Next game?

 As a good gm I'm already planning my next game.   After a recent BBQ my cousins decided they want to try dnd.  Here's the welcome email I sent.

Hey everyone 

Introductions first. Redacted and redacted are my cousins. Redacted is my nephew. Redacted is redacteds friend.

So I hear you want to play d&d eh? Well we can definitely find a few dungeons with possible dragons!

I figured we can start with 1 game and see how it goes. Maybe get together once a month at our place as time goes on. (Sunday once a month after supper). Starting in October.

I have a few options for games and I'd like to let you guys decide.

Good starter game.

Whitebox dnd, pretty straightforward, easy to create characters and get started. Based on the original version of the game released in 1974. Fairly open ended with lots of room for interpretation. It's a good beer and pretzels game. Just 2 dice, d20 and d6

Bx dnd from 1983. My wheelhouse , best of both worlds. All the dice.  

I'm not going to mention 2nd edition, wildly convuluted and crunchy. What I grew up on. Very fun.

5th edition dnd. Tactical, crunchy and it can be roleplay heavy. Lots to digest but lots of fun as well. Cool thing is you can get very in-depth in character creation. That said first few sessions would be character creation and getting started. Upside is you get very attached to character and immersed .more dice rolling.  

With 5e I can provide pregenerated characters to get us up and going. However part of the game is creating characters and backstory. 

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I'm awaiting responses.  If I run an old school game it would be Kotb, with in search of the unknown.  Or horror on the hill which I recently acquired.

5e would be the phandelver starter set.

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Last night after our bx game, Steve and I did our usual talk for an hour and drink beer.   Mostly about dnd and old school games.   During our conversation we discussed our gaming upbringing.  I mentioned to Steve the first real rpg I played was advanced fighting fantasy.  I think we both agreed that your first game and experience helped develop your style and likes.   Much like being a musician, the first music I learned had a lasting impact (Nirvana).

Which has lead me to want to run aff again.  I think irl I'd use the 2nd edition ruleset.  However on roll20 I'd probably use a bastardized version of the original FF roleplay game.  The one before aff, and not the game book.  Somewhere I have a copy of it in text that I borrowed from a blog post.

More information here 

https://fightingfantasy.fandom.com/wiki/Fighting_Fantasy_-_The_Introductory_Role-playing_Game