Why did you stay with an earlier edition?

[Steely_Dan]

Poll missing for me too, but, I enjoy all editions (and all have their crap, I could do without), having DMed all (though high level 3rd Ed became the biggest pain).

I am now going back to core, like Mike Mearls (?), starting with Basic (Moldvay, 1981), and adding/changing/house-ruling from there.

I've found removing 1/2 level from all Character's and Monster's Attacks, Defences, and Skills (and halving Monster HP) has helped my 4th Ed experiences.

 

[The Red King]

I never heard anything good about 4.0, and when I finally played it, (and I went in hoping for it to be good) I was very dissapointed.

When I want to play an overpowered setting, I can make my own.

 

[hemera]

I, along with my group always move to the newest edition. No problems here, but we also play Pathfinder as well. No option for that on the poll.

 

[Knight Templar]

4E just feels too gamey for me.

 

[P1NBACK]

My D&D career in a nutshell:

• Started with 2E when I was 10 or 11.
• Played that until I was 15 or so.
• Quit D&D until I graduated high school in 2000.
• Moved back to my home state and my nephew showed me the shiny new 3E book.
• Looked fun, so we started a campaign. Renewed my appetite for D&D.
• Played 3E and bought 3.5 as soon as it came out. Dissed on old D&D a lot - no "balance", random stats, blah blah blah.
• Became jaded with 3.x.
• 4E released and we adopted it enthusiastically.
• Played the hell out of 4E for a while and eventually started disliking it a lot. Thought it was because I was burnt out of D&D in general.
• Spent a long time away from D&D playing everything but D&D and lots of indie and "story" games. Learned a lot.
• Started delving into OSR. Got interested in D&D again.
• Joined B/X campaign. Absolutely loved it. Remembered why I loved D&D in the first place.
• Realized most of the talking I did about early editions was unfounded and that early D&D was amazing.
• Started checking out other D&D clones, like Lamentations of the Flame Princess and Adventurer Conqueror King System.
• Backed ACKS Kickstarter. Currently running ACKS. Love it.
• Interested in seeing 5E. Will probably pick it up when it releases. But, will it be good enough to run a full-fledged campaign? Depends a lot on how closely it harkens back to the fundamentals of early D&D, which I have realized is really where a lot of the magic is for me.

 

[ShinHakkaider]

No option for Pathfinder in the poll.

I didn't switch because I didn't care for the new edition (4E). Tried it, played it, ran it and didn't like it.

 

[The Red King]

My D&D career in a nutshell:

• Started with 2E when I was 10 or 11.
• Played that until I was 15 or so.
• Quit D&D until I graduated high school in 2000.
• Moved back to my home state and my nephew showed me the shiny new 3E book.
• Looked fun, so we started a campaign. Renewed my appetite for D&D.
• Played 3E and bought 3.5 as soon as it came out. Dissed on old D&D a lot - no "balance", random stats, blah blah blah.
• Became jaded with 3.x.
• 4E released and we adopted it enthusiastically.
• Played the hell out of 4E for a while and eventually started disliking it a lot. Thought it was because I was burnt out of D&D in general.
• Spent a long time away from D&D playing everything but D&D and lots of indie and "story" games. Learned a lot.
• Started delving into OSR. Got interested in D&D again.
• Joined B/X campaign. Absolutely loved it. Remembered why I loved D&D in the first place.
• Realized most of the talking I did about early editions was unfounded and that early D&D was amazing.
• Started checking out other D&D clones, like Lamentations of the Flame Princess and Adventurer Conqueror King System.
• Backed ACKS Kickstarter. Currently running ACKS. Love it.
• Interested in seeing 5E. Will probably pick it up when it releases. But, will it be good enough to run a full-fledged campaign? Depends a lot on how closely it harkens back to the fundamentals of early D&D, which I have realized is really where a lot of the magic is for me.

I started a decade before you with the legendary "boxed sets", but have the same kind of reactions to most of the things you stated. But my other stuff was Shadowrun, and a little bit of White Wolf.

 

[P1NBACK]

I started a decade before you with the legendary "boxed sets", but have the same kind of reactions to most of the things you stated. But my other stuff was Shadowrun, and a little bit of White Wolf.

Yeah, we played some Shadowrun and a ton of Vampire / Werewolf around our 3E revival.

 

[The Red King]

Yeah, those are good games, but just not as good as D&D.

 

[howandwhy99]

I started with Unearthed Arcana back in '87 not knowing anything about the game or having any one who wanted to play. Needless to say it was confusing.

Then 2nd edition came out in '89 and my friends played that solid throughout most of our high school years. It sucked, but we didn't really know what it was about either. (At least I could understand it better than UA as a stand alone)

The early 90s was college for me and I played a bunch of games including D&D. Didn't care much for Magic, but still read a ton of games and played D&D with a college group a few years. That's where I first encountered some of the really, really old school crowd from the 70s.

The late 90s were largely a suckfest for D&D, but I played a bunch of other games broadening out into everything.

Then 3.0 drew me back into D&D about a year after it's initial release. That led to a handful of average to lousy groups and DMs until about 2003 when 3.5 came out. Then I stumbled into a solid group with a very capable DM. Around this time I became more involved online in the gaming community too.

Then Summer of '04 after our DM left another player began an OD&D campaign. That pretty much showed I had barely the first clue about RPGs and D&D in general and I started searching around for all sorts of odd answers and clarity on what was happening at our table.

Now I've moved, but still work on improving my own refereeing ability, understanding of the game, and a working program for it. Still online too, but that's 50/50 good and bad. Lots and lots of people have begun to make interesting material in the last 5 years, so that's good.