What version of Dungeons and Dragons is being played these days?

[Billy Shat]

I loved the original and the AD&D rules.

[Ken]

At this point, the D&D community is pretty fractured, so the current division is somewhere along the lines of 1/3 Pathfinder, 1/3 4E/Essentials, and 1/3 all the other versions and compatible spin-offs.

[Catherine]

Years ago, when Dungeons and Dragons started it's 3rd Edition, the company that owned it (Wizards of the Coast) came up with an interesting idea to spawn both competition and support for their game; they called it the d20 system. They made (most of) the game rules open and put out a System Reference Document (SRD) that anyone could use for adventures, campaigns, modules, etc. And people did. There were some changes made to the system and WotC published the 3.5 edition and updated the SRD. This was all good for the players of pen-and-paper D&D.

Thing is, there's a lot of change in the way people play games. New, computer influenced players wanted D&D more like the games they love and D&D wanted to be compatible with electronic games that it wanted to market. And out of that the 4th Edition was born (4e). If you like D&D, but want the things you can do to be an evolving string of powers/abilities that you can have on a handy card and play per encounter/day/week of gametime then 4e is for you. It's well written, well supported, and combat plays out more like a video game than a counter-pushing miniatures game. Ironically, it has a lot of miniatures to push around the field. It works though.

Well, with radical changes come the people who have invested a lot into what was the status quo. Many of those people got together and have been working over at Paizo on the Pathfinder system. That's the old, familiar d20 with some changes to incorporate evolving storytelling ideas and game balance. They too, have done a spectacular job writing and supporting the game. They too, are using miniatures. One of their big innovations is in the Adventure Path concept, where they publish entire campaign story arcs with module-like adventure encounters that take, over the course of 6 books, a party of characters from 1st to 15th level. Those take about a year to play out, but a lot of the Dungeon Master's work is done for them so it's become very popular with players that want huge, epic storytelling but don't have the epic time it takes to develop such adventures.

Remember I started with mentioning the d20 system and the 3.5 edition of D&D? Well, that was so successful, with many game companies that started campaign and game tweaks of their own that some people are still playing that.

If you want to start back in, you've got 2 main choices: 4e and Pathfinder. Ruleswise they are very different, even if they both have the same origin. 4e is great if you want that fast-play, this-does-that, feel to your combat system. Pathfinder is great if you like that old-school, add +1 per situation modifier, feel. Both systems have SRDs that you can search for ("D&D 4e SRD" or "Pathfinder SRD") and you can take a very close look at the systems for free.

I've played both systems, I notice that the same top game designers are writing adventures for both systems. Both are solid and fun. Many people have a strong play-one-or-the-other, you-can't-like-them-both stance. For me, it's a matter of economics and time. I don't want to purchase 2 systems down to the newest campaign supplement. At this moment, I'm playing Pathfinder because there's better Pathfinder Society support in my area and I really enjoy the Adventure Paths and the campaign world that Paizo publishes.

Check out your local game store (not bookstore, game store), and see what's playing. Both systems offer great demo modules and boxed sets of stripped-down rules for new players to introduce each systems strengths. Both have fun, relatively easy to get into, module-based social networks (WotC's RPGA and Paizo's Pathfinder Society) that allow you to build a character and play at store or organization sponsored events.

Finally, both companies offer paperback novels with great game-inspired adventure stories set in their campaign worlds that are a fun read; if you're just feeling like you want someone to tell you a great story.