I want to know

[Redrat2k6]

I move from my home town to my college town and need a new group to play DnD with. I was thinking about buying the new 4th ed rulebooks but I don't want to spend the money if not very many people play 4th ed.

So my question is, Do you or your group play 3.5 or 4th ed.

Please do not turn this into an editions war. This is purely a business poll for my wallet.

[Dr.Epic]

I play 3.5.

[mootoall]

3.5 is still very popular, but really you have to find a group first, and see what they're playing. Worst comes to worst, they play 4e and won't let you borrow their books to build characters/learn the system.

[Zuljita]

my group rotates games (we play weekly)
1: 3.5 game (red hand of doom)
2: 4th game (Scales of war)
3: Star wars saga (kinda of 3.75 as editions go)
we run other games as well that are not pertinent to this discussion.

[Bang!]

As a poor college kid, I usually play OSRIC when I play D&D. Sometimes 3e. I don't know anyone who plays 4th.

If you don't know anyone who plays 4e, I'd hesitate to buy the books ahead of time. They're still in print, so if you do meet anyone interested in it, you could grab the books from the local gaming store and give them a skim pretty quickly without waiting for shipping and all that jazz.

[Templarkommando]

I play either 3.5 or 2.0.... well... right now it's 3.5 that I DM or a 2.0-3.5 hybrid that my DM made up but meh.

[Ernir]

3.5 is more popular among those who post on this board. Probably because of the link to the comic, which didn't see a 4E update.

Still, plenty of people play 4E. This just isn't the place that crowd tends to hang out.

I echo the "find out what people are playing before buying in" suggestion.

[Calmar]

Even if billions only play edition X, what does it matter when the guys in your new area play edition Y instead? We can't know or affect what they do.

[Techsmart]

I usually play 3.5. Occasionally, we will play world of darkness, pathfinder, or call of cthulu.
And, to beat a dead horse, its what your group plays, not what we play. If you are wanting to start one and wondering what system to use, then i would recommend 3.5 or pathfinder.

[Grogmir]

4.0 but again - see what group you end up with.

[LikeAD6]

I DM 4 and play 4 when one of the other players wants to take over, but I will play 3.5 if someone is running it.

[Comet]

The two systems are pretty neck to neck, from what I've seen, with some significant regional variation. I'd say it's pretty much impossible to make any sort of decisions based on statistics on this one.

[Pink]

I agree with the consensus that this will probably not be very helpful to your ultimate goal, but I will contribute anyway.

I play pathfinder (like 3.75), occasionally 3.5. The good thing about these systems is that there are online SRDs that have the basic rules needed to play on them (and more in the case of pathfinder), so you can safely buy 4e books and still have the material to play pathfinder and 3.5.

That being said, the question then becomes, what type of 4e do people play? Essentials, first printing, full errata?

Really, better waiting till you meet gamers and play with them before buying books.

[Knaight]

Find a group (or start one with some friends who might be interested), then get what you need to. Your area won't match up with the average in all probability, there is simply too much variance. For instance, if I look at the GMs where I am, that I know about, it extrapolates to 50% 3.5, 25% 4e, 25% Fudge. While these statistics are wrong, I can verify that Fudge is way more popular than average (For that matter, I can take credit for Fudge being way more popular than average), and 3.5 is going stronger than 4e locally.

[Sipex]

I play 4th edition but again, it really depends on who you play with.

edit: Also, open yourself up to other Pen and Paper RPGs. If you specifically look for D&D groups you might close yourself off to other systems which could be fairly popular at your college.

[peacenlove]

Pathfinder but just because i am the only DM in my area and currently have no books

[hereyago]

3.5. I, and a few people I know, have tried 4th and will play it if literally nothing else is available, but 3.5 still can't be beat for customization options in my opinion. (Though of course it's usually modified 3.5. Usually just a couple of homebrew rules based on who's DMing though.)

[Duncan_Ruadrik]

played both, I know more people who prefer 3.5/pathfinder. However, I do have friends who prefer 4e, and we dont give each other a hassle about it. its no big deal.

[Kurald Galain]

Do you or your group play 3.5 or 4th ed.

Yes. Yes, we do.

[Demonweave]

I play 2nd editon
And run 3rd edition

(Did play 4th for a bit but went back to 3rd)

[Cealocanth]

I play 4e because it's easy on newbies and it can easily be houseruled. Mostly, though, because almost every one of my Players are newbies, and after several months they still don't get how to play their class.

[AslanCross]

My group plays 3.5, but we're in a different country.