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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Hussar" data-source="post: 5775666" data-attributes="member: 22779">I was thinking about this, obviously in the light of the new edition coming down the pipe.  Exactly why did I change editions.  And, for me anyway, the answer is fairly simple - practical issues.  I never changed edition because I didn't like flavour, or didn't like this cosmology or that bit of system trivia.  It was never that.It was always, does the new system allow me to play the way I want to play, but make it easier?I played 1e back in 1980 (or so) although, that's a bit untrue.  I might have had AD&D books on the table, but, the game we played only bore a passing resemblance to the actual game as written.  We were 13 years old and the books were written in a pretty byzantine fashion (high Gygaxian isn't the easiest thing in the world to parse), so, we muddled our way through.When 2e came along, I took one look at it and was sold.  Not because it embraced a new playstyle or whatnot (heck, I still ran a lot of my old 1e and basic D&D modules in 2e) but because it resolved a lot of the headaches we had with 1e.  You had much clearer writing, a number of the more arcane rules were simplified and it meant that my game was much easier to run and play.Then 3e came along.  It took all the house rules I'd built up over the years, polished them up to a beautiful shine and made them better.  Instead of every session (virtually) resulting in at least one argument over DM fiat, I got a game that practically ran itself.  Rules were clean and (for the most part) worked very, very well and covered nearly everything that came up in game.But, this came at a cost.  That comprehensiveness meant that prepping became, for me again, a very big chore.  Stat blocks were no longer one line long and as far as adding levels to monsters?  Forget about it.  It took me way too long and I just didn't have that kind of time to devote.  And, after two or three semi-aborted campaigns, I finally broke down and said enough.  I only ran modules in 3e from 2005 onwards.  Great modules and lots of fun, but, I pretty much completely stopped creating any of my own material because I just didn't have the time to do it.Then 4e came along.  Suddenly, I could start making my own adventures again.  The scut work of stat blocks and whatnot was reduced by a very large margin.  Add in some online tools and I can bang out the mechanical parts of an adventure in under an hour.  Which leaves me lots of time to actually develop the stuff that I want to develop, like setting, plot, character, and all the, for me again, good stuff.So, for me, the switch to 4e has very little to do with things like AEDU powers or changed cosmology and whatnot.  It's almost purely pragmatic.  How much time does it take me to create what I want to create using a given system?  That, for me, is the first and foremost concern.What about you?  What is your primary concern when looking at a new edition?  What is the biggest decision point?</blockquote>

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