How the D&D Next Public Playtests Will Work

Blackwarder · Apr 30, 2012

CAFRedblade said:
I'd think they'd want a larger baseline of what works/doesn't work from pregens before releasing the char gen rules.

Going from a little over 1000 (I believe the friends/family playtest is about here in number) people to 10000+ (exaggerated or not, I don't know) people even with Pregens will be alot of feedback to look over and evaluate. If all goes well, and no great surprises are found, then the footing is solid, they then have a great base level to compare newer options to in how things work.

Looking forward to playtesting this out.

I don't think that the number is exaggerated, many folks who spend time on forums or online discussing the game got a bunch of other folks behind them that don't.

I know that I got nearly a dozen test dum... Errr I mean players to run playtests with.

Warder

Umbran · Apr 30, 2012

drothgery said:
The value of a public, open playtest is in getting large numbers of players to try things the developers didn't anticipate.

That is *one* value of a public, open playtest. It is by no means the only one.

Getting feedback on how the broader public feels about the very core is important. Private and in-house stuff may get you "does this work as intended", but it wil generally miss, "does the audience really like how it works".

Umbran · Apr 30, 2012

drothgery said:
The value of a public, open playtest is in getting large numbers of players to try things the developers didn't anticipate.

That is *one* value of a public, open playtest. It is by no means the only one.

Getting feedback on how the broader public feels about the very core is important. Private and in-house stuff may get you "does this work as intended", but it will generally miss, "does the audience really like how it works".

am181d · Apr 30, 2012

I just want to point out that I called pre-gens on the last thread. It makes sense that they'd want to keep the feedback focused to start with, particularly given the number of people who will likely be involved. If you've got 10,000 (?) people giving you feedback, you're going to need to be able to quickly aggregate a lot of it.

(I made up the 10,000 number but if Friends & Family was really over 1,000, this seems like a reasonable guess.)

kitsune9 · Apr 30, 2012

I'm looking forward to trying out some D&D Next.

warlordgdx · Apr 30, 2012

Ashilyn said:
While I'm excited about the playtest, starting a playtest for a system that's built on the premise of being modular and having tons of options with pregen characters seems really counterproductive to me.

The Pre-gen characters seem counter productive at first glance, but I would venture to guess that this is probably used as the control method for the playtest feedback.

Due to the sheer amount of playtest feedback that's going to come down the pike (I'm sure), the developers are surely trying to limit the amount of variables to account for in quantifying playtest data.

That goes with saying, I'm not sure what format Mike and Co. are going to use for public playtest sessions, but ensuring that they are working with a relatively narrow window of variables and getting the right data where they need it is important at this stage of development.

Walking Dad · Apr 30, 2012

Really looking forward to the playtest. I fondly remember a Pathfinder Beta PbP with similar available classes and characters and my first 4e PbP with pregenerated characters (ending with a TPK

)

mudbunny · Apr 30, 2012

As others have mentioned, using pregens is a good way for WotC to make sure that there is a decent baseline for how hard/easy it is. When you are doing any sort of large-scale testing (of any kind) you absolutely need to start with a control group in order to get a set of baseline values.

Pregens against set encounters (I bet that there will be in there somewhere a "Try this group of characters against this set of monsters") will probably be used to give an idea of how many rounds, how many TPKs, etc. With large scale testing, you will get a decent enough set of statistics in order to smooth out any outliers (great DMs, crappy DMs, powergamers, etc). Then, as you open up the playtest, they will be able to see that "OK, when we add in this set of rules, we go from an average of 6 rounds with 5% TPK to 20 rounds with 5% TPK.

To take my experience in the artillery, the quickest way to hit your target is to drop one short, one long, and then bracket in the middle. Creeping up on the target will always take a long, long time.

Blackwarder · Apr 30, 2012

I asked Mike Mearls about pregenerated advantures via tweeter, here what he said:
Mike Mearls ([MENTION=32417]MikeM[/MENTION]earls)
01/05/12 00:10
[MENTION=6688285]Blackwarder[/MENTION] We'll have adventures for you, but when it's time to test the adventure creation guidelines we'll shift to that.

Warder

GMforPowergamers · May 1, 2012

Blackwarder said:
I asked Mike Mearls about pregenerated advantures via tweeter, here what he said:
Mike Mearls ([MENTION=32417]MikeM[/MENTION]earls)
01/05/12 00:10
[MENTION=6688285]Blackwarder[/MENTION] We'll have adventures for you, but when it's time to test the adventure creation guidelines we'll shift to that.

Warder

I could kiss you, but I can't xp you until I spread some love...

thanks for the update