Great answers all, 2e and 5e have been the editions I’ve enjoyed with our group..with 3e and PF running a few seconds behind in the my favorite edition race for me.
I just got done playing through the Baulder's Gate games and noticed how absurdly random some of my TPKs were. Because of the nature of video games, reloading a save wasn't a big deal, but it certainly reminded me how terrible AD&D rules were at telling stories of epic heroes embarking on quests worthy of novelization.I have had so many more characters die in WotC era D&D than in AD&D. But that's because I had no illusion of balance and tried to avoid challenge in the early days, always rolled behind a screen, and kept the PC's HP in a notebook so I could make sure they didn't die. Actually playing by the rules, TSR-era games are grinders.
My experience with 2e was great because I didn't know the "right way" to run games (as taught by the Internet). The pressure was to entertain my friends - not to get the rules right.I just got done playing through the Baulder's Gate games and noticed how absurdly random some of my TPKs were. Because of the nature of video games, reloading a save wasn't a big deal, but it certainly reminded me how terrible AD&D rules were at telling stories of epic heroes embarking on quests worthy of novelization.
Exactly my experience too. I started playing 2e when I was 7 with my older friends (10) and we had a blast. Pretty sure the only rules we followed was character generation.My experience with 2e was great because I didn't know the "right way" to run games (as taught by the Internet). The pressure was to entertain my friends - not to get the rules right.
Of course, as always, you mileage may vary, but one of the better parts of 2e for my group were just that we were not epic heroes. We were heroes. Regular (if above average) people. Not super-heroes in a fantasy setting.I just got done playing through the Baulder's Gate games and noticed how absurdly random some of my TPKs were. Because of the nature of video games, reloading a save wasn't a big deal, but it certainly reminded me how terrible AD&D rules were at telling stories of epic heroes embarking on quests worthy of novelization.
Yeah, I get this. 2e made me feel like I "had to" learn more about medieval society to be good at world building. But I was excited about it!Thought long and hard about it, and I think the most important benefit of AD&D over 5e is it demanded more of it players and taught them more about the real world.
"Demanded more" in that a good grasp of mathematics (especially probability), reading at a high level, and being at least decent at the artistic side of things: map making, world building, and campaign writing, were all important to running a good game.
"Taught more" in that D&D was connected to our past rather than just being self-referential. I feel like it was much more common for DMs to be familiar with medieval/renaissance history, folklore, and ancient religions thanks to this.
I understand many see these things as "gatekeeping", but I was grateful for it because it really propelled me past my classmates in grade school in just about every subject.
Let me introduce you to my pile of "Complete" class guides and Player's Options books. That's part of what makes 2E so versatile. You want all that extra complexity? We got it! You want tons and tons of choices to make your character different? We got that too (though you'll want to read carefully as some of those kits are straight peepeepoopoo)!At the same time, I know players who feel that 2E characters can be a bit bland to play. I, too, get dazzled by all the options when making a 5E character, but when I sit down to play, I can't say that 5E characters are more fun to play than 2E ones. So I am not convinced the game actually gains anything by the extra complexity.
Not trying to stop you with such a project, but I can say from experience that attempting just one of these port overs from 2E to 5E (in my case, the entire psionics system), was a very arduous process I didn't complete.Luckily, the top tier items can definitely be emulated with 5E, even if it takes a bit of work. Porting over setting detail is, thanks to DMsGuild, very easy, though rules might take a bit of work. And the tone and power level of 5E can be tweaked. I have done some work in this regard, most of which is still to be seen by my players. I just have to steel myself against their lamentations after they "went soft" with 5E.