D came out. I switched to RuneQuest dropped D&D for nearly 20 years.

I came back with 3e and have not made the switch to 3.5

Hmmm, it'll probably be soon that I'll take another 20 year hiaitus...

 

[WanderingMonster]

I'll echo a lot of what's being said: I didn't hate 2e, in fact I loved the worlds (Planescape, Dark Sun, Al-Qadim). It was a lot of effort to keep current with the rules, and it greatly suffered from creeping featuritis. I played a lot of World of Darkness during the 2e years (which is ironic, I know). 3e Brought me back to playing D&D in preference to other games.