D&D 5E What has changed since the first packet?

[Sir Robilar]

We dropped out of the playtest after the first playtest packet. Not because we didn't like it - to the contrary, we were quite impressed and thought the game is on the right track. Sadly we stopped playtesting and started a campaign with a different system. Since that I haven't had the time to do both, learn a new system and keep up with Next.

Skimming some recent threads about Next it now seems that many on the forums say they've been as impressed with the first packet as we were but less so with each of the following packets. Is that the general consensus? I'd be thankful for a short roundup of what has changed since the first packet and how this has been discussed on the webs.

 

[DEFCON 1]

I don't think there *is* a "short" round-up when it comes to what has changed over the preceding 4(?) packets.

I might suggest you just download the new one yourself and read through it. It'd probably be just as long to do that as it would to read all the responses you'd get from people here.

 

[GX.Sigma]

Yo:

http://www.enworld.org/forum/showthread.php?335578-Playtest-Summary-Request

 

[Sir Robilar]

I might suggest you just download the new one yourself and read through it. It'd probably be just as long to do that as it would to read all the responses you'd get from people here.

I'm just as interested in the reception of the material as I am of the material itself.

Edit: After having read the linked thread, I see that I should have made that clearer in my post. What I'm interested in is the community's mood concerning the last few playtest packets. Are things improving or are they moving in the wrong direction? I'm interested to know because by skimming threads I've seen many posts that sounded like "liked the first packet, hated the last one".

 

[Sir Robilar]

Yo:

http://www.enworld.org/forum/showthread.php?335578-Playtest-Summary-Request

Thanks!

 

[Jeff Carlsen]

The first packet was an elegant little game that strongly supported a particular style of play. It was an ability score based game where your background gave you a slight bump to rolls when it applied and themes could turn a fighter into a necromancer. It was rich with story and flavor and light on the mechanics.

Most individual elements of the game have been improved over time, but as classes and levels were added, the game got more complex. Themes were replaced with specialties, which morphed into Third Edition feats. Skills became more concrete, but have been rather unstable.

If the latest Legends & Lore is any indication, the next packet will actually be a swing back toward the first, spiritually, if more complex. The new feats sound like they'd be closer to themes, and backgrounds are becoming more robust.

 

[zoroaster100]

I hated the first packet so much I didn't even feel motivated to try playing it or running a game with it. I liked the latest packet and we playtested it today and enjoyed it a lot. If the next packet is a return towards the style of the first packet I would be very disappointed. But I'll wait to see the next playtest for myself to see what changes next.

 

[Li Shenron]

I can only speak for myself...

Generally speaking, every first time they presented a new part of the game (new classes, new mechanics etc) I liked it a lot. Then some mechanism kicks in, probably because of feedback by very vocal playtesters or influential playtesters in their private groups, and stuff tends to get clunkier and cluttered with minor inessential changes or addition dictated by excessive attention to corner cases... until they scrap it all and restart with a new idea for that area of the game

Overall I think the game has gone a long way since the start, but still hasn't stabilized at all. The last packet heavily changed of skills (again) and feats, and immediately it was announced that next packet will change skills and feats even more.

Nevertheless, I've seen some nice innovative ideas and excellent design of many parts of the game. I think that this playtest process can drive you mad if you get too attached to stuff you like, or if you see every packet as it could be the last and therefore get enraged by stuff you dislike. If you want to follow the playtest process, you need to just see it as a huge experiment, a work in progress that doesn't even provide you with a possible "complete" game at every iteration, because different parts of the game evolve at different speeds and unsynchronized. Remember that some stuff is already old when you see it, and some stuff we may never see at all (e.g. what really is in this "Basic" game) if they think they can hold it back until publishing the books.

OTOH if you are interested in actually playtesting a packet, my suggestion is to run one-shot games or at least very short adventures, not a campaign, because every couple of months the rules update, and it's easier to restart with new characters using the next packet rather than updating them.