Recently, I felt the need to identify my favorite iteration of D&D.
Not to the exclusion of other versions -- honestly, I love them all and would probably play any version I could -- but just to know, for myself, which one I might go to first if I wanted to run a campaign. Time being limited as it is, it's important to know the most effective way of playing favorites. (Admittedly, this was also to help me prioritize what supplements to pick up if I were going to invest in future purchases).
I ended up sketching out a rough comparison matrix on a piece of paper, comparing the features that each had built-in or homebrewed by the community. I considered several factors, including things like AC mechanic, character class options, skill systems, even which dice were most heavily used. I then compared this against the parts that were either missing or inelegantly designed by my estimation, those parts that I would have to alter or homebrew up myself to make it a game that I'd consider ideal.
I compared quite a few versions, including:
- Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition
- OSRIC / Advanced Dungeons & Dragons 1st Edition
- For Gold & Glory / Advanced Dungeons & Dragons 2nd Edition
- Labyrinth Lord
- Swords & Wizardry White Box
- Swords & Wizardry Complete
- White Box Fantastic Medieval Adventure Game
- Dark Dungeons
- Fantastic Heroes & Witchery
- Basic Fantasy Role Playing
- Myth & Magic
- Dungeon Crawl Classics
- Low Fantasy Gaming
- The Black Hack
- Dungeon World
- Blood and Bone
- Beyond the Wall
After some deliberation, I reached a final conclusion -- and I have to say that it was a little bit of a surprise to me. The one that most gave me what I wanted, while also having the least that I'd need to engineer myself was...D&D 5E.
It has the variety of classes I wanted, paired with the desired depth to each class (I always loved the 2E mechanic of class "kits" that helped to differentiate specializations within each class, and mourned their loss until the 5E archetype). It has ascending AC. And it has just enough optional system crunch without getting itself bogged down by them. If I were to run a 5E campaign that I consider "fully realized," I'd probably include the optional Sanity ability score, as I'd likely want to run a dark fantasy/horror campaign.
From my initial experience with 5E, I had started off feeling that the skill system was too narrow -- but in re-reading the core books very recently, I realized that, between skills, tools, and languages together, all of the essential bases were covered just as thoroughly as had 2E's secondary skills list. Again, for a future 5E campaign, I'd probably add one additional skill of my own to cover knowledge of regional customs and court etiquette.
The only thing I miss (just a little) is the frequent inclusion of a variety of dice. It was a trademark of earlier systems -- and, arguably, an aspect that made for awkward mechanics. With 5E, it's mostly d20 rolls, with the other dice largely utilized for damage only. I liked using all the dice, especially for things like thief skills, which are now covered by tool proficiency and general skills -- and, honestly, the current approach makes more sense.
I won't be completely giving up on other or older versions. I can't stop loving For Gold & Glory, and I'd still love to run a Labyrinth Lord campaign sometime. If I was in need of a simple one-shot system, I would probably turn to White Box FMAG or Basic Fantasy RPG, both of which have nice, clean systems. But it's nice to know that I've found one that stands at the head of the pack.
Do you have a go-to version of D&D? Am I crazy for even thinking it through to this degree? I welcome your thoughts and comments.
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