It's D&D!

[Digol]

I've been DMing for a 5e group for a few years now. Currently nearly two years into a Storm King's Thunder campaign that at various points got wildly out of hand (but mostly in a fun way) where I was "fixing" parts of the adventure that felt weak.

But I definitely think 5e is a good balance between Roleplaying freedom and rules. I've found from also running some more freeform stuff (like The Sprawl and other Powered by the Apocalypse systems) that can sometimes not be enough rules to make player characters feel special? I think for a player to really be able to differentiate a character they need some rules backup so they can actually do things that the others can't - they get to roll a dice that no one else gets to, etc... I.e. you get to be more of a hero when you "break" the established rules.

As for getting people to try new systems, I have on occasion pulled my "I'm DM-ing for the group so I'm going to be a dictator and we're going to have a break from DND for a few weeks and try a new system" (but I'll only do this if I REALLY think our group will enjoy it).

Never tried MERS though, I'll have to read the books and educate myself...

[castlezagyx]

I'm also a D&D player, Dming since '92. I started with the spanish D&D Basic boxset, the black edition called 'classic' in some grognard forums. I'm too young to have been able to start with Mentzer red box and much less with B/X, Holmes or OD&D edition. We played lots of AD&D 2nd Ed. during high school and college, countless hours around a table. I always enjoyed all TSR worlds and campaign settings: Greyhawk, Forgotten Realms, Dragonlance, Ravenloft, Mystara / Savage Coast / Red Steel, Lankhmar, Dark Sun, Planescape, Birthright, Spelljammer... and those Dragon, Dungeon, Polyhedron magazines. Great stuff, I'm very fond of it. Unfortunately, I don't keep the notebooks with our homebrew campaigns, but I preserve each boxset, manual, splatbook, magazine and so on from that era. Years ago, I complemented my collection with some AD&D 1, OD&D and Judges Guild stuff.

Also, we played D&D 3.0 and 3.5 when they arrives. I remember dense and eternal evening-night sessions with my wife and friends, the room filled with the smoke of cigarettes. We enjoyed some of the revamped settings (specially Forgotten Realms) and we played great campaigns like Witchfire (Iron Kingdoms). Maybe a system too crunchy for us, but anyway it was a great and solid edition. FR, Eberron and Conan collections are still on my shelves, but I sold all the rulebooks.

We played some D&D 4 sessions, but definitely not our kind of tabletop RPG. Last years, we've restarted our AD&D campaign in the Dalelands (Forgotten Realms) and Sigil (Planescape), and also playing some OSR stuff: principally Goodman Games Dungeon Crawl Classics, Tales and the Grotesque and Dungeonesque, and Lamentations of the Flame Princess. I also buy some D&D 5 stuff, but I have mixed judgements about it, maybe too soft and tender for our tastes.

These are some shelves on my home studio room:

[dungeonsnake]

Damn now that's a hell of a collection. I thought mine was pretty good but you put me to shame. Glad to hear some love for DCC and LotFP, I love those too. I also see Fight On! on your shelf, good man.

[castlezagyx]

This took me nearly three decades collecting stuff, dungeonsnake . No shame, mate. Many times we have had a lot of fun just playing with a basic ruleset like Microlite 20 or White Hack and a unscripted module.

We share similar tastes, I appreciate the work of M. J. Finch on Swords & Wizardry, specially his White Box, and some LotFP stuff are complete masterpieces (I specially like Vornheim, Red & Pleasant Land, Carcosa, Scenic Dunnsmouth, Veins of the Earth and Weird New World). Also, I like the Black Metal references on Vaginas are Magic! and Frostbitten and Mutilated.

But I mostly love DCC, I'm collecting their modules since DCC #0 and #1, Legends are Made, not Born and Idylls of the Rat King. I like the AD&Desque approach of the entire line. Their last Lankhmar boxset is impressive.

Another OSR games I enjoy are first HackMaster 4th ed., OSRIC (my favorite retroclone), Labyrinth Lord, Castles and Crusades, Asthonising Swordmen and Sorcerers of Hyperborea, Troika! by Daniel Sell and the works of Patrick Stuart (Deep Carbon Observatory, Maze of the Blue Medusa, Hot Springs Island, and so on).

[dungeonsnake]

It sounds like we have similar taste indeed. The past few campaigns I've run have all been DCCRPG, I ran their Lankmhar campaign a couple years ago but mixed it up with Tekumel, had a blast. I also really enjoyed Vornheim and Veins of the Earth. Patrick Stuart is an amazing talent and a very nice guy, we've spoken online several times.