Inventory

Because I've been relatively successful in my professional career, although saddled with many expenses as a SI4K couple (as opposed to a DINK couple) I've been able to pursue my hobbies to a decent degree without worrying about how much they cst. D&D, or the RPG hobby more specifically, isn't really that expensive unless you get into super expensive miniatures, terrain, or other money pits that aren't really either my thing or at all necessary. I've been able, even, to get lots of stuff that I don't even anticipate using, either for nostalgia reasons, or just as a bit of a collector, at least in digital format, because WotC recognized around 2014 or 2015 or so that there was plenty of demand for older games that was being unmet, and that it wasn't going to cannibalize their current edition, because it was either collectors like me buying for the heckuvit, or people who wouldn't be customers of what was then the newly minted current edition, 4e. Supplemented here and there with some used stuff picked up at used book stores, or from online variants of the same, I've amassed a fairly comprehensive collection of D&D rules, and a not comprehensive but still impressive collection of supplemental material. The teenaged version of me in the mid to late 80s would be in awe, and even the 20s version of me throughout the 90s and earliest 00s would have been pretty impressed. Nowadays, it seems pretty routine. 

I thought as part of my 50th celebration of D&D and the RPG hobby as a whole, I'd take inventory of the various "D&Ds" that I have. I don't intend to inventory all of the product that I have for every game, but for each game that I have the full set of actual original rules, I've going to make a list, and then annotate it slightly with some, at least, of the supplemental material that I might have for it. What counts and what doesn't is a little arbitrary; for example, I'm not counting Shadow of the Demon Lord as a "D&D", although I could fairly do so, I suppose, nor am I counting Dungeon Crawl Classics; but I am counting Pathfinder (both editions) and the retroclones that I have. I guess I see the former group as alt.D&Ds in the sense that they fill the same niche as D&D, but do it in a different way, whereas the latter group are either straight up clones of D&D, or in the case of the Pathfinders, an evolution where D&D "forked"; the first Pathfinder was clearly a slight evolution from D&D 3.5 and Pathfinder 2e is clearly an evolution from Pathfinder 1e, whereas D&D went the direction of 4e instead.

I'm also going to count a few not-quite-retroclones, but games that are meant to bridge the gap between different editions of D&D, like ShadowDark and Five Torches Deep, but including them seems, I admit, a bit arbitrary when excluding games like DCC or Index Card RPG, or even Castles & Crusades or Hackmaster seems a bit arbitrary (actually, I don't have the latter, so it doesn't count... but I wouldn't have included it anyway.) But you've got to draw a line somewhere, and that means using some judgement, because what is and isn't a "D&D" is in the eye of the beholder (no pun intended) more than something that can be objectively identified.

Original D&D. I have this game, plus all of the original supplemental materials for it (minus adventures) as well as a number of "new" supplemental materials up to 10 or 12 or so made more recently and unofficially. Honestly, I just have this just because—there's no way that I'd imagine I'd ever play this or even attempt to read it cover to cover (to cover. To cover, etc.)

Basic D&D (Holmes). I don't know of anything that's actually a unique follow-up, add-on, or supplement for this game. Again; I doubt I'll ever read this again, much less play it. It was tedious reading when it was new in the 80s.

Basic/Expert (Moldvay/Cook). I will actually probably read this, and I have read much of it. I doubt I'll ever play it (or any of these D&Ds, honestly) but if I were to play one of these D&Ds again, this might well be one of my go-tos. I actually think that some of the retroclones are probably a bit better; they fix the organization and a few wonky mechanics while otherwise feeling exactly like this version, but then again; I've got the original source right here, although with some of its supplements, and especially the two modules that originally came with the two sets; B2 Keep on the Borderlands (I know that B1 In Search of the Unknown was originally included, but more people saw B2, including me) and X1 The Isle of Dread. 

Basic-Expert-Companion-Master-Immortals (Mentzer). I've read a fair bit of the Basic set since getting these, but it's a bit of a slog. The text is kind of dumbed down and it feels tedious to read rules to me these days. I don't think the game really changed that much from the Moldvay/Cook series, with the exception of the expansions that went beyond them, of course. I also have DA2 Temple of the Frog and a few of the Gazeteers, but I doubt I'll read them either. Although I'm not actually a huge fan of this version of the game, I'm a huge fan of the Larry Elmore artwork of at least the first four boxes, and I want to buy signed prints of them from Elmore's online store once I finish relocating and am setting up my own office the way I really want it.

The Classic D&D Game. The fourth revision of the D&D line (while AD&D had long ago forked). There are multiple different printings of this, but I seem to have the 17th printing from 1994.

Rules Cyclopedia. The final expression of the D&D game before it went out of print and TSR focused solely on AD&D... until they were acquired by WotC. WotC, of course, used the D&D (rather than AD&D) title, but they used the AD&D edition numbering scheme, and 3e, although called D&D rather than AD&D, was clearly a follow-up to AD&D 2e, not to the RC. By this point, TSR had, of course, dropped the Immortals from the end of BECMI, but I do also have The Wrath of the Immortals set which replaced it and sits kinda atop RC as a capstone.

AD&D (1e). I have the three main books, the Monster Manual 2, and a few other supplements like Manual of the Planes up to Unearthed Arcana. I don't have the three books that turned 1e into "1.5", but I do have a number of adventures, and the old Forgotten Realms gray box.

AD&D (2e). I had left the game by the time this came out, so I picked this stuff up after the fact as a collector. Mostly what I have is the three main books and a number of the old campaign setting boxed sets (in pdf format. Planescape was the first of these that I picked up.) I don't have any of the Complete books, so I don't have "2.5" I suppose. I'm actually a little curious about some of them, but probably not enough to look them up.

D&D 3e. This is the game that brought me back to D&D, so I have most of the product that came out for it, actually, although mostly in physical form, because when I bought it, I wasn't really buying pdfs yet. I also have a pretty fair pile of third party product for it, because you could get that again with the OGL and the SRD.

D&D 3.5. I bought most of these two, with the exception of some of the latest books, or a few that just never piqued my interest. In physical form, again. I also didn't buy more than a couple of the Forgotten Realms subline, which was quite extensive. I did, however, eventually pick up all of the 3.5 Eberron material.

D&D 4e. Bought these cheap after the fact; the main books and a few of the setting books. I never had any interest whatsoever in the rules, but I did like the setting material more than most D&D grognards did. I appreciated the changes to things that made more sense, had more mythological resonance, and was more focused on usability—in fact, I thought that WotC didn't go far enough in that regard. But I understand why a lot of others didn't go for it.

D&D 5e. I eventually bought the core books in pdf form, and most of the big campaigns, just to read. I had long, by this time, stopped playing D&D, but it's been nice to have. I doubt I'll get 6e. Yes, yes... I know that WotC is trying really hard not to call it that, so they're saying D&D 5e 2014 vs D&D 5e 2024, but that's ridiculous.

Pathfinder (1e). Honestly, by this time, I was done with 3.5-like D&D, so Pathfinder seemed like it more of the same, except perhaps even more rules-heavy. I think from a system standpoint, it broke as many things as it fixed, but I bought a bunch of this stuff because the rulebooks were pretty cheap on pdf, and it was worth it for the art alone. At least for a time. I have a lot of Pathfinder 1e books, but not all of them.

Pathfinder (2e). I know that it's relative, but this is one that I think starts to become maybe not quite a D&D; Pathfinder 1e was clearly designed to be D&D 3.75, but Pathfinder 2e is now starting to go its own direction, more separate from any edition of D&D. That said, it's an evolution of a game that's clearly a D&D, and it's also clearly just an evolutionary step in mechanics while still covering all of the exact same tropes. Again, who says DCC isn't covering all of the exact same tropes too; it mostly is, but the rules were always different from D&D in at least enough that I don't call that one a "D&D". Like I said, the line is arbitrary. There's a reason that a lot of people suggested DCC as a replacement for D&D when people were all talking about leaving WotC a year and a half ago, but y'know. Even more suggested Pathfinder.

Basic Fantasy RPG. The first actual true retro-clone, a mostly clone of B/X mentioned above. Rather than actually playing B/X, I'd probably look at either this or Labyrinth Lord.

Labyrinth Lord. Another of the "Big Four" retroclones, meant to emulate B/X.

Old School Essentials. The final B/X retroclone (at least that I have). A lot of people really like it, but it feels a little too pamphlety and reads more like an instruction manual than an evocative gamebook. It may well be easier to use in actual play, but it's a beast to try and read.

Swords & Wizardry. I actually have the White Box, the Core Rules and the Complete Rules. This is another of the "Big Four" and emulates OD&D. If I ever wanted to play OD&D, I'd use these instead. I really like the cover art, too.

OSRIC. The retro-clone that put retro-clones on the map, and the last of the "Big Four". This emulates AD&D 1e.

Dark Dungeons. After you get over the in-joke of this being named after a Jack Chick tract that gamers like to make fun of because it targeted them specifically, you'll find that it's a BECMI clone, or somewhere at least on that spectrum of BECMI to RC. It has some unique new stuff that does the Immortals material, because nobody has ever thought that the Immortals stuff was done well by TSR.

For Gold & Glory. I was actually a little surprised that there was enough nostalgia for 2e; the rules, I mean, not the ancillary stuff like settings, for anyone to attempt to emulate it when 1e was already out and 2e is mostly considered inferior by ... most people, or so it seems. But there's always someone, and this game covers that gap, if that's what you want.

I also have the following games, all of which hybridize OSR and "modern" (i.e., usually 5e) design and take different tacks on trying to bridge the gap between them. Most of them are written especially by OSR fans, and the goal is mostly to get you to an OSR-like experience using 5e-like rules. I haven't read most of these in depth, (or at all, in some cases, although I'd like to eventually get around to it) so I won't really comment on what makes them all different from each other, but I will note that compared to 5e or even most of the retroclones, all of these are quite rules-lite, and the shortest of them is less than half a dozen pages long: Five Torches Deep, Maze Rats, Knave, Knave 2e, ShadowDark, Low Fantasy Gaming and Deathbringer (the latter is playable completely as is, but a "full" version of this game is due sometimes in 2025, I believe. I'll buy it. I like the creator's content well enough to give him that much.) Because these all modify or hybridize specific D&D systems, I call all of these "D&Ds" whereas something like DCC, again, hybridizes D&D with stuff that is unique and not really D&Dish. For relative values of D&Dishness; but there are a few that I'm looking at a bit side-eyed as truly being a "D&D" rather than just a D&D-like but different game.

Finally, Microlite20 or m20 is also specifically a stripped down version of D&D, but it arguably strips it down enough that it's not quite recognizable. Also, there are so many variants that I couldn't possibly attempt to take inventory of what I have without just copying and pasting the table of contents, which I won't do.

Aaaannnd.... it's worth noting that, of course, I don't actually play any of these; my own "D&D" is my own creation of house-ruled Frankensystem, and I won't call it a "D&D" but I suppose I could. It doesn't deviate from D&D than any of the ones mentioned just above Microlite, although it does hybridize rules from many more versions of D&D than any of them do, and it does deliberately eschew one of the main, most iconic D&D activities as out of scope just because I'm not at all interested in it.

UPDATE: Oh, I forgot one of the retroclones that I have: Delving Deeper, a possibly more faithful interpretation of OD&D than Swords & Wizardry. I should probably note that I don't have all of the versions of all of these retroclones, who seem to go through revisions left and right, especially as they build up their brands and then get kickstarters for more expensive revisions that the producers can sell to the fans. 

All of these can fairly be called "fantasy heartbreakers", but honestly... does anyone really care anymore? The barriers to entry mean that fantasy heartbreakers have finally found a place where they aren't superfluous anymore.