Thread by @MerricB

I've lived through several edition changes of Dungeons & Dragons
1E->2E, 2E->3E, 3E->3.5E, 3.5E->4E, 4E->5E.

In each case, I had come to the point where I was very excited to see what came next.

I haven't yet hit that point with 5E. Which is good!

But, it must be said, I'd happily revisit most of the earlier editions. Possibly all. I was pretty burnt out on 3.5E and 4E when they ended.

When 1E ended, I'd been in the hobby for, err, six or seven years. Counting gets fuzzy. And I was very excited for all the new player material. And the clean up of the rules.

In retrospect, they cleaned up a bit too much, but still, lots to admire.

When 2E ended, I'd had a break for a few years. (Moving towns can do that), but I restarted running D&D a few weeks before 3E released.

I adored Skills & Powers, warts and all, but the idea of a system that better handled all the options? Yay!

Cause that's the thing about 3E. It was built as a system to allow lots of options for characters. 2E was built on a 1E chassis and didn't have the sockets available. 3E did. And I gloried in feats and prestige classes.

However, after eight years of running 3E/3.5E, often twice or more a week, especially at high levels, I was really burnt out. The underlying mathematics broke under the weight of all the options. It was very possible for two same-level characters to not be the right power.

So, 4E. And it fixed the underlying mathematics so that two characters of the same level could be compared to each other. And it did a lot of other utterly glorious things. I adore the Paragon Paths and monster set-up.

Sadly, 4E suffered in length of combat, which very much distorted how sessions ran. It had other issues as well (skill challenges!), things that sounded great but worked less well in practice.

But still: I ran two 4E campaigns to 30th level!

5E keeps something from 4E you probably didn't realise: that underlying maths that keeps characters comparable. It handles it differently from 4E, but it's a big change from earlier editions.

Yes, Bounded Accuracy is a good thing. 5E doesn't implement it perfectly - there are a few ways PCs can gain too high an AC, for instance - but it is so much closer than most other editions.

Are there things about 5E that I dislike? There certainly are! A few feats, a few abilities, some lack of detail that I feel would be better served with a more robust description, a few overly detailed areas that could do with less precise language.

But overall? Great!

But yes, I'd happily play Original Dungeons & Dragons tomorrow. Because all editions of D&D are fun with the right people. :)