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Author Topic: Your Favorite Edition of D&D? Why?  (Read 26327 times)

Razor 007

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Your Favorite Edition of D&D? Why?
« on: November 02, 2018, 01:15:56 AM »
Inquiring Minds want to know...
I need you to roll a perception check.....

S'mon

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Your Favorite Edition of D&D? Why?
« Reply #1 on: November 02, 2018, 04:15:47 AM »
I think 5e currently - it's very playable, like a smooth sippin' whisky. And it has by far the best Barbarian class ever published.

HappyDaze

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Your Favorite Edition of D&D? Why?
« Reply #2 on: November 02, 2018, 04:54:55 AM »
5e for me too. The rules are reasonably light and I can play it without having minis and a grid. I liked 2e too, but 5e just feels better to me these days. I do wish it had some real setting fluff though (not Ravnica).

Warboss Squee

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Your Favorite Edition of D&D? Why?
« Reply #3 on: November 02, 2018, 05:07:12 AM »
2nd is the edition I always think of when someone mentions D&D.

It doesn't have the katamari poop star of 3rd, nor the bland vanilla flavoring of 4th. 5th comes close and does a lot of good things, but just doesn't have the same feel.

S'mon

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Your Favorite Edition of D&D? Why?
« Reply #4 on: November 02, 2018, 05:41:07 AM »
Quote from: HappyDaze;1062840
5e for me too. The rules are reasonably light and I can play it without having minis and a grid.

Yes, I like how I can use 5e equally well either with or without minis & battlemats.

jeff37923

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Your Favorite Edition of D&D? Why?
« Reply #5 on: November 02, 2018, 05:58:49 AM »
B/X and Rules Cyclopedia D&D because they are simple, elegant rule sets without the bloat or complexity of later editions. I've still got a soft spot for 3.x, but that is because of the proliferation of good material that came out of the d20 OGL for D&D.
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moonsweeper

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Your Favorite Edition of D&D? Why?
« Reply #6 on: November 02, 2018, 06:03:45 AM »
B/X/BECMI followed closely by 2nd Ed.(with 1st Ed mixed in)...those are what I started with.
5e is pretty good for play, I just feel that its not as flavorful as the earlier editions.  Definite step up from 3 and 4 in playability though.
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Rhedyn
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Your Favorite Edition of D&D? Why?
« Reply #7 on: November 02, 2018, 07:10:03 AM »
Rules Cyclopedia > 3.5 > 4e

That's my order. I'm impressed with the Rules Cyclopedia. 3.5 had some of my best campaign experiences. 4e is impressively designed in it's own right, it's like if 5e had all the mechanics it needs to work right.

Llew ap Hywel

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Your Favorite Edition of D&D? Why?
« Reply #8 on: November 02, 2018, 08:16:07 AM »
Rules Cyclopedia - however bad D&D rulesets are it's a beautifully complete game.
2e - it gave me Birthright and Al-Qadim.
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estar

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Your Favorite Edition of D&D? Why?
« Reply #9 on: November 02, 2018, 08:18:52 AM »
Quote from: Razor 007;1062801
Inquiring Minds want to know...
OD&D + Greyhawk Supplement. Has everything essential about D&D backed by extensive playtesting in Gygax's Greyhawk campaign.

5th edition is my second favorite D&D (and apparently for a lot of other people as well).

Abraxus

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Your Favorite Edition of D&D? Why?
« Reply #10 on: November 02, 2018, 08:21:41 AM »
OP you might want to change the OP to include no edition warring. As some posters cannot say they like something without shitting on another edition.

5E it's easier to run, find people for and online videos of people playing it are bringing more new blood to the hobby. Though to be truly honest I like and will always like all of D&D as a whole because it was my very first gateway rpg that I ever played and it brought me into this hobby.

Chris24601

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Your Favorite Edition of D&D? Why?
« Reply #11 on: November 02, 2018, 09:17:17 AM »
4E. In the original core it gave me;

- the warlord (and the end of divine/spellcasting hit point recovery monopoly in general)

- the ability to create a wizard who could peform minor magic and attacks at-will (just like they do in just about any non-D&D fantasy setting)

- warriors who could do interesting things without having to improvise and run it by the DM first.

- meaningful choices to make about your character every time you gained a level (i.e. no dead levels).

- monsters with all their stats (even those that mimicked spells) all in their statblock and that were generally more than sacks of hit points that only dealt hit point damage.

- transparent math and encounter building guidelines made it super-easy to DM and houserule (without breaking it).

Was it perfect? Nothing is. It was way too narrative focused for my tastes (I believe story comes from re-telling what happened to the PCs, and probably embellishing it a bit, after it's over... not something the game should be deliberately trying to create). It's scaling and complexity got much too high past about level 16 as well.

But it's the closest D&D has ever gotten to giving me the play experience I and my friends were looking for. To clarify, it was the first time we'd never had to fight the system itself to get that play experience we wanted. THAT is a refreshing experience.

If 4E is NOT D&D in some people's minds, that's fine. If true that just means my friends and I aren't fans of D&D, but we're certainly fans of 4E.

David Johansen

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Your Favorite Edition of D&D? Why?
« Reply #12 on: November 02, 2018, 09:25:38 AM »
So that's a tricky one, I've been a pretty dyed in the wool D&D hater for years.  I like first edition Advanced D&D best though.  I've run so many hours of 5e and all I seem to do is hate it more and more.  True there's that really broken Dwarf, Fighter, Barbarian in the campaign, but that's not it.  So without doing a "The worst thing about D&D is that it's not GURPS or Rolemaster."  The thing I like best about D&D is its wargame roots.  I like the quirky, deadly, game with fast character creation, realm management, naval combat, and troop hiring rules in the core.  I like the reach of a weapon determining first strike if you move into close combat.  I like that combat is structured in a way that makes handling big units easy. I like the weapon verses armour table. Not that first edition couldn't be better in places, I'd integrate the weapon verses armour table with the to hit table to cut down table references.  But the thing is that I have GURPS and Rolemaster if I want that sort of thing.  I don't need D&D to be that, I need it to be the game where mighty heroes and wizards lead legions into battle and have castles.  It seems like every edition since first has desperately been trying to distance itself from that.
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KingofElfland

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Your Favorite Edition of D&D? Why?
« Reply #13 on: November 02, 2018, 10:01:50 AM »
B/X is my favorite. It's what I played when I played DnD as a kid and I can still run a game, create a character, etc. without looking at any book. I am okay with 5e, I prefer running it than playing it. Of the two though, I much prefer BX: it is easy to customize by adding to the base game. The main customizations I want to make to 5e is restrictions and limitations. I find that it creates a better DM/player dynamic when the DM adds to the base rather than limit it.

Bruwulf

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Your Favorite Edition of D&D? Why?
« Reply #14 on: November 02, 2018, 10:07:33 AM »
I'd be lying if I didn't say 2E was sort of my platonic form of D&D. It's where I'm happiest. But I can be almost as happy in 1E.

Older versions of D&D are perfectly playable, mechanically, but I have a personal hangup with the race-is-class-is-race setup of earlier forms of the game.

I haven't had a chance to play 5E yet, but I like what I've seen. I don't think it will replace 2E, but it might be good.
« Last Edit: November 02, 2018, 10:10:57 AM by Bruwulf »