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Author Topic: D&D players - do you prefer 5e, or an older version?  (Read 15974 times)

Crusader X

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D&D players - do you prefer 5e, or an older version?
« on: January 24, 2021, 01:49:32 PM »

And by players I also mean DMs. 

I like alot of things about 5e.  But I started with D&D B/X in the early 1980's, so something like The Keep on the Borderlands is quintessential D&D for me.  Venturing into monster-filled dungeons for fortune and glory, with resource management and player ingenuity playing a big part of whether your PC survives.  Not saying you can't do this in 5e, but its built for more heroic play, and tends to hand-wave some of the struggles a PC would encounter in the older versions.  Which might be a good or a bad thing, depending upon what you want from the game.

So B/X is probably my favorite version.  What is your favorite version of D&D, and why?

Slambo

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Re: D&D players - do you prefer 5e, or an older version?
« Reply #1 on: January 24, 2021, 01:55:06 PM »
I swing between becmi and b/x i like a lot of the becmi additions but 36 levels is a bit much. Thankfully its easy to mix and match. 5e is fine though, just there are systems i like a lot more so i dont usually feel like playing it instead.

Joey2k

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Re: D&D players - do you prefer 5e, or an older version?
« Reply #2 on: January 24, 2021, 02:12:29 PM »
I swing between becmi and b/x i like a lot of the becmi additions but 36 levels is a bit much. Thankfully its easy to mix and match. 5e is fine though, just there are systems i like a lot more so i dont usually feel like playing it instead.

This matches my feelings almost exactly. I like the lower level limit, but some of the b/x advancement/progression schedules are a bit wonky
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S'mon

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Re: D&D players - do you prefer 5e, or an older version?
« Reply #3 on: January 24, 2021, 02:21:14 PM »
I'm currently running 5e & 1e - in the same setting & time period (Damara, Faerun 1359 DR). Both have their strengths & weaknesses, and it really depends most on what the players prefer/are familiar with.  The 1e game is play-by-post and I do think the 1e AD&D combat system with action declarations then roll init & resolve is much better for that than the 5e (or 3e & 4e) system.

Ratman_tf

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Re: D&D players - do you prefer 5e, or an older version?
« Reply #4 on: January 24, 2021, 02:27:20 PM »
So B/X is probably my favorite version.  What is your favorite version of D&D, and why?

2nd Edition. Like you, I started with B/X and Advanced and had a lot of fun with them, but 2nd edition is when we hit our stride and some of the best games I played/gmed were under that system. It's the sweet spot between complexity and simplicity for me. It's not perfect, I think a "perfect" system for me would be some kind of 2.5 hybrid, and last time I gmed 2nd I used house rules to make it more like that hybrid.
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EOTB

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Re: D&D players - do you prefer 5e, or an older version?
« Reply #5 on: January 24, 2021, 02:32:30 PM »
I’ve never needed or desired another D&D than 1st edition AD&D
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HappyDaze

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Re: D&D players - do you prefer 5e, or an older version?
« Reply #6 on: January 24, 2021, 02:33:51 PM »
I can't really think of any older version that I'd rather play over 5e (for various reasons). That said, there's so many games I'd rather play before settling on 5e that what I'm giving barely even qualifies as faint praise.

Shasarak

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Re: D&D players - do you prefer 5e, or an older version?
« Reply #7 on: January 24, 2021, 03:07:31 PM »
I would prefer to play any older version then 5e.  I would DM any older edition then 4e.
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Philotomy Jurament

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Re: D&D players - do you prefer 5e, or an older version?
« Reply #8 on: January 24, 2021, 03:56:35 PM »
I prefer original or 1e AD&D over 5e. I didn't see anything that 5e brought to the table that would make me want to switch.

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Re: D&D players - do you prefer 5e, or an older version?
« Reply #9 on: January 24, 2021, 04:03:30 PM »
I prefer older TSR versions, namely 2e, because of the baseline toned-down heroics while still organizing and cataloging optional material to build up your own table's style.

5e is good for WotC, but there are a lot of assumptions baked into the cake that I have to take out beforehand. It's like the raisin toast of D&D: functionally similar but often needs some doctoring to get it to my preferred baseline state.
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Slambo

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Re: D&D players - do you prefer 5e, or an older version?
« Reply #10 on: January 24, 2021, 04:09:05 PM »
I prefer older TSR versions, namely 2e, because of the baseline toned-down heroics while still organizing and cataloging optional material to build up your own table's style.

5e is good for WotC, but there are a lot of assumptions baked into the cake that I have to take out beforehand. It's like the raisin toast of D&D: functionally similar but often needs some doctoring to get it to my preferred baseline state.
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Arkansan

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Re: D&D players - do you prefer 5e, or an older version?
« Reply #11 on: January 24, 2021, 05:02:52 PM »
My first exposure to D&D was 2e and I have an ongoing soft spot for it. I've run OD&D most of any edition because it feels like an easy framework to build my own D&D on. Jumped on 5th bandwagon when it came out but it just left me cold.

Chris24601

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Re: D&D players - do you prefer 5e, or an older version?
« Reply #12 on: January 24, 2021, 05:11:25 PM »
I started writing my own game system I disliked the direction of the 5e playtest so much.

4E was by far my favorite edition of D&D (the first time I could ever run the character concepts I wanted to play without massive house rules) and even that started to break down by mid-paragon (just one of the reasons my own system caps at level 15 and advancement really slows down starting at level 11). Complexity actually isn't nearly as bad as some people think if you actually ditch the character builder programs (people tend to self-select for the Essentials core feats; because they're solid and easy to find; and those from the specific books the race/class appears in if you have to do it by hand) and a lot of the Essentials era classes pick up non-combat options that make them less combat exclusive in their focus.

Outside of my own system, my second choice for a D&D-like system would be Palladium Fantasy 1e (2e adds physical skill nonsense and other later Rift-isms that make it way too fiddly for my tastes).

BronzeDragon

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Re: D&D players - do you prefer 5e, or an older version?
« Reply #13 on: January 24, 2021, 05:58:59 PM »
My favorite has always been AD&D 2E.

I DM almost exclusively, and the worlds of TSR are my playground. 1E books were exceedingly rare here in Brazil (to the point where the only ones I actually saw during my youth were xeroxed copies), and 2E dominated the market and the gaming tables (challenged only by Vampire/Werewolf, which were wildly popular in their heyday).

5E seems to me to be a bland mix of 3E and 4E and though I liked 3E after a while, 4E is the devil. The stench of its bones is still present in some parts of 5E. I bought the core books, read them, and decided it would be best to just play anything else (my current campaigns are a TOR one with my experienced group and a Basic Fantasy one with beginners...I try to mix Call of Cthulhu in whenever possible).

It's exceedingly difficult to convince anyone to play 2E though, so my last campaign using the ruleset was a few years ago.
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Mishihari

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Re: D&D players - do you prefer 5e, or an older version?
« Reply #14 on: January 24, 2021, 06:50:40 PM »
1E or 2E for me.  1E for Gary's writing and the atmosphere, 2E for the cleaned up rules.