I still prefer 1st Edition AD&D, although I own many of the 2nd and 3rd edition books ( + etc.). I also have my bag of "favorite" dice (20s, 12s, 10s, 8s, 6s, 4s, and my own homemade "Fate/Forget" coin). In the same box as the rest of this stuff are 8 clipboards, 2 dozen mechanical pencils, half a dozen big pink erasers, colored pencils, highlighters (3 colors), ~500 spell cards, ~500 special items cards, ~50 miniature figures, 3 drawing templates (circles, rectangles, etc.), half a dozen store-bought campaigns, 4 store-bought campaign builder sets, ~ a dozen home-made campaigns, and several disks/CDs of web sites and MS Word documents of my past AD&D adventures.
Although most of our maps were hand-drawn, I eventually bought CC2 and DD2 created by
[color:"orange"]Profantasy[/color] to generate world maps and quick side-adventure maps.
At one point, I had a TV hooked up to my computer so the the players could see quick, hand-drawn sketches, call-up maps, and creature images without me having to juggle thirteen books and lowering my DM screen.
My last campaign (I DM'd most of it) took us 18 months to play. After every session, I wrote limericks to chronicle the story and posted them on my web site. When the game finished, we had exactly 100 limericks, plus a 20 chapter side adventure book about one of the PC thieves -- the lady who played the PC (a female thief) DM'd for a while, so her character needed a side-trip.
BTW, you are right: The only reasonable way to play is a Friday-night-thru-Sunday-morning marathon. Also, you really need to have 3 to 6 devoted players to make it work. It really helps if they are all coworkers and can joke about the game over lunch, at work, etc.
Do you think I take this whole D&D thing a little too seriously? If so, roll an 8-sided die for hit damage, and also roll a Saving Throw against Divine Wrath! <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/silly.gif" alt="" />
