At Least 4 Months For Conversion Documents

Those waiting for official conversion documents from earlier editions of D&D to 5th edition are going to have to wait a bit longer. WotC's Mike Mearls says that "the person who needs to do the final approvals on them is serving on a jury that will take another 4 or so months. Sorry!" So it looks like we're talking July/August at the earliest. Thanks to Adrian for the scoop.

 

[S_Dalsgaard]

I'm impressed by how people can moan about WotC not being open and letting people know what is (or isn't) coming, and then when they do, people accuse them of lying.

They might as well take their time. It is pretty much guaranteed, that when the conversion guide is released, the same people will complain endlessly about how inadequate it is, how WotC once again has messed everything up, and how much better Paizo would have handled it.

 

[Mercurius]

Because that wouldn't matter either. For a lot of people it STILL wouldn't be enough. It's NEVER enough. No matter what WotC does... a segment of populace is going to complain about it and say that WotC is mismanaged, horrible, unable to do the simplest things, yadda yadda yadda.

They could have said nothing about the docs. People would complain. So they give a reason WHY they are late. People are still complaining because it wasn't "enough". They could go ahead and add in the couple extra sentences you mentioned in your post, and people would then come back that THAT wasn't enough.

It's NEVER enough. Ever. Some people will find ANY reason to think WotC is horrible and constantly go on about it (here and elsewhere). It makes me wonder why any of these people even still bother to play the game in the first place when there are some many other companies out there that they probably think are the bees knees and they could play those games and have nothing but sunshine and daisies fly out of their books. I know I'd love it if all the people who can't help but complain about every single thing WotC does would finally just crap or get off the pot.

I hear you and have also found incessant complaining to be irritating. That said, equalling annoying is vapid fanboyism. I'm not accusing you of this, but just pointing out that there's a possible balance - seeing the lights and darks. My initial remark wasn't as much anger or whining as it was me saying, "Hmm, wow, they managed to do it again. How do they do this?"

You're cracking me up, man. The DMG was late, they're struggling to get other products out that make money with an ever-decreasing staff, and now they're explaining that someone being out on jury duty is delaying a project from last Summer another third of a year. They aren't working on the OGL, IMO. They probably don't even have time to have meetings where they think up ways to imply they are while not committing to it.

It is actually mildly worrisome. An image arose in my mind of a ship that is supposed to have a crew of 40 being run by 10 people, running around and just keeping the ship afloat, but not ever able to get ahead or steer the course. I honestly wonder how or even if WotC will be able to come out with anything beyond the planned story arcs, which would be a real shame. But maybe this is how things are going to be for 5E: the core rulebooks and two story arcs a year, and nothing else. GenCon will tell us more, presumably.

I have to agree with this. By the time they finally get it out, the number of people who will care will have dropped significantly. For all the decent work they've done with 5e, there are some really odd and frustrating gaps. And this is the latest of them.

Well exactly. "The odd and frustrating gaps" is the problem.

Because some guy asked Mearls on Twitter about it, and Mearls, likely not expecting or caring that it would become a huge thread on EN World, answered as best he could in 140 characters. I imagine he hardly felt he would have to justify the rescheduling of soft plans for release of free material on the website when he had much bigger fish to fry.

True, then he should say that. What are the "bigger fish" and why isn't WotC more forthcoming about that?

Don't forget, Washington was now of the first states to legalize marijuana.

Just an observation.

Hmm...interesting.

 

[lyle.spade]

I've got an idea. Let's start a rumor that the real hold-up is due to Hasbro (WOTC's parent) forcing them to produce an entire My Little Pony campaign setting, and it's sucking the life out of virtually every other effort (hence the slow release schedule thus far!) AND that the only conversion they're allowed to do this year will be for Monopoly.

That way people can rage against corporate puppet masters, unresponsive brand managers, bosses who aren't gamers, destroying DnD with non-traditional settings, ruining the rules in general, and I'm sure many, many more.

Either that or WOTC is instead focusing all their energy on a Harry Potter setting, for which there will be no character creation rules and in which you must play one of the existing characters, because that's always so fun (thanks, Indy Jones and Marvel Superheroic RPGs!!).

Let's get it on!

 

[bmfrosty]

I've got an idea. Let's start a rumor that the real hold-up is due to Hasbro (WOTC's parent) forcing them to produce an entire My Little Pony campaign setting

That would actually sell really well. I know people who would buy that.

 

[lyle.spade]

That would actually sell really well. I know people who would buy that.

That was supposed to be a joke, not a cry for help!

How about the Care Bears, instead? Or Smurfs?

 

[Wicht]

That would actually sell really well. I know people who would buy that.

Its been done. For PFRPG at least

Edit: Looks like there is both a 4e conversion and a 5e conversion

 

[DaveDash]

People aren't annoyed because it's late. People are annoyed because Mearls seems to be pulling the wool over our eyes.

If he said "The guy responsible for it is on Jury duty and it won't be ready for a few months yet" I wouldn't even bat an eyelid. It's the fact he is passing it off as already finished, and just needing final approval, that raises a few eyebrows.

He is either telling the truth or being dishonest, and both of those things are equally as bad. I work on a team of three people, and do you honestly believe that all my work would suddenly just stop for four months? That's the sign of a hopelessly incompetent company if that was the case.
Alternately it's much more likely more than "final approval" is needed on this document, and Mearls is bending the truth, and I really don't like that from him at all.

 

[lyle.spade]

Its been done. For PFRPG at least

Edit: Looks like there is both a 4e conversion and a 5e conversion

(barf taste in mouth)

 

[Wicht]

(barf taste in mouth)

Hey now - the Kickstarter to get this going was pretty successful. People love their ponies.

 

[Kramodlog]

Hey now - the Kickstarter to get this going was pretty successful. People love their ponies.

Oh. My. God.