What’s The Best Version Of Dungeons & Dragons?

Earlier this year I finally ventured into the world of Dungeons & Dragons, something I’d wanted to do for many years but never gotten the opportunity to. And while I’m still getting my head around roleplaying a character while keeping all of the necessary systems and rules in my head at once, it’s been fun!

But something I’ve noticed, particularly amongst the more veteran players in my group, is the references to D&D systems and mechanics of years past. So for this week’s Big Question, I put it to you all: what’s the best version of D&D?

For the purposes of this question, let’s keep things strictly to D&D and none of the offshoots, like Pathfinder. I’m not talking homebrew campaigns either or anything like that – just the strict baseline D&D editions: first edition, 5th edition, 3.5, that sort of thing.

Being only really familiar with 5th edition in person, and a bit of advanced D&D through the forks that made their way into games like Baldur’s Gate, I asked some more experienced nerds around me what their preferences were. Gizmodo’s Rae, who has played for years, nominated 4th edition as her favourite due to the ruleset.

I don’t think many people would prefer the original D&D, if only because there were only three classes (magic user, fighter, cleric) and there wasn’t a lot of difference between the characters when it came to combat.

What’s your favourite edition of D&D?