D&D 4E 4E Playtesting

[Skornn2k7]

I was in no way asking or wanting any playtesters to break the NDA they have with WoTC. I was asking about if there was any stories out there, that wasnt from the same 3 or 4 people we have been hearing from. I was looking for stories from other sides of the playing table. I guess maybe they only are allowing certain individuals to even talk about it. Just was curious is all, what non-WoTC people thought about 4E, and their experiences in playtesting were like.

I think it would go a long ways in helping the nay sayers out, if they seen reports/stories of non-WoTC playtesters talking about their adventures each week. Just a thought ?

 

[Henry]

I was in no way asking or wanting any playtesters to break the NDA they have with WoTC. I was asking about if there was any stories out there, that wasnt from the same 3 or 4 people we have been hearing from. I was looking for stories from other sides of the playing table. I guess maybe they only are allowing certain individuals to even talk about it. Just was curious is all, what non-WoTC people thought about 4E, and their experiences in playtesting were like.

I think it would go a long ways in helping the nay sayers out, if they seen reports/stories of non-WoTC playtesters talking about their adventures each week. Just a thought ?

Basically, the only people who have clearance to do that are the WotC people on the WotC forums so far, so that's why you haven't seen such. Personally, I'd like to see it myself, at least in the fashion that it was done back in 1999 to 2000, with people like Piratecat and John Troy and der Verdammte giving some really amazing feedback without giving away the store. One thing that probably slows it down is just how fast some of the rules are changing while approaching the finish line; I'm totally guessing they'll have it nailed down by January, and be more willing to release even more feedback by then, to where people get their bigger and bigger nuggets.

 

[BASHMAN]

Jeez...how hard is it to go into a library or university, create a new account on ENWorld, and post? Or just send a PM to somebody else who could post it? Or run through a half-dozen anonymisers and post?

I cannot condone doing this-- but based on how much information about 3.0 was leaked by playtesters-- I am SHOCKED that nobody has done this with 4th. Even the other poster's argument about the relationship between EN World and WotC- though it makes sense-- would not prevent an NDA violator from leaking information on ANOTHER website or wiki (which would soon become THE 4e news site, I imagine). And nobody has done THIS yet either. It sounds like this NDA is working "too good to be true".

The expectation of an NDA is that it will limit the ammount of information leaked. To have the company actually controlling 100% of the info coming out, this NDA is suspiciously working better than anything conceived of for Defense Department R&D or other "secret" government projects...

My suspicion.. the playtesters who are not WotC employees have signed an NDA-- but not received the rules to playtest yet. They'll probably get them in January, after the preview books, and then the information will not leak here-- it will hemorage-- just like in the good old Eric Noah's 3E black pages days.

 

[Mouseferatu]

NM.

 

[Piratecat]

My suspicion.. the playtesters who are not WotC employees have signed an NDA-- but not received the rules to playtest yet.

I'm almost positive this isn't the case.

 

[vagabundo]

I'm almost positive this isn't the case.

ahhhhh <wink>, I guess they are just honourable people who respect the LAW...

Spoiler

PM ME the PLAYTEST STUFF

 

[Bagpuss]

Even judges go on the take.

My guess is it isn't receiving anywhere near as wide a playtest, thus there are fewer places to leak from.

Certainly Star Wars Saga had an evident lack of playtesting. It was playtested but by far to small a group of people and those who were too close to the design to see the faults. I really hope this isn't the case with 4th Ed.

 

[lrsach01]

In other words, "How dare they actually follow the agreement they made with WotC, instead of breaking it in some sneaky way so they don't get caught"? :\

Yeah..actually...I am looking for news and information. Because of how little (that is NO) information that has come out, I don't think WotC has actually gotten the "Out of House" playtesting going. The only information we hear is how great 4e is and how bad 3rd edition is and this is all from WotC blogs. We have yet to hear ANY negative comment. Its PLAYTESTING. That means that the game isn't finished and some items have the potential of being dropped because they don't work in actual play. We haven't heard a single negative from any WotC blog or post. I would LOVE to hear what is working and what isn't. We don't need to get the actual rules yet, but some REAL info should have come out by now....especially if WotC is going to stick to their statement that 3rd party companies will get the SRD in time to release new 4e products once the Core Books are released.

 

[the Jester]

Even easier still, as we know the playtesting groups have pre-written characters, what if each group was given specific, different builds of the same classes?

Huh? Where did you hear this?

To the best of my knowledge, playtesters are generally encouraged to play what they want in order to test the whole shebang.

 

[Piratecat]

Huh? Where did you hear this?

To the best of my knowledge, playtesters are generally encouraged to play what they want in order to test the whole shebang.

I wouldn't be surprised if there were pre-gen characters. During 3e playtesting, we had versions of the iconics at every level in order to test them against monsters.

I'm not a 4e playtester, by the way, although I wish I was!