Something to remember tomorrow

Morrus · May 24, 2012

I've seen a few comments on this board which make me think there are people misunderstanding the nature of a playtest; and in the interests in keeping down the hysteria tomorrow, here are a few quick reminders:

You're signing up to participate in a planned playtest program, not to receive a new edition of D&D for free.
This means that the playtests reflect the specific elements the designers need feedback on at a given time. They're asking for your help with specific elements at specific times. You're not obligated to help them with what they need right now, but they're also not wrong for not including what you want right now.
The fact that they haven't included your desired part (character generation, epic level play, soul-teleport-destroyer-nunchukus class, etc.) is not a reflection on the final game.
The game is 18 months away. WotC is still writing it.
It's fine if you don't want to participate because, say, character generation isn't in the initial playtest package; you can choose not to participate in the process for any reason you wish. That's OK. Hang on till next year and check out the game when it's released.
You are very, very, very unlikely to be able to run a campaign based on tomorrow's playtest package. That's not what a playtest package is for. WotC is not giving you a free edition of D&D; they're asking for your help testing some very specific things. They need lots of input on a few things at a time, not a little input on a lot of things at a time.
All that said, participating is awesome, and will help shape the game. I encourage you to take part.

So, come tomorrow, you'll have either downloaded the playtest package or you won't. But it's important to know in advance what a playtest package is. It's not a free game, it's a specific selected package of stuff deigned to exhaustively test a selected list of things. Later packages will test different things.

Enjoy your playtesting! My playtest game is scheduled for two weeks' time, and I'm looking forward to it. I'm not running it, so I'll be seeing it from the player persepctive, which I'm sure will be a lot of fun.

Ichneumon · May 24, 2012

We could run a Caves-of-Chaos-meets-Groundhog-Day type of campaign, but I doubt that would be too popular.

the Jester · May 24, 2012

Hmmm....

Morrus said:
[*]The game is 18 months away.

Do we have confirmation of a planned release date, or is this still speculation?

Morrus · May 24, 2012

the Jester said:
Do we have confirmation of a planned release date, or is this still speculation?

The latter.

MortalPlague · May 24, 2012

It's a good sentiment, Morrus. Sometimes people can get a bit too excited when things like this hit.

My group is doing dinner tomorrow, then we're going to play some 5th Edition. It will be nice to finally have a shape to all these rules and concepts I've been reading about.

CleverNickName · May 24, 2012

I was a playtester for Nintendo, back when they were developing Donkey Kong Country. I remember only having one level of the game, and my job was to find each and every possible way to solve it. I was known for my ability to find exploits and cheats.

So I am really looking forward to this.

My playtest group will spend tomorrow and Friday reading the material, and we will be getting together over the weekend to play a few of sandbox games. I am going to put this thing through the wringer.

EDIT: no, I wasn't in that silly video. And I'm pretty sure the kid that *was* in it was actually an actor, not a playtester. :lol:

soulcatcher78 · May 24, 2012

Remembering how much mileage we generated from the Moldvay Basic set, I think we could get quite a few sessions out of pregens and the Caves of Chaos. I recently flipped through the Basic set and realized how much of KotB was DM instructions on how to run a campaign.

Looking forward to giving this a go and providing feedback to build a better game. The sandboxy nature of the Caves of Chaos sounds just right for a test case.