Hidden in Shadows

 Back in July of 2022 I made a frivilous post on my thought regarding how many editions of D&D there really were. I came up with 8.

Since then I have entirely re-thought the matter, realizing that I, along with everyone else practically was mixing chocolate with my peanut butter.

More to the point I was counting AD&D as an edition of D&D, because everybody knows its the same game. But I've realized that is not really true. AD&D is a derivative game variant.  D&D was published as D&D side by side with the variant AD&D.

So if we aske the question, "How many editions of just D&D are there?", here is my two cents:

1) Alpha edition - 1974 OD&D - the 3 little brown books.

2) Beta edition - Supplements 1-4.  Supplement 1 significantly changes core rules in OD&D, adds new classes, and creates a more complex game. It wasn't seen as a new edition by the players, but it is a significant change. 

3) Gamma edition - Basic D&D (Holmes, B/X, BECMI, Rules Cyclopedia, Black Box)

The Holmes Bluebook rulebook largely adheres to "Supplement" D&D and it is tempting to lump them together.  However Holmes notably introduces new movement and time rules that are carried into the rest of the Basic line.  While all these editions of Basic continue to grow the rules base, the core rules are in substantial agreement throughout.

4)  Delta edition -  3.0 D&D and 3.5. This edition merged features of AD&D and Basic D&D into one system. Previously I separated 3.0 and 3,5 because the changes between 3.5 and 3.0 were quite substantial. However with 5.5 out now and it being very specifically not a new edition we might as well lump these two together. The changes 3.5 brought are mostly tweeks and fixes to the 3.0 system much like D&D 2024 is to D&D 2014, only maybe more so.

5) Epsilon edition -  4th edition D&D. This thing is so different it isn't D&D IMHO, but the publisher called it that so...

6) Zeta edition - 5th edition and D&D next and now D&D 2024.  I've put these together since "Next" was a free playtest that led to 5th and WotC insists D&D 2024 is also their 5th edition. It's mostly the same so I guess they are one "edition" of the game.

So there you have it IMHO D&D 5th edition is the 6th edition of the game, lol.

BUT WAIT, maybe 5th edition really is the 5th edition.

I break OD&D into two editions, the 3lbbs only and the 3lbbs+supplements becuase Supplement II added so much to the game. However many folks wouldn't do that and nobody at the time considered the supplements to be a new edition.

If you wanted to consider OD&D as one edition, that is that the 3lbb's + Supplements are but a single edition and not two as I have it, then 5th edition really would be the 5th edition. YMMV.