Races and Classes

Andor · Jan 7, 2008

As I recall, way back last tuesday when 4e was announced they said we would know what races and classes would be in the PHB when the preview book came out.

And now the book is out and.... am I wrong or did it not actually clear up that question?

I'm not claiming the sky is falling but that seems to me to be another sign that the development cycle is way WAY too rushed on this one.

I would really feel better if a dev were to say "We're WOTC and we're the Blizzard of RPGs and we will not release 4e until it's actually done to our satisfaction."

Lackhand · Jan 7, 2008

We got races. Classes are still an open question.

I remember the quote, but I (faulty, self-edited memory, maybe?) only remember it being promised in the context of races.

Which places them neatly off the hook. I just wish I could remember whether they're legitimately off of it! :heh:

This does feel a bit rushed, yes. Still, I'm not worried.

WarlockLord · Jan 7, 2008

And the info is out of date. They've already admitted it's mistaken about wizard implements, so you kinda gotta wonder what else has been changed.

Lonely Tylenol · Jan 7, 2008

WarlockLord said:
And the info is out of date. They've already admitted it's mistaken about wizard implements, so you kinda gotta wonder what else has been changed.

Tieflings are out! Grippli are in!

Fifth Element · Jan 7, 2008

Andor said:
I'm not claiming the sky is falling but that seems to me to be another sign that the development cycle is way WAY too rushed on this one.

I would really feel better if a dev were to say "We're WOTC and we're the Blizzard of RPGs and we will not release 4e until it's actually done to our satisfaction."

Your argument doesn't follow. If they were rushing, they would have committed to the classes to be in the PHB at this point. How can taking time to make a decision be considered rushing?

tomBitonti · Jan 7, 2008

Fifth Element said:
Your argument doesn't follow. If they were rushing, they would have committed to the classes to be in the PHB at this point. How can taking time to make a decision be considered rushing?

I'm thinking that it is rushing if they keep to their posted schedule. They may not be rushing yet, but they seem to have a lot fo ground to cover in the next few months. So either, they will rush through the next bits, or they will slip their schedule.

Maybe they are not behind, but are just stingy with information. I look to the sparseness of the Dungeons and Dragons content as a sign they they have pulled in an overlarge portion of their game developers to finish the new edition.

Sitara · Jan 7, 2008

Actually we do know about the classes. All 8 of 'em. Only hting now is that they might add in a few more classes, bring 'em up to 9 or 10, or even more.

That would be like a wet dream come true...bbut lets see. i'm not holding out hope, since they tend to get dashed a lot....

Andor · Jan 7, 2008

Fifth Element said:
Your argument doesn't follow. If they were rushing, they would have committed to the classes to be in the PHB at this point. How can taking time to make a decision be considered rushing?

I didn't say they were rushing, I said it seems they are sticking by a development schedule they cannot match.

At Gencon they had a schedule that would have had the PHB races and classes nailed down in time for the preview book to give us solid information of what was to be what.

Obviously things were too much in flux still for it to be nailed down by the time the book had to go to the printers. This indicated slippage of the development schedule, and that schedule seemed ambitious back at GenCon.

So since we have visible slippage in an already short schedule I would be much comforted to know that if given a choice between sticking to their development schedule, and delaying the printing of 4e until it had been polished to the standards we will all hold them to, they will choose the latter course.

The alarming thought in the back of my head points out that WoTC is clearly drawing many lessons from computer game manufacturers (Nothing bad in and of itself) and that the Online content model they are flirting with for 4e may be making them think they can rush a game out the door and patch it afterwards. That model is barely tolerable in computer games, and one need only look at the PR debacle that was the release of Hellgate to see how poor an idea it is there. In a tabletop game it would be much, much worse.

simply not edible · Jan 7, 2008

Andor said:
I would really feel better if a dev were to say "We're WOTC and we're the Blizzard of RPGs and we will not release 4e until it's actually done to our satisfaction."

Or, alternatively, release, and then regularly require your customers to download patches that tweak and retweak the balance between classes. Even Blizzard does it, I've heard of these little fixes a lot, although in all fairness, it's all second hand as far as I'm concerned.

Nah. Let them figure it out. If something doesn't work out, hold it back for in a later book when it does. I don't mind them not having confirmed everything in there already, although in all fairness, there is pretty high rate of probability that those we consider "in" now will be.

And sure, there will be errata. Better get rid of those mistakes that do slip in than just "ignore", as far as I'm concerned.

Dausuul · Jan 7, 2008

Andor said:
I didn't say they were rushing, I said it seems they are sticking by a development schedule they cannot match.

At Gencon they had a schedule that would have had the PHB races and classes nailed down in time for the preview book to give us solid information of what was to be what.

Really? Keeping in mind that the preview book must also go through development and printing? The content of Races and Classes had to be finished well before the book was actually released. Plus, every hour spent writing stuff for R&C is an hour not spent working on 4E.

Races and Classes

Andor

First Post

Lackhand

First Post

WarlockLord

First Post

Lonely Tylenol

First Post

Fifth Element

Legend

tomBitonti

Adventurer

Sitara

Explorer

Andor

First Post

simply not edible

First Post

Dausuul

Legend

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