what edition?

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First of all, for those of you talking about the "original red box version" there is no such thing! The red box Basic set and the original version of D&D are two VERY different beasts, and the red box is in fact MORE RECENT than AD&D (1980 or 1983 depending what version, versus 1977).

Having said all that I would rank the major versions of D&D to date thus:

3.5 (first appeared 2003) - the most internally consistent and best balanced version to date, with the most options apart from Skills & Powers. This is the only version of the game where it's consistently possible to think in character, in my opinion; all other versions have too many things that only make sense if you remember that you're playing a game, but *your character isn't supposed to realize that*!

3.0 (first appeared 2000) - A huge advance over anything that had come before.

"Red Box" basic sets (version I know best 1983, best learned now from 1990 Rules Cyclopedia) - Though this is NOT the original version by any stretch of the imagination, it was by far the best for its time, especially when you added the Gazetteers into the mix. Mystara (as it later became known) is definitely my favorite D&D setting. It's no more consistent or logical than AD&D but at least it has similicity going for it in exchange.

Second edition AD&D with the Player's Option books (First appeared 1995) - By far the most customizable version of the game to date, but unfortunately very poorly balanced.

First edition AD&D (First appeared 1977) - An incoherent mess in many respects, but at least it had flavour. Lots of nice little touches there that were missing from every edition since.

Second edition AD&D with just the core rules (first appeared 1989) - Very similar to first edition, but it somehow managed to give players fewer options (unless you count proficiencies, but they had already appeared in four different First Edition books), be more complicated, yet not fix any of its predecessors most serious flaws.

Original D&D (first appeared 1974) - Much too loose and unstructured for my tastes. The rules fall into basically two groups, the ones that aren't there at all and the ones that make me go "huh?".

Second edition AD&D with the Complete series (core rules and first two Complete books appeared 1989, Complete books continued for a few years after that) - let's make 2E even LESS balanced, shall we? Some of these books were horrible in their own right and they didn't work well together at all.

I should mention that some of the current third-party versions of the game are very good, particularly Monte Cook's Arcana Unearthed and to a lesser extent AEG's Rokugan. Those of you pining for older versions, especially the "red box" version, will likely be very happy with Troll Lord Games' forthcoming Castles & Crusades.

[ November 16, 2004, 07:13: Message edited by: Jeff Heikkinen ]

 

Jeff is right, BTW. I apologize for any misconceptions in my posts. I meant that the red box was MY original set (although I eventually came upon a red book that predated the red boxed set).

The original ORIGINAL would be that chainmail game, but I guess one could argue that Chainmail is just an early influence on D&D.

 

Ah. Well, in Klorox's sense, "red box" was my original version too .

I also agree about Chainmail. It was a set of miniatures rules which, unlike most such rules at the time, were 1:1 (in other words, each figure represented a single person, not a larger unit). The beginnings of D&D are to be found in the "fantasy supplement" to it which allowed for heroes, wizards and monsters. The rest, as Henry Ford would say, is bunk...

 

Someone asked earlier about problems that came up putting the rules together (2d and 3d). Combining previouos posts, I can only say that the main problem has been accomodating the power gamer(s) into the mix, who want to use this thing called "flurry of blows" constantly, or scale walls at all times...Its more an exercise in group discipline than it is role=playing. Anyway, my $0.02.