D&D 5E Playtesting D&D Next: Reapers, Cantrips, Turnings, Rests...

[CleverNickName]

The purpose of this thread is to document my playtest of the D&D Next rules, which are due to be released in three weeks. I want to capture the entire experience, from start to finish, so I am starting with the day I asked my gaming group if they wanted to join the playtest.

Come, share the event with us!

(Names have been changed.)

LOG HISTORY
DM's Log: May 1: The Day I Sent the Invitation
DM's Log: May 7: Of Social Skills and Stat Blocks
DM's Log: May 21: The Playtest on the Borderlands
DM's Log: May 24: The Cake is a Lie
DM's Log: May 25: Playtesting Materials Received
DM's Log: May 26: First Impression of the Caves
DM's Log: May 28: The First Playtest

 

[CleverNickName]

DM's Log: May 1, 2012. The Day I Sent the Invitation

I sent an e-mail out to my gaming group this morning:

"Remember how I told you guys that they were developing the 5th Edition of D&D? Well, on the 24th of this month they are releasing a test version of the new rules and inviting feedback. Would you guys be interested in participating in a little playtesting?

It will take about 2 hours, I imagine. I think we could do it before our usual gaming session. (It will be completely separate from our regular game in every way.) If everybody agrees, I will send out the rules and pre-generated characters a few days before the test so that everyone can read up on it beforehand, and then we will schedule an extra-long gaming session a few days later.

What do you guys think? Wanna give some feedback?"​

Well, here are the responses I received:

-----

Bob: "Sure that sounds like it would be fun. Count me in. Quick question..." and then he asked a question about a prestige class he would like to use in our regular 3.5E game.

Joe: "I'll do it, if for no other reason than to brag about it. Build up my geek cred!"

Tim: "Oh great. Just when I am starting to pick up all the rules for 3.5....."

Tisha: "Whatever. So are we still on for this Friday night? We've got drow to kill."

Ed: "Sure. Man I wish they would have done that for fourth edition. It might not have..." and then he went on to express his dissatisfaction with 4E, using colored language.

Jill: "I thought you said we wern't(sic) going to change editions? because I'm not buying more books." I wrote her back, assuring her that this was completely free, that it would only be a couple of hours, and that it would have no impact on our regular game at all. "oh well if it is free then I am game. Sorry to be a cheepskate(sic) but I'm still paying off my books from last semester" (For an English major, she misspells a lot of words.)
-----

Stay tuned.

 

[CleverNickName]

DM's Log: Supplemental

So everybody e-mailed each other back and forth all day. Mostly we wrote about our current, regularly-scheduled game. But there was talk every so often about the playtest, mostly snippy comments about how I am "hijacking the game" to run an experiment, or "holding them hostage" with the playtest, or that they hope it doesn't take too much time to "get back to our real game."

So, yeah. My gaming group is not very excited about the playtest.

"Tim" doesn't want to learn a new rules system, not even temporarily for the sake of a playtest. "Jill" doesn't want to feel pressured to buy more books. And all of them think it is an unnecessary distraction. I get the feeling they just want to get it over with so that they can get back to our regular, ongoing game.

Has anyone else talked to their gaming groups about a D&D Next playtest? How did it go over with your group(s)?

 

[Grimmjow]

I am freaking out about the play test. I spend my entire lunch hour at school talking about it with my friend. We are both very opposite of how we feel about what they should do but I'm sure that in the end we will both be somewhat happy.

The main thing we argue about at this time is how warlocks are going to be created and playing. I want it to be closer to 4e while he wants it to be closer to 3.5e.

Anyway id love to do this i think its a good idea, we've all talked about playing it but it was just me asking people how they wanted to do it and even if they would. They all said yes

 

[mach1.9pants]

Well, CNN, I can see your experience being a good playtest of the rules. Having enthusiastic fanbois (like myself) run over the rules can give a skewed result I reckon. I would be overlooking faults in my 'new game squeee' excitement. It was like that with 4E, before release I defended the ideas and embraced them on release. However after a year my 'squeee' had worn off and many things started to grate and 4E was dropped for CoC then Dragon Age.
Now my squeee is pointed at OSR products but 5Es emphasis on a OSR seeming core looks very good to me. Time will tell.

BTW love the word squeee

 

[fjw70]

My group and I talked about the playtest a while ago and we are all excited about it.

 

[AntiStateQuixote]

Has anyone else talked to their gaming groups about a D&D Next playtest? How did it go over with your group(s)?

We're going to supplement our Saturday night game with Friday night playtests a couple of times a month. If it's good stuff we might do more. Most everyone is interested and somewhat excited, but no one has the anticipation level I have. I'm a snivelling WotC loyalist that will buy pretty much anything they publish . . . for a while, anyway.

 

[RangerWickett]

My group's excited. We like fiddling with rules.

 

[Ebon Shar]

My group is anxious to read the new rules, but not so much to actually play them. We're just having way too much fun with 1st edition.

 

[Serendipity]

Pitched this the other night and was greeted with somewhat reluctant buy in. (Our gaming schedule has been.....dubious of late, so enthusiasm is, in general down unfortunately.) We shall see.