30 Day Challenge, Day 7 - Favorite Edition

This is a fortunate turn in questioning, as we go from the hardest question to answer last post to the easiest in this one.

I think, more than anything else, my love of 3.x (I didn't announce it because if you've read this blog, well...any, you should have known what the answer was) likely stemmed because of the time in which I began playing RPGs. In 1996, there wasn't a game shop and through work, I had met Paul, who happened to game and was nice enough to invite me to his group.

Their game was Advanced Dungeons & Dragons 2nd Edition, and I did love it. That edition of the game provided many an hour of fun for me and my friends, but by the time I got into it, it was bloated and for a kid with barely any money (I had to pay for car insurance, fuel, etc.!), it was almost impossible to catch up.

The same was true for Vampire: The Masquerade. Though my highschool group jumped into that, I felt insecure in my abilities as Storyteller enough, and had the aforementioned lack of funds, that I was hesitant to get more than a few books in that system, partially to avoid overwhelming myself and the primarily-casual roleplayers at the table.

Then, in 1999, Wizards started posting articles about the upcoming new 3rd Edition of Dungions & Dragons in Dragon Magazine, and I devoured every bit. I bought the books as they released, and I've honestly never looked back. I purchased the 3.5 updated tomes, and now am just a few books shy of having everything Wizards put out during the official run of the 3.x Editions.

It doesn't really stop there, though....

After a brief dalliance with 4th Edition, and a growing distaste for it, my group and I jumped to the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game, the spiritual successor to the 3.x line - so much so that early print ads for the game had "3.75" on them, and it really is the best fit, and a true continuance of the game I love most.

This is all not to say I don't enjoy and play other games. In fact, I have been known to ask my group to play other games just for variance, but I'm never truly upset at a 3.5 game featured at our game table.