Arlough
Explorer
I'm just not as excited as I was at first about the playtest. Now that I've seen the playtesting material and I've turned in my survey, I find I have little motivation to continue playtesting. I know it isn't necessarily the case, but I can't shake the feeling that Wizards of the Coast isn't really interested in more feedback now that the surveys are back. And it's hard to be excited about something when you feel like you are being ignored.
But it's not just that. The more time I spend looking at the rules, the more rickety and buggy they seem to me. And therefore, the less I like them. If I were to fill out the survey today, right now, it would be a lot different from the one I filled out a few weeks ago.
And I hate to admit it, but the discussion threads on the Internet have really taken their toll as well. The endless (endless!) banter about the "definition of hit points" was just the tip of the iceberg. All the fights about healing? The lengthy expositions on at-will powers and how awesome/awful they are? People heatedly arguing with each other, to the point of insult, over how many weapons a Ranger fights with? Really?
It was fun while it lasted, and I was happy to give my feedback. But I'm done with D&D NExt, at least until the next playtest begins. My group and I will spend the summer gaming with our favorite (albeit out-of-print) rules
This has been my experience as well. And when you combine that with being burned by DDi, the edition wars, and statements like "D&D is XXXXX and if you disagree you shouldn't be playing!", I have completely lost my desire to play D&D of any edition now .
The next complaint is with class imbalance. Some of the characters are just outright better than the others. When we get together nobody wants to play either cleric. Sure we can provide feedback, but in the here and now no one's interested in those characters.
Finally, the adventure is about as far from my group's preferred style of play as it gets. I understand others may like it, but I hated that modules back when I first started in '86, and I hate it today.
And when you combine those reasons with the problem I mentioned above, the result is that I have been encouraged to try other systems. What I found was that Strands of Fate worked better for my Eberron campaign than 3.X or 4e ever managed to, and fits with the play-style I want to promote. I don't even think I will need to houserule.
But back on topic. I will playtest the next set of rules for D&D in the hopes that it will help them create a better system, even if I don't think I will adopt that system. But until the next playtest is released, I am done.