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D&D Next playtest post mortem by Mike Mearls and Rodney Thompson. From seven years ago.
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<blockquote data-quote="darjr" data-source="post: 8767714" data-attributes="member: 52905"><p>I'm surprised this hasn't been posted before. At PAX Mike and Rodney gave a post mortem about the D&D Next playtest. It's in seven parts about twenty minutes a piece. It's pretty detailed and discusses what they found and what they did based upon their interoperation of the data.</p><p></p><p>I think it's important to baseline how they took the Next playtest results, and in my opinion, it gives us a view into how they've approached playtesting ever since. This to me is a very interesting deep view on what the playtest resulted in internal to WotC.</p><p></p><p>Interesting bits for me are they played all versions of D&D before starting and took detailed notes and they discuss how they worked together. They noted that they read every comment of the surveys and they DO read the forums, but not how you might think, also there was an Alpha test NDA group outside of the public playtesters too.</p><p></p><p>There is so very much here I'm shocked that the view numbers for these videos are so low and that I haven't heard of them till now, that they haven't been picked apparat and studied in detail. I think these would have been especially valuable to early third party adopters.</p><p></p><p>the insight about their decisions based upon the playtest is interesting as well for instance moving the bonus abilities from the thief class to the base rogue class. Also the bit about them thinking that complex characters would be more fun at the table being completely opposite from what the playtesters found.</p><p></p><p>They also talk about the art and diversity in the game, from early on they were at least thinking about it and working towards it.</p><p></p><p>Ultimately the thing about the playtest is that it can satisfy two opposing things in D&D game design, the need to get as much good input as possible with as small of a design team as possible and no smaller.</p><p></p><p>I haven't listened to all of it yet and I want to give it another listen. I'll note that the auto transcript of youtube is also helpful.</p><p></p><p>Note they uploaded this seven years ago.</p><p></p><p>This is a playlist with all seven videos.</p><p></p><p>[MEDIA=youtube]id=Qg4rivkz7-k;list=PL6eKF9V7JaZkFS0tmy2Kzvy17D-MHeR98[/MEDIA]</p><p></p><p>Mistwell put together a summary of the videos with some slides captured and inserted! Thanks!</p><p>Go like his post.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="darjr, post: 8767714, member: 52905"] I'm surprised this hasn't been posted before. At PAX Mike and Rodney gave a post mortem about the D&D Next playtest. It's in seven parts about twenty minutes a piece. It's pretty detailed and discusses what they found and what they did based upon their interoperation of the data. I think it's important to baseline how they took the Next playtest results, and in my opinion, it gives us a view into how they've approached playtesting ever since. This to me is a very interesting deep view on what the playtest resulted in internal to WotC. Interesting bits for me are they played all versions of D&D before starting and took detailed notes and they discuss how they worked together. They noted that they read every comment of the surveys and they DO read the forums, but not how you might think, also there was an Alpha test NDA group outside of the public playtesters too. There is so very much here I'm shocked that the view numbers for these videos are so low and that I haven't heard of them till now, that they haven't been picked apparat and studied in detail. I think these would have been especially valuable to early third party adopters. the insight about their decisions based upon the playtest is interesting as well for instance moving the bonus abilities from the thief class to the base rogue class. Also the bit about them thinking that complex characters would be more fun at the table being completely opposite from what the playtesters found. They also talk about the art and diversity in the game, from early on they were at least thinking about it and working towards it. Ultimately the thing about the playtest is that it can satisfy two opposing things in D&D game design, the need to get as much good input as possible with as small of a design team as possible and no smaller. I haven't listened to all of it yet and I want to give it another listen. I'll note that the auto transcript of youtube is also helpful. Note they uploaded this seven years ago. This is a playlist with all seven videos. [MEDIA=youtube]id=Qg4rivkz7-k;list=PL6eKF9V7JaZkFS0tmy2Kzvy17D-MHeR98[/MEDIA] Mistwell put together a summary of the videos with some slides captured and inserted! Thanks! Go like his post. [/QUOTE]
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