Basic (and Expert) D&D.  I quickly abandoned it for AD&D in the early 1980s (and subsequently abandoned AD&D for Rolemaster, Runequest, MERP, etc.).  I thought it was the 'kiddie game'.

Then during the 1990s I thought about giving D&D a shot again.  I looked through my old AD&D 1e books, and the new 2e stuff in the shops (fortunately, I never actually purchased any 2e books).  

And then I spotted the Rules Cyclopedia ... and I found the version of D&D that I wanted to run.

The RC also got me interested in Mystara, a setting that I had pretty much ignored the first time around (I had moved onto other RPGs by the time the Gazetteers were produced).

I think that the first game setting that I really felt that way about was the post-nuke world of Twilight 2000.

As a young boy, I wanted something far more "Gamma World," and instead I had this gritty, deadly world of deserters, disaster and disease.

Now, as an adult, I find the grit more appealing than the gamma, both for its plausibility and playability.

Quote from: RPGPunditI seriously doubt that looking at Eberron again would alter my opinion on it.


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As for me, I'll cling to Greyhawk until my dying day.

Quote from: RPGPunditI seriously doubt that looking at Eberron again would alter my opinion on it.


RPGPundit

I'm almost afraid to ask.

The way that Eberron was billed at first really rubbed me the wrong way. It seemed to me like an emperors new clothes thing where everyone was going apeshit over it's whole "fresh" and "new" concept. Which I thought was utter B.S. having been there and done that for a while. While I'm not one of those "my nipples are so hard they could cut glass!" over the setting like some, what I do like about the setting (once I got over it) is that much like the Wilderlands I can insert some faux scifi elements without going over the top. And without actually being true technologically advanced science fiction. I'll leave that up to the Wilderlands once I run it again.

Another element that grabbed me is the wide open space left over after just enough detail for me to fill in what I want. That part of it appeals to my lazy side of not having to go through the effort of creating a setting myself.

I truly hope they learn from history and don't make the same mistakes they made with the Forgotten Realms. Matter of fact, if they were smart they would adopt the model that the Judges Guild has for the Wilderlands wherein if they release a module that say, (for example) a meteor strikes the planet obliterating half of all life, civilization breaks down and the Marcrabs awaken and take over enslaving the rest of the population for food...no matter what once the module is done the setting resets to zero, or that of the boxed set period.

About two years back, my buddy George was nearly lynched (as he tells it) at a Forgotten Realms seminar at Gen Con for asking them to, as he put it, "knock that shit off".*  A fanboy next to him said he should "try picking up more of the novels".


*-Knowing George, it was more like a polite suggestion, but hey, its his story.

Quote from: Zachary The FirstAbout two years back, my buddy George was nearly lynched (as he tells it) at a Forgotten Realms seminar at Gen Con for asking them to, as he put it, "knock that shit off".*  A fanboy next to him said he should "try picking up more of the novels".


*-Knowing George, it was more like a polite suggestion, but hey, its his story.

Bah, I've been chewed out by Ed Greenwood himself! Love the guy though.

Quote from: Myst3ry M@nBah, I've been chewed out by Ed Greenwood himself! Love the guy though.

It's hard to miss him at a convention, isn't it?  The guy stands out, that's for sure.

Dare I ask what the chewing out was for?  Does it make for a good story?

I liked the Forgotten Realms back when the original boxed set came out. I still have it stored away somewhere. Oh, it'll never replace Greyhawk as "the" D&D setting in my opinion. Yet that original box was pretty good. I even liked how they started out with the intent to not develop certain areas, so they would always be uniquely each DM's own territories.

But then the sourcebooks and novels and calandars and articles just rolled on into infinity. I totally lost interest for the better part of 20 years.

Then, 3e came along. The Forgotten Realms hardback was a damned beautiful, interesting book. I may not want to use it for my campaign, but it has a lot of ideas I want to use. Plus, it's one of the best-looking, most well-written books WotC has released.

Quote from: Zachary The FirstIt's hard to miss him at a convention, isn't it?  The guy stands out, that's for sure.

Dare I ask what the chewing out was for?  Does it make for a good story?

Well, it wasn't in person thank God. A while back, a couple years ago I was running a high level FR campaign and got to thinking about Larloch. What would happen if he was taken out? Not removed, but killed outright. I took this question to the FR list and basically got raked over the coals. I thought well heck with these guys, I'll take it to Ed Greenwood himself! Ho boy! That was a huge mistake. All I wanted to know, I mean here you have a guy (undead, ultra super dooper ultra lich) who has enough power, resources and magic to basically shatter half of Faerun. Removing that obstacle is going to have a major impact on the erea. It was either my fault for not putting it correctly or no one simply wanted to talk about it. But man, FR fanboys get fucking touchy if you mess around with Ed's pet iconics and (I learned the hard way) the FR list is the really, really wrong place to bring it up. Basically the gist of Ed's chew out was with all of the things going on in the Realms why couldn't I think of anything better to do than to kill Larloch? How to kill Larloch really wasn't what I wanted to know but whatever...my ass was getting too sore and I just let it go.

This is one of the reasons I like the Dungeon Crawl Classics line.  They tell you right on the cover that all the NPCs inside are meant to be killed.

I hear that.  One thing I could never stand was game designers treating their "pet" NPCs (or alter-egos, in some cases) as some untouchable case that cannot be harmed (eerily close to poor Marcie's "NO, NOT BLACK LEAF!").