D&D 5E Licensing so far....

[Zaukrie]

Feel free to give a different opinion. ....mine is that the licensing has not been all that good yet. Yes, I forgot the minis. They are worse, except the dragons, than the end of the wotc run.....I own a few thousand, so I think I have a good handle on that.

 

[Dausuul]

Of course it is buggy! It is under development!

Feature complete for alpha is an old, waterfall-style concept. In the modern, agile development world, you don't wait to be feature complete before putting things in front of users.

You also don't do public alpha tests--not in waterfall and not in agile either. Alpha testing, where the final shape of the product is still amorphous and showstopper bugs are common, should be done with a small group of users working closely with the dev team. Using your public-testing resources on an alpha is wasteful and silly; you'll just get a thousand copies of the same bug report, that you could have gotten a lot cheaper by having one person play with the app for an hour. Furthermore, you end up hurting your own reputation.

Public testing should wait until beta, when the basic shape of the project is fairly well hammered out. That doesn't mean you never add features or change functionality in response to public test feedback, but it does mean the features you've got should be mostly working, so that when you get a bug report it's more like "When I try to make a half-elf warlock with the Toughness feat and an odd-valued Constitution score, my hit points are calculated wrong," as opposed to "When I try to make a half-elf, all my stats come out wrong."

It means exactly what I meant.....5e has been out since August, and we have no digital tool we can use at all.

Not true! We have Ari's Spell Sorter and Monster Sorter. Damn handy, those. And yes, I know they're just Excel sheets, but no less useful for all that.

 

[Paraxis]

Fine, it is alpha and not useful at all......the point remains the point, we do not have software. Pedantry is so helpful.

And your point about not having software is?

Did someone make a promise you would have your software by now? Do you need the software to play? Do you not see that people are working on software for you? Have you heard of a thing called patiently waiting?

The character sheet can fit on an index card for 5e, there are plenty of useful fan made digital tools for spell indexes and monster encounter builders, I don't see an overwhelming need for Dungeonscape at the moment so why not give them time to do it right.

 

[Zaukrie]

No one made any promise. My opinion, and I made it clear it is an opinion, is that it should be out to be a good job. Ymmv, I won't be hurt if it does.

 

[Sacrosanct]

And your point about not having software is?

Did someone make a promise you would have your software by now? Do you need the software to play? Do you not see that people are working on software for you? Have you heard of a thing called patiently waiting?

The character sheet can fit on an index card for 5e, there are plenty of useful fan made digital tools for spell indexes and monster encounter builders, I don't see an overwhelming need for Dungeonscape at the moment so why not give them time to do it right.

Holy crap on a cracker. Paraxis and I agree on something. Mark this day down

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

No one made any promise. My opinion, and I made it clear it is an opinion, is that it should be out to be a good job. Ymmv, I won't be hurt if it does.

You actually do seem offended that people are disagreeing with your opinion with opinions of their own.

We have more licensing at this point -- before the DMG is even out -- than we had four months in during the 3E or 4E releases. Some of it people like, a lot of people are more iffy on, which makes it pretty comparable to the licensed content from both of those editions. D20 content is fondly remembered in many quarters because there was so much of it, meaning that although Sturgeon's Law still applied, the massive amount of content meant there were still quite a few gems to be had.

If we get a licensing deal more like 3E than 4E, we'll be in good shape, I think.

 

[Agamon]

Fine, it is alpha and not useful at all......the point remains the point, we do not have software. Pedantry is so helpful.

Impatience is helpful?

Queue Queen's "I Want It All"

 

[Umbran]

Fine, it is alpha and not useful at all......the point remains the point, we do not have software. Pedantry is so helpful.

It sees to me that "we do not have software" is a bit pedantic itself. I mean, it is technically true. But, for it not to be pedantic, you have to also demonstrate why this is a point worth making. Why should we care?

 

[Zaukrie]

I didn't say you should care. I asked if people did care, when I asked what grade people would give licensing so far. If you or others don't care, I assume you would give it an incomplete at this point. Man, my phone was doing crazy auto correct on that post. And no, I am not bothered at all that people disagree, I am just trying to have a conversation.

 

[Zaukrie]

You'll note, I have not tried to change anyone's mind on this thread. I am just trying to see how others feel.