WotC Dave posts about "Prison Break" Playtesting

[Fifth Element]

LOL, sorry for the thread hijack, but when I first read that I thought- 'WTF hockey is played on grass?'
Then, once again we are divided by a common language, you mean ICE hockey not hockey.....sorry I am a bit slow tonight

Hold on there...I think you mean that he means hockey, but you mean FIELD hockey.

Sorry. Whenever a Canadian hears the term "ice hockey", his normally docile blood gets riled...

 

[HeinorNY]

Wizard 2 vs. Room 2: 9, 15, 11 (0), 0, 21. Used 2 [Hi Mom!]s and [Van Halen Rules!].

We can see by this string the wizard got an "oppo" attack (AoO)?
Also he used 2 [Hi Mom!]s and [Van Halen Rules!] but attacked in all rounds, so these are probably swift actions. Second Wind? Action Points?

There is also many "0" there, so the wizard also missed his attacks, that reinforce the idea of a at will magical ability that uses some kind of magical attack action.

 

[scrubkai]

The Chicago Bears do. Every fourth play, in fact. *Sigh*

How I wish that wasn't true....
The last few games have just been painful to watch.
It doesn't help that I have my friends from up in the Frozen Tundra all bragging out how good the Packers are.... Oh well, enough of the threadjack...

Dave...
I'm very glad that you shared a bit on your method of playtesting. Just one question, Prision break seemed to cover the heroic levels, did you do the same thing with the Paragon and Epic levels yet, or is that still in progress?

 

[Kid Charlemagne]

Eerrm do they often kick the ball in american football?

The Bears do this roughly every fourth play.
EDIT: Damn, beat to the joke!

 

[Sir Brennen]

I assume he means the Chicago Bears, a US football (not soccer) team.

No, no. This is obviously a quote from the movie Fargo.

 

[infax]

Originally posted by WotC_Dave: (emphasis mine)
[...]
And you also test the away-from-table stuff such as character generation, encounter/adventure /campaign design, and the learning process (how long before someone groks opportunity attacks, for example).
[...]
• If you attack when it's not your turn (like an oppo attack), put the damage in parentheses, and put a zero in parentheses if you miss during an oppo or something like that.
[...]

With more than one designer assuring us attacks of opportunity are mostly gone, what do people think were all those references to "opportunity attacks"?

 

[pedr]

The Bears do this roughly every fourth play.
EDIT: Damn, beat to the joke!

It says something about the Bears that it's such an obvious joke that even a Brit wants to make it ....

 

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

With more than one designer assuring us attacks of opportunity are mostly gone, what do people think were all those references to "opportunity attacks"?

Well, they are. Instead, they introduced the brand new, cool and fun concept of "oppertunity attack". These guys are smart.

--

Okay, on a more serious note:
As far as I could see, they didn't say that these attacks were mostly gone. But from what I understood, they were easier to figure out. Which might mean the following things:
- The list of things that can provoke them has been greatly reduced (but that doesn't mean that the actual number of times in an average combat is greatly reduced)
- Opportunity attacks might be less unavoidable. (There was a R&C spoiler that implied that the rules for Tumble in that regard where gone). That can make handling them easier - there is no "roll this check to see if you avoid it", or "optimize your movement in squares to avoid AoOs). Decide whether you want to risk an OA or not and then just resolve it.

 

[GrinningBuddha]

Is it just me, or does anyone else find it interesting that a 2nd level wizard is doing approx. 3d6 damage to multiple opponents on the first round of the first encounter, then an average of 11 pts/round in the second encounter, including a 21 point <something> to finish the encounter?

Blow things up, indeed... I likey.

 

[Sir Brennen]

- The list of things that can provoke them has been greatly reduced (but that doesn't mean that the actual number of times in an average combat is greatly reduced)
- Opportunity attacks might be less unavoidable. (There was a R&C spoiler that implied that the rules for Tumble in that regard where gone). That can make handling them easier - there is no "roll this check to see if you avoid it", or "optimize your movement in squares to avoid AoOs). Decide whether you want to risk an OA or not and then just resolve it.

also in R&C there's mention that it's even more dangerous for a wizard to cast a spell when standing next to an opponent.