D&D (2024) Have we potentially seen the end of the OneD&D Playtest?

[DEFCON 1]

The thought came to me this morning as I was eating breakfast about what the next playtest packet for OneD&D could possibly be about and when it might get released... when it occurred to me that the D&D design team HAS to know that it would be crazy to actually release anything right now for people to test. Mainly because of the 40,000+(?) people who have been stated to be filling out the surveys on the packets... I have to imagine that a large number of those people are people who are online and follows the comings and goings of Wizards of the Coast. So a lot of those people are fully aware of the current 1.1 situation and have a lot to say about it-- moreso than anything they might have to say about any potential "Priest Classes".

Have we perhaps see the end of the playtest... because it is now possibly virtually impossible for Jeremy et. al. to get anything worthwhile out of the surveys because they could very well be overrun by torrents of comments only about how 1.1 is screwing designers and players over? Do any of them actually WANT to try and engage with the community on creative endeavors right now when their higher-ups have poisoned the well so thoroughly?

Heh... I mean not to make light of things too much... but we've had a number of posters here in the past claim that OneD&D has "already been written" and that the playtest was just "marketing". Well, at this point if it WASN'T already written, they might as well go ahead and DO IT NOW because any "marketing" from the playtest has crapped the bed.

So just to have a question for folks to respond to in this thread... if for the sake of argument the design team DID release their next playtest packet soon... would you be able to test and comment on just the merits of the info in the packet when the survey came out, or would you use the survey instead to let your feelings of the OGL 1.1 be known and "Priest Classes" be damned?

 

[Nikosandros]

I think that you raise a fair point. Personally, I would not be able to keep my feelings about the OGL away and so I would refrain from sending feedback.

 

[delericho]

I'm not involved in the playtest, and not about to start.

If I were WotC, though, I'd be introducing a filter to automatically discard any response that includes the word "OGL" or that has everything rated at the lowest level. Make sure nobody reads them, nobody counts them; they're just binned.

Whether that leaves enough responses to make it a worthwhile exercise, I don't know.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

This has been discussed a bit already.

I think if WotC don't change course, they're going to lose a very significant fraction of the 40k+ people who fill in the surveys, because those people are at the more hardcore end of things, as the surveys are quite long and serious.

Whether that will matter of them, is another question. I do think it'll bias the results, given WotC appear to have returned to the 70% method, because I think there will be some uniformity to the people you drive away. @Umbran was saying I think justifiably that maybe that doesn't matter, because if you stick with 1.1 those people won't play 1D&D anyway, so maybe the people who stick around better represent your core audience? I personally think there's a bit more to it, because I think that, realistically, a bunch of people who play 1D&D won't even hear about this controversy, and they'll be people who have the full spread of playstyles and interests, including those of the people who got driven away by the OGL 1.1 stuff, and those people may well be disappointed with 1D&D's changes. But I could see it either way.

I don't think people will vandalize them much, for the same reason, though, because the surveys take like 20 minutes to fill in whether you're thoughtless or thoughtful. There will be some small percentage, I'm sure.

If WotC do back down, I think we'll see a significant drop in the number of survey responses for the current packet (which is due in by the 20th), but they may slowly increase over the next few months if WotC behaves.

 

[Retreater]

As I wrote in other threads, I think the playtest (as it was) is over. I could see them doing a scaled back playtest - such as doing it through organized play events with select Dungeon Masters. But I expect just opening the development to a potentially angry community right now wouldn't be a good idea. And to wait until it all boils over would put them behind schedule.
I also expect to not see as many cheerfully optimistic promos. Or if we do, I think many fans will view them as false and may even make the situation worse.
I think the hype train has gone off the rails for the time being.

 

[Frozen_Heart]

I do wonder what's going to happen with One DnD if it's a complete flop. Basically everyone I've spoken too says they just plan to stick with 5e indefinitely.

And this was before the entire OGL mess.

What happens if One DnD makes 4e look like a massive success?

 

[Branduil]

As I said in another thread, the morale on the design team must be at an all-time low. Not as bad as the situation for 3PPs who just got screwed over, to be sure, but no one wants to work on a game that's now despised for reasons outside their control. And despite what some tropes about artists might lead you to believe, most people do not make better creative work when they're stressed, unhappy, and depressed.

 

[billd91]

I don't think it'll mean the end of the play test but I do think it's going to complicate things. I strongly suspect there will be significant review bombing.
Chalk up one more way that the business side of Hasbro/WotC is complicating the life of the content side.

 

[mamba]

I do wonder what's going to happen with One DnD if it's a complete flop. Basically everyone I've spoken too says they just plan to stick with 5e indefinitely.

And this was before the entire OGL mess.

What happens if One DnD makes 4e look like a massive success?

same as what happened with 4e, they scrap it faster than planned and release a new edition with more drastic changes that is not compatible with 5e/1DD, but that is still a big if

 

[Horwath]

Wow, it's so easy to fill playtest survey when you click on very dissatisfied option every time.

and every comment you are asked is the same:
"Suggested OGL features do not work good with 1D&D playtest material."