I am sure I am one of many out there who cut their teeth on Dungeons and Dragons with Advanced Dungeons and Dragons. I took a break for years and played version 3.5 for awhile and then didn’t play again until 5E gained popularity. To be honest it really was hard to form a consistent campaign with version 3.5. It just wasn’t as popular at the time as 5E became thanks in part to Stranger Things and other media.

Thankfully I avoided version 4. I say thankfully because my Dungeon Master style leans more to adventuring, role playing, and collaborative story telling as much as combat. I have played with people that absolutely love the strategy and detailed combat in version 4, but it isn’t for me. I think the different versions are a real strength of Dungeons and Dragons as people can choose the version that they enjoy most.

So which version do I prefer? I waffle between Advanced Dungeons and Dragons and 5E. I absolutely loved the originality and creativeness of Advanced Dungeons and Dragons but i feel 5E is a much more complete and cohesive system. In some ways in feels that Advanced Dungeons and Dragons was still being developed in flight.

The determining factor usually is what version is it easiest to get players that are willing to play on a consistent basis. For that reason 5E trumps any other version.

I’m also pretty flexible in the version and game system choice as I’ve never been known as a rules lawyer and I always use the version and game system as a starting point. Truth be known that my homebrew campaigns start with 5E, add some Advanced Dungeons and Dragons, a pinch of version 3.5, and a smattering of Iron Crown Enterprise’s RoleMaster. (Which was adopted for the awesome Middle Earth Role Playing system)

So which do I prefer? All of them to some extent. It really depends on what the players prefer. I also like the ShadowDark and Dungeon Crawl Classics systems but it is hard to find a committed party of adventurers.

I have settled into 5E due to the complications and complexity of remembering rules across the different systems. I’ve even hesitated DMing a 5.5 game as I think I will make mistakes and confuse 5E and 5.5 rules.

I do encourage everyone to read up on all the different systems and customize them for your game. They are all excellent and provide something others don’t. Have fun and make them your own.