Worlds Without Number

I can enjoy every Edition from OD&D to the recent 5E. Every Edition has it highs and lows. Me personally i prefer to Run AD&D 1e.

D&D B/X is my favorite

Of the D&D versions I've played....

I really like the overall B/X engine and the dungeon crawl procedures

I really like AD&D 1st edition's races and classes as found in the Player's Handbook.  And the Gygax writing!

I really like D&D 5e's universal d20 roll-hgih mechanic.  I know 5e isn't the first D&D edition to have this, but I never played those earlier versions.  My playing experience went from AD&D, to D&D 5e many years later.

So my ultimate D&D would largely be B/X, with the races and classes from the 1st edition AD&D PHB, while using a simple d20 roll-high mechanic for various tasks and skills.

Quote from: Crusader X on April 21, 2021, 05:53:01 PM
So my ultimate D&D would largely be B/X, with the races and classes from the 1st edition AD&D PHB, while using a simple d20 roll-high mechanic for various tasks and skills.

So basically you want Castles & Crusades.

5th edition + AiME gives me the ability to run the full range of genres I could wish.  So it is by far the default D&D for me.

2e is where I started so it has a special place in my heart.  Plus most of the TSR settings are built on the 1e/2e bones so they're easier to run using the original rules.

I can see merit in all the other editions and they all serve slightly different functions.  The only one I have zero desire to ever touch again (except the occasional time a friend begs me to play) is anything 3e related.  That edition is seriously awful.  Even worse than 4e.

AD&D, 1e mainly; 2e stuff is sufficiently compatible to be used as supplemental material.
Tied with AD&D - ACKS. Think of a unification of Gary Gygax and Tony Bath. That's ACKS.

Core 1E - PHB, DMG, MM. Everything else on a case by case basis if I like it.
If I'm doing real world pantheons, D&DG is in.
If I'm doing Greyhawk, box set is in as well as Greyhawk Adventures hardback, and even a lot of the 2E Greyhawk stuff is in.
FF is always in because I find the monsters in there really interesting.
MMII is mostly out, other than a few entries that I think are really good.
UA is entirely out.

1e for me, but I also like BECMI. For OSR I like DCC and C&C. Unfortunately stuck playing in 5e games at the moment.

BECMI + Gazeteers,  Castles & Crusades or 5e.  This goes double if the DM for C&C or 5e uses the Mana Points/Spell Points rules.

I have two huge complaints that are the reasons why I absolutely LOATHE 3.0/3.5 and Pathfinder with the burning passion of a thousand Foreman grills: Vancian casting and the Feat system.

I could talk your ear off about how much I hate 3.5 and Pathfinder, but I won't. This is a positive thread for talking about what we DO like .  So I'll stick to that.

BECMI is a great blast from the past.  I especially love the Old School Essentials version of it as it presents the rules in probably the easiest to understand way I have ever seen while adding a lot of options with the Advanced Fantasy Genre rules.  I especially love that it manages to make THAC0 not scary to new players.  THAC0 gets a bad rap, but having used both ascending and descending AC, I really prefer Descending.  You're just looking up numbers on a chart and with the Descending AC, the die roll actually matters no matter what Level you are.

Castles and Crusades is probably my favorite. It manages to make a game built on the skeleton of 3.5 feel way more like BECMI.   The removal of Half Casters is a nice touch to.  Something that has always bugged me about later editions of DnD is this tendency to give ABSOLUTELY EVERYONE spellcasting.   I prefer spellcasting to be somewhat rare and require more investment from players. It's a big part of the reason why earlier editions of DnD had a more grounded, lower-magic feel.  C&C really replicates that very well.  I really like how C&C expands on and improves the equipment list, adding lots of weapon variety with different swords, some weapons working slightly better against armor than others and the Castle Keepers Guide and Arms and Armor adding a ton more options.

5e is going to be controversial in no small part because of the culture that surrounds it, but I still rather like 5e.  The 5e RAW, especially pre-Tashas, is actually very grognardy.  5e is also way more flexible than 3.5 or 4e ever were.  I like that the Feat system is less obtuse and totally optional. I will usually opt not to use it and the addition of Spell Points in the DMG was a very nice touch.

AD&D 1E is my favorite official version of the game.  However, we hacked the living day lights out of the rules.  AD&D 2E wasn't too far away play wise, but it also moved too much of the game player facing and making it more difficult to rely on Rule 0.

However, I just think there was too much complexity at the end of the day.  For modern takes I like Matt Finch's work in compiling Swords & Wizardry Complete the most.  Mentzer Basic/Expert may have been my entry into the hobby but I just don't have the nostalgia for it that the OSR community does.

Quote from: Palleon on April 24, 2021, 09:10:55 AMMentzer Basic/Expert may have been my entry into the hobby but I just don't have the nostalgia for it that the OSR community does.

I wasn't aware that that was a thing.  I started with Holmes then moved to AD&D.  Compared to those two, the Menzer books looked a little cartoonish to me.

I started out with Basic D&D. The friend who got me into the hobby had the red box. But that was in 1990, when 2e had just come out, and I always had issues with the lack of options in Basic (no skills) and hated treating class and race as the same thing, so by the time I was hooked enough to get my own books I made the switch and went to 2e immediately. Then never looked back, except may for research purposes to look at the roots of D&D before tinkering with stuff. But I need options. I need muh skills. I need muh feats (better implemented than 3e, maybe, but I need special traits and shit). I need races and classes treated like they're a different thing, cuz they demonstrably are.

I don't like the hundred thousand specialized classes of recent editions, but 4 classes with NO special options is not enough to keep me interested or draw much distinction between characters. That might serve well as a base if you have feats and stuff every other level or something, or Kits (which work better than specialized classes). But 4 barebone classes alone is megalame.

Quote from: VisionStorm on April 25, 2021, 02:53:32 PM
I started out with Basic D&D. The friend who got me into the hobby had the red box. But that was in 1990, when 2e had just come out, and I always had issues with the lack of options in Basic (no skills) and hated treating class and race as the same thing, so by the time I was hooked enough to get my own books I made the switch and went to 2e immediately. Then never looked back, except may for research purposes to look at the roots of D&D before tinkering with stuff. But I need options. I need muh skills. I need muh feats (better implemented than 3e, maybe, but I need special traits and shit). I need races and classes treated like they're a different thing, cuz they demonstrably are.

I don't like the hundred thousand specialized classes of recent editions, but 4 classes with NO special options is not enough to keep me interested or draw much distinction between characters. That might serve well as a base if you have feats and stuff every other level or something, or Kits (which work better than specialized classes). But 4 barebone classes alone is megalame.

Welcome to the club, Class =/= Race 100%
Skills Fuck yes, maybe a more general list or something but yes, give me!
Feats, Yes, not as many and maybe not as often but yes.
Kits, maybe, if done as specialization of the base class, as in you need to be level X to opt for it.

Started with the Holmes box set and graduated into 1st ed, so that will always hold a lot of good memories in my heart. We played the shit out of 1st, 2nd, and 3rd. Luckily missed 4th, and we're playing 5th now and we all seem to enjoy it.

If I were to run a d&d game, it would be Astonishing Swordsmen and Sorcerers of Hyperborea all the way. Has the feel of 1st and 2nd,  and a shitload of usable, interesting classes. Was (and still am) a huge REH and Lovecraft fan, so the whole non-Tolkien races/monsters pleases me.

The one I'm playing