Remember 2nd edition with the 200 supplemental booklets designed to leech every last cent from you? I just went with the Monster Manual, Players Handbook, and Dungeons Master Guide. I didn't really feel like relearning a whole new system for 3.0. I have the books, but only play about once a year now adays. The new 4.0 seems like another money leech since they just had 3.5 recently.
Ah, D&D. I started with the Red Box(1983), then got into AD&D.
It does seem like they consistently put out a new edition every 10 years. 1E was completed in '79, 2E came out in '89, 3E in 2000, and now 4E in 2008.
So they're 2 years early with 4E.
I do remember those awful 2E supplements: FULL of typos. I have a bunch of them. They were stupid to buy, as there is nothing in them that's original, and nothing better than what we came up with ourselves. For instance, we had a Barbarian class that was much cooler than any published variation I know of: we added a few Thief skills to more accurately represent the
Conan the Barbarian version.
My advice to new D&D players: once you understand one edition, you're pretty much there. You certainly don't need PHB2, or DMG2, that's ridiculous. Old-schoolers like myself had to brush up on the 3E d20 system modifications, other than that, it's pretty much the same game.
If anything, the new editions have made me more disposed towards "House Rules" than before. Once you can DM on-the-fly, and do it well, the books just get in the way - which I think Gygax himself says somewhere in the 1E DMG.
). Ocasionally some groups use miniatures and floorplans for combat situations to determine the positions of characters and enemies.
