So my fellow elegan/tg/entlemen... I've been away from

Anon-kun, go to the /5eg/. They will help you

5e is a system that combines the best of 2e, 3.5, and 4e all into one system.

Unless you intend to use material that's too hard to convert, there's not much reason not to play 5E.

That said, it's a little short of settings right now. Greyhawk's easy enough since it has so little in the way of unique mechanical elements (and the core books have the pantheon), so if you can find the fluff somewhere else you're good. Forgotten Realms is very solidly supported via the Sword Coast Player's Guide and the setting portions of most of the 5e adventure modules -- indeed, it looks like FR is our new default setting. Get Curse of Strahd if you want to run Ravenloft quite nicely.

Other settings are a little more troubled. Planescape and Spelljammer got about the same treatment they did in 3.5, i.e. a few passages in the core books about cosmology and basically nothing else. Eberron had a cursory mechanical treatment in an Unearthed Arcana article but the fluff is up to you to track down. Dark Sun also requires you to get the fluff somewhere else, and the only psionics rules so far as the brief ones in Unearthed Arcana.

If you're ready to really work for pulling together the fluff, though, there's enough to run any setting you care to. Some of the new things in Sword Coast's Adventurer's Guide are well-suited to other settings too, like the Faction Agent background (it's not hard to see how helpful that would be for a Planescape game).

>>49429593
Seconded.

>>49430115
Is there reliable information in 5e for non-metal weapons and armor?
I've digested enough 2e Dark Sun to play it efficiently, but considering the setting's incredible scarcity of metal and non-existence of metal armor (heat stroke being a terrible way to die), good information on making arms and armor from bone, wood, chitin, etc. would really come in handy.

I'll go the extra mile if I have to. I always have.

>>49430115
is it hard to convert other editions into 5ed?

not op, but I loved the gorillion splatbooks for 3e/3.5e and would probably play 5ed if they could be used.

>>49430421

The mindset's a lot different in 5e. Players/DMs are much more encouraged to think of the listed weapon/armor types as "code words" for packages of stats. "Half-plate" means 15 AC plus up to +2 from dex that weighs 40 lbs, costs 750 gp, causes disadvantage to stealth, and takes 5 minutes to put on and 1 minute to take off. You could make it look like anything, and be made out of anything, without messing with that.

There are a few spells left that affect metal gear differently than non-metal gear, which already requires some DM adjudication since it doesn't explicitly say what does or doesn't count. Personally I'd just replace them with other, more setting-specific spells anyway.

>>49430479
The expected math and action economy are radically different.

>>49429324
5e is like 3.5 but with better mechanics and less content and no expectations of content in the future as support is already dead.

>>49431031
I can't speak to the first part of this, but a glance at the releases and release schedule are suggestive that the latter two are absolutely right!

>>49430808
Metal... Gear?

>>49430479
It's actually exceptionally easy. 5e has more backwards compatibility with previous editions than any of those previous editions had with one another, except for the near-total interchangeability of 1e and 2e.

If you want 5e summed up in one line, it's "A little something for everyone."

If you're interested in an endorsement from a hardcore 2e grognard who was converted to 5e against all odds, read http://scibbe.com/?p=3699 and http://scibbe.com/?p=3752.

>>49433932

A gaming system to surpass metal gear.

>>49431031
The second half of this is false.

>>49431031
It is not like we have had a book out last month and a new one in november, right?

3.pf is always going to be the best modern system and myfarog the best 2nd ed and clone.