I haven't played D&D in years (and years and years). In fact, the last time I was running a game (I was always the DM, found it more fun designing adventures than actually playing them), a buddy brought his shiny new set of 2nd edition books, and I forbid him to use them or any of their 'un-necessary' rules in my campaign.

I still have all my original books, in decent condition and have been trying to recruit my family & friends into a game, with luke-warm reception so far, but I'm working on it

I had a read-through of the 4th edition books, and .. blech! >.< Seems too weird to me. Fighters .. using 'powers'?!? No thank you

</super old-school>

Only when i can convince ppl to play. Only good 4e I have seen is Gamma World and that even has some weird rules. New Random Mutation every encounter ??!??! Completely heal wounds and recover all abilties spent with a 5 minute rest??

Played many years of 1st Edition, but in the end it was so houseruled to deal with breakdowns in the system that that we eventually welcomed a new edition (3rd) to bring us back close to what everyone else had...

That said, I still look back fondly on that system. I won't play it again, but I sure do have good memories from games build around those rules.

I found gaming with 3rd edition and have progressed with the system through the last few changes. I only have familiarity with the older editions through older video games (which means mostly 2nd edition).

Aside from 3rd, 1st was my favorite. 2nd seemed... unnecessary. 4th just doesn't appeal to me as an RPG (but was a GREAT minis game!).

I've played a bit of every edition, probably 2e the most. My personal favorite was HackMaster. Definitely a 2.5 or even a true 3ed. It is very rules heavy and written tongue in cheek, but the system is very solid. The DM we had at the time made tons of great game aids to help with some of the more complicated aspects of combat. Probably some of the best games I've had were playing HackMaster.

I never had a chance to check out the new edition, though it sounded promising.

I play 1st Edition every Tuesday night. It's a difficult system to scale back to sometimes.

I only ever played 2nd Ed, and gave up on that (or anything including levels and classes) about fifteen years ago. Sometimes I wish I hadn't sold off all my books, just for nostalgic reasons, but really all they'd do is take up another two meters shelf space. Oh well.

My group is currently playing Castles & Crusades, a hybrid of 1st and 3rd editions. It has everything I like about 3rd ed (Hit rolls, armor class, and saving throws) removes what I don't like about 3rd (FEATS, crazy combat rules and exceptions) and bundles it all up in 1st edition classes and advancement. We're going to start Temple of Elemental Evil on Sunday.

Funny you should mention this. I just started a roleplaying games club at my school, and I'm just starting a first edition D&D campaign with the OSRIC ruleset. It's a clunky system, but it encourages imagination and roleplaying. I like it!

Ah happy days marvelling at the new things in Unearthed Arcana

I played not too long before the second ed came out, so about half 1st ed and half 2nd ed. But the groups I then joined were much more interested in other games, so that was about it.

In Call of Cthulhu, you can let the players min/max their characters to their little hearts content. It makes not the slightest difference to the outcome of combat.

I did end up buying the dungeoneer's guide, the wilderness guide and Oriental Adventures (lots of fun in that setting) years later. They were all owned by friends first time out. There's a lot of fun just remembering the novelty of it all and the good times in addition to just enjoying the books.

>sniff<

Even though I have all those fond memories of 1st, I could never go back after playing 3.5 & Pathfinder. The feats & skill system is where it's at for me!