Quick question: does the prohibition on online play affect your playtest?

[Mercule]

Nope. I didn't read it that close, but I assumed it applied to PBEM or virtual tabletop games. Skype would seem okay, or do they prohibit phone calls, too?

 

[Rune]

I would think that any serious attempt to playtest a ruleset for a modern RPG would need to find out how the game handles in online play.

 

[Plane Sailing]

For the record, it affects me. I've been having Plane Sailing Facetime/Skype in to our playtest sessions from England. That's now prohibited.

Is that online play?

I thought online play regards text communication via forums or applications.

Facetime is virtual presence, the game actually takes place on your table and I'm phoning in my performance, as it were.

(did they expressly forbid that and I didn't notice when I was reading - it seems an odd thing to do)

 

[nnms]

WotC's presumption of control over how people play the playtest has indirectly affected me. It meant one of my playtest sessions got cancelled (the skype game). It also made another player decide not to play in the one session we did have because he found the whole situation so galling and didn't want to reward WotC's behavior when he could help out with truly open RPG content instead.

I still managed to get some testing in, but the whole desire to control the distribution and use of the document to the point that they chose to frustrate people with server delays rather than promote open mirroring of the files has definitely made my initial impression of the whole D&D Next project to be that of disappointment.

 

[SkidAce]

Oddly enough, in the Kobold Quarterly interview Mr Mearls said that the play testers and he were using Google hangout.

Curious.

(and yes, I understand they were in a controlled environment)

 

[Walking Dad]

Yes, i affects me and my ability to advertise the next D&D to others. I wanted to run it on a local gaming spot. No real chance to be doing it with the no print and each one has to register rule. With that my only chance was doing it online. Which is now lost, too

Yes, it does. I'm having to hijack a gaming night from the local Meatspace group's Vampire sessions. Not sure if they'll let me do that more'n once. Mostly, I play D&D online these days.

Even if they let you, good luck to bring everyone to register as a playtester...

 

[IronWolf]

Is that online play?

I thought online play regards text communication via forums or applications.

Facetime is virtual presence, the game actually takes place on your table and I'm phoning in my performance, as it were.

(did they expressly forbid that and I didn't notice when I was reading - it seems an odd thing to do)

The agreement that people accept does not prohibit online play, the FAQ however says it is not allowed. They are considering playing over Skype a form of playing online. From the Playtest FAQ:

Can I run an online game via email, Skype, Google Hangout or a play-by-post forum?

No, you may not run an online game on third parties sites at this time.

 

[Monkey King]

Yes, this prohibition has forced me to cancel my playtest, as all my players are on the opposite coast of the US. We were using private Google Hangouts to play.

Now.... I guess I'm not playtesting D&D Next. Perhaps I can find a group in town, but I rather liked the group I had.

 

[Warbringer]

The agreement that people accept does not prohibit online play, the FAQ however says it is not allowed. They are considering playing over Skype a form of playing online. From the Playtest FAQ:

Apart from being just plain silly, and poor grammar, i've never actually considered Skype is a third party site, more an app ... Live and learn

 

[plarfem]

Yes. My group plays online exclusively.