WotC Dave posts about "Prison Break" Playtesting

[mach1.9pants]

Back to the topic: I don't know if we can take anything from these numbers. It may well be that when he wrote up the form he just plucked some numbers out of the air as an example- they might be in the ball park of real but not actually real damage etc.

 

[Driddle]

It's called "running a business." These guys are developing games for a living. They have production schedules and deadlines.

I doubt the game is being "rushed to production." It's just inefficient to try to wait and design at the leisurely pace many of the posters here seem to think is ideal. And that means that some times, things have to pile up and people have to work hard to meet deadlines. It happens all the time in any business, and I highly doubt publishing and game design are exceptions.

I believe what the original poster (to this reply) was questioning wasn't rush-vs.-leisure, but rather the possibility that the design team didn't schedule enough time to do the job without rushing.

Even when you're in the middle of something called "running a business," as you put it, any admission of rushing is bound to raise a few eyebrows. No one wants to be on the end of a rushed product. It implies quality problems.

The designers get no sympathy from me for being "rushed." They will, however, get sympathy for working so hard to exceed consumer expectations that there's no time to sleep. ... Lesson here: Choose words a little more carefully next time.

 

[Betote]

A wizard hit two enemies in the same round and twice as much damage to the first as the second.

That reminds me a lot of the speculation from back when it was first revealed that spells could crit, that area spells would only be able to score crits on an enemy they're centered on...

Interesting. That specific bit reminds me how a successful save usually halves damage