Musing about editions

AD&D 1e was the first old school edition of D&D that I played. After running a few sessions of it I realized that its not really the game I wanted to play, but the problem is that the experiences I had were so wildly divergent from each other. When all players choose simple class combinations like Human Fighters, Thieves and Clerics, I enjoy the game immensely and am having the experience I want to have. When players start using the "advanced" options and start multiclassing Assassin/Druids, Monks, and Paladins, I feel that the game starts to buckle under all the extra options and special abilities of the characters, and as a DM I have to start morphing the game to fit the characters abilities. This is the same reason that I stopped playing 5e and modern RPGs, because I didn't want to juggle between all the super special options that players get.

After diving through a lot of editions, I figured OD&D has the type of ability stat spread and options that I want - which is essentially nothing, a very minimalist game. However, players do not enjoy that type of game and /want/ special enhancements to their characters. OD&D is really only fun for me, since I'm perfectly happy playing a mercenary minded fighter who needs only to rely on his arms and armor, but its not very attractive to most players. In all the games of AD&D, BECMI and OD&D that I've played in or ran, I've only had 2 people play Magic-Users, and one of those players had a Paladin character beforehand. Magic Users are the one class that come with special abilities right out of the gate in OD&D, and no one wants to play them because of their perceived lifespan.

So I've settled on BECMI as a way to meet players halfway. BECMI still has a short list of classes and special abilities given to those classes, so players can have their modifiers but its limited enough that it doesn't disrupt the game. BECMI also offers greater high level options for players and several personal goals for their characters to work towards, the PCs can really grow to be unique and custom to the player's playstyle. And, BECMI characters are more durable than OD&D characters, without gaining all the bonuses of AD&D characters of high ability scores.