Why 2E?

On multiple entries to this blog I panned AD&D 2E as the worst edition of D&D (until 4E stole that crown).
So why would we choose 2E to play now?
For one, it was the worst at the time, but it was by no means unplayable or truly bad.
The reign of AD&D 2E was full of many books and campaign settings that were released in a seemingly unending stream that only a truly dedicated (and rich) gamer could ever hope to use all of these books.
Many of these books were not worth spending the effort to read or money. (I found out much later that TSR was so poorly managed, which is why so much junk was published.)

But some of my best memories of D&D were with 2E. (And some of my worst were with 1E, which I liked a lot in spite of that.)
Back when I started playing with the group that would evolve into this group, they had so many people that they decided to split the group up into a good campaign and an evil campaign. I think this was probably around 1995.
The good group was run by Dale, who ran a Ravenloft campaign. The players were generally people who preferred good-aligned PCs.
The evil group was run by a jerk (and felon), and I was not surprised who went with that group. I believe it was set in the Forgotten Realms.
I chose the good group because there were too many people in the evil group that I…didn’t care for. I believe I played a cleric of Gond.
The good group did not win. The evil group most definitely lost. (I kind of think of it as a social experiment.)
On just the third night of the campaign the evil group tore itself apart. In the end they only had one PC alive.
They all had agreements and deals with one another to backstab one another in the event of XYZ.
When the smoke cleared, the evil group wanted to have their lone PC duel the entirety of the good group (who were all alive and doing well…even if it was Ravenloft).
I convinced the good group to politely decline with a “no thanks”.
They attempted to get us to change our minds through clever tactics like “Aw c’mon you cowards” and “What are you afraid of?”
My reasoning was pretty simple: We had nothing to gain, they had dignity to gain, and the price of doing what they did should be left as it was. We won because they failed and we had no reason to give them a chance to erase that failure.
That left two bruises on the egos of the evil group’s players.

Then there was Craig’s first attempt at running a game. It was fun and he put it together quite well. We were a bit over-powered for him, but not really. It was also the highest level 2E campaign I had legitimately leveled from 1 to 15.
There are other stories, both good and bad from all editions.
Hell, if I had my way we’d do a BECMI/RC game, but that’s unlikely.
In the end, 2E has a lot to draw from, good books and bad.
When I ran some 2E campaigns, I really didn’t need to prepare as much as I did for the newer editions with less reliance on a rules-heavy setup and a more freeform system.
There was also much more role-playing than I’ve seen recently.

One thing that 1E & 2E can do that 3E on cannot…deal with missing a crucial PC.
If your healer (and sometimes tank) doesn’t show up, you’re in bad shape in big 3/4E fights.
In 1/2E, fighters come aplenty and there are usually backup healers.
Why? Because multi-classing allows for it without a huge sacrifice.
Ah, wizard/cleric, fighter/mage/cleric, and fighter cleric, how I love thee.
And don’t give me any of that malarkey that multi-classing is overpowered. I’ve played this game for a long time and I’ve seen more overpowered combinations in 3/4E than I have in any 1/2E multi-classing.

So why not playtest D&D Next?
Because I disliked 4E so much that I don’t feel I can give 5E a try.
Matt, the owner of Yottaquest, told me how much he and the other players liked D&DN and gave several examples of improvement.
All I could say in response was “Meh”.
Maybe the game has improved and I’m too old-school, or too unwilling to care, but meh.
It’s Hasbro/WoTC’s job now to make me want D&DN.
They need to reach out to me and prove that what they’ve done is better.
Not player accounts. Not ENWorld stories. Not advertisements.
They need to send me a direct e-mail and prove it.
Beyond that then I won’t give a rat’s ass about D&D Next until it is released and every single one of the players in this group say it’s great.
We gave 4E a more than fair chance. The ball’s in your court WotC. I’m not making any effort in this.