I think calling 5e the best is an inherently bad claim. The best at what? It does stuff that it does well (though I personally would argue Pathfinder 2e does that stuff better) but the problem is that other systems are designed with other goals in mind. Judging a powered by the Apocalypse game and 5e is in some ways comparing apples and oranges. It's not even a question of personal taste, they're trying to do different things entirely. You could say 5e does combat "better" but can you say that when it's trying to approach combat from an entirely different direction than 5e? Same with the World of Darkness games. They're trying to be games about various flavours of personal horror, and I'd say they succeed at that. They're better horror games than 5e for sure.
For me its best at, the richness of lore from decades of great writers and world creators. As from a mechanical / rules set. I personally have only really enjoyed 3.0 rules.
I started with the box set as a kid, however I was a kid, and honestly I loved it. Imagination is a powerful and wonderful thing.
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Sorry to interrupt the discussion, it is rather interesting to read opinions on different PnP systems, but its not exactly fitting for this thread.
