I've been exploring a lot of different systems lately like Savage Worlds, Dungeon World, Fate, DCCRPG, Microlite74 among others. If you removed all nostalgia attached to D&D, and chose only based the mechanics of the system, which game system would you say is your favorite to run.
D&D. D&D 3.5, though I admit 5E is growing on me and I have to give an honorable mention to Pathfinder. And, look, because people are obsessed with getting to talk about non-D&D s$&% lately, I'll throw you a bone: after D&D/PF, it'd probably be Savage Worlds. But, the reason I run D&D and Pathfinder and write about D&D and Pathfinder and talk about D&D and Pathfinder and call myself a DM instead of a GM is because I have a genuine love of D&D. And it isn't nostalgia fueled. I don't believe in nostalgia. Nostalgia doesn't stir my heart because I'm cold and bitter and hated my childhood. That's why I don't get the urge to go back to Basic D&D or AD&D 2E. Those games were fun at the time, but we f$&%ing know better. Fond memories are just memories. And those games are a mess in the cold light of modern design. Hell, I'll run 4E before I'll ever go back to AD&D 2E.
Every so often I get a question like this where someone implies that I have some weird sort of external factor that is the only reason I keep playing and running and tying my identity to D&D. I don't know why. D&D is a really, really good game that is a lot of fun. It's the game I WANT to run. I don't have many years left (as my doctor keeps reminding me as she checks my blood pressure); I no longer have time to waste running games I don't want to run. I'm done with that s$&%.
Every so often I get a question like this where someone implies that I have some weird sort of external factor that is the only reason I keep playing and running and tying my identity to D&D. I don't know why. D&D is a really, really good game that is a lot of fun. It's the game I WANT to run. I don't have many years left (as my doctor keeps reminding me as she checks my blood pressure); I no longer have time to waste running games I don't want to run. I'm done with that s$&%.