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.

 

[thalmin]

Right, I understand that jury can be time consuming but it's not like you're not allowed contact with the outside world or locked in a jury room until a decision is made. You still get to go home and eat, there are times when you don't need to be at the trial that you can work. I mean what, it'll take maybe a couple days for this guy to approve?

I mean is their ENTIRE BUSINESS being held up by this guy being on jury duty? Might as well close the doors and send everyone home for 4 months then if you everything is going to get clogged at the bottleneck of this guy being out of the office.

You are assuming the jury person has nothing better to do when not at the courthouse than approve the conversion docs. We don't know what other responsibilites (s)he has that might be more important, like possibly the next (unanounced) 5E book, or maybe a family. It's much easier to believe it is all a conspiracy.

 

[Mark CMG]

It's much easier to believe it is all a conspiracy.

Naw, that's looking for zebras when you hear hooves in Texas. Never suspect a conspiracy has brought you to a place when a combination of an incompetent guide, bad directions, and a lousy map can lead to the same destination.

 

[DaveMage]

How disappointing.

The conversion documents are the ideal solution for those who are not satisfied with 5E's comparatively very slow release schedule.

 

[Grimjack99]

While I'd wish more products and site material was coming out, its not. It is what is is. I'm not happy, but I don't work at WotC, and I don't know the limitations they're under. Until then, we can keep ourselves warm with wishes and speculation. OH, and awesome gaming too.

Hmmmm, Planescape, Hmmmmm, Spelljammer...

 

[Dire Bare]

You are assuming the jury person has nothing better to do when not at the courthouse than approve the conversion docs. We don't know what other responsibilites (s)he has that might be more important, like possibly the next (unanounced) 5E book, or maybe a family. It's much easier to believe it is all a conspiracy.

This. Thanks Thalmin for being a voice of reason. As soon as I saw the news item, I grimaced. Not because of the delay, although I am bummed over that. Because I knew this thread would be filled with negativity, armchair quarterbacking, and cries of "liars!"

The four month wait is most certainly a bummer, but life happens folks. I would FULLY expect that a series of FREE conversion guides would be a low priority and get bumped if they are temporarily down a team member. There are much more important things the D&D team is working on, I am sure.

WotC does have a small team for D&D, but they are not liars, not incompetent, and don't owe us any explanations other than what Mearls has told us. I will never understand the negative folks who just can't take WotC staff at their word, especially on eminently reasonable stuff like this.

Then again, it's threads like these that allow me to fill out my ignore list, so there's that.

 

[Eric V]

This is annoying, but if it's just the conversion document, it's no big deal. The number of people affected are minor.

Maybe...but it especially sucks when one is being told to convert stuff from DnD classics as a solution to not a lot of product coming out...

 

[thalmin]

I agree that I would like to see the conversion documents last month. I would also like to see Wizards publish monthly short modules. Possibly in addition to printing updated classic modules. But I can only hope.
I do know that WotC is working on something beyond PotA, though I don't know what it is. Maybe there will be an announcement at GAMA this week (IhopeIhopeIhope!)

 

[JohnnyZemo]

It's funny how often you have an article about something around the same time that I was thinking about it!

I'm getting ready to run the Night Below campaign and part of Age of Worms using 5e, so I'd love to have the conversion guides. A lot of the Night Below creatures are in the 5e Monster Manual, so those are easy. Some of the other stuff will take a little more effort.

 

[Sunseeker]

You are assuming the jury person has nothing better to do when not at the courthouse than approve the conversion docs. We don't know what other responsibilites (s)he has that might be more important, like possibly the next (unanounced) 5E book, or maybe a family. It's much easier to believe it is all a conspiracy.

Sure I suppose. Would wager that means conversion docs are pretty low on the totem pole then if their approval essentially got cut while this person is out, which doesn't bother me too much as I'm not really interested in converting old stuff.

 

[Kramodlog]

it's almost like it doesn't make any logical sense (like a lie).

That is ridiculus! WotC's communications have been top notch since 5e's launched!

In fact, communications are WotC's strenght, right after producing affordable books!

 

[Jester David]

Maybe...but it especially sucks when one is being told to convert stuff from DnD classics as a solution to not a lot of product coming out...

Yes, yes it does suck. But it's hard to get mad when it's because someone got stuck on jury duty for five months.

 

[Mouseferatu]

Yes, yes it does suck. But it's hard to get mad when it's because someone got stuck on jury duty for five months.

Well, it should be, but apparently...

 

[Colmarr]

Yes, yes it does suck. But it's hard to get mad when it's because someone got stuck on jury duty for five months.

I disagree.

I don't think any business in the world would have the chutzpah to tell their customers/potential customers, "Sorry, Mr X is on jury duty for four months. No one else in our organisation has the skills or time to look at that product you want until he's back, so just hang tight, ok?"

Even if the product in question is free, it's something you've promised your customers. Advertise that your team and/or budget is so small that you can't work around the unavailability of one person is, to be frank, somewhat mind-blowing to me.

 

[Jester David]

I disagree.

I don't think any business in the world would have the chutzpah to tell their customers/potential customers, "Sorry, Mr X is on jury duty for four months. No one else in our organisation has the skills or time to look at that product you want until he's back, so just hang tight, ok?"

Even if the product in question is free, it's something you've promised your customers. Advertise that your team and/or budget is so small that you can't work around the unavailability of one person is, to be frank, somewhat mind-blowing to me.

It could be a micro-managing individual who likes that they're needed. Or the redundancy in the department could have been laid off so there's no one who knows the details.
Either way, I doubt the D&D team has any control and would really like not to rely on that one person.

 

[Trickster Spirit]

I disagree.

I don't think any business in the world would have the chutzpah to tell their customers/potential customers, "Sorry, Mr X is on jury duty for four months. No one else in our organisation has the skills or time to look at that product you want until he's back, so just hang tight, ok?"

Even if the product in question is free, it's something you've promised your customers. Advertise that your team and/or budget is so small that you can't work around the unavailability of one person is, to be frank, somewhat mind-blowing to me.

Are you for real? Businesses break promises all the time, and far bigger ones than a free conversion guide for a D&D edition at that. Wizards doesn't have to put out a conversion guide. No one's pre-ordered them, no one's Kickstartered them. No money has changed hands. Wizards could decide tomorrow that they don't think putting out conversion guides would make good business sense, or would eat up employee time that could be better spent on other products, or Mearls and co. could just announce they didn't feel the project creatively and axe it.

There's eight folks working on the D&D rpg right now - seven, if one of them is out for jury duty for the next few months. If none of the seven others can handle the conversion docs, it's probably because they're working on other stuff!

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

I disagree.

I don't think any business in the world would have the chutzpah to tell their customers/potential customers, "Sorry, Mr X is on jury duty for four months. No one else in our organisation has the skills or time to look at that product you want until he's back, so just hang tight, ok?"

Happens every day.

If your business is centered around the skills of a key person, and that person is unavailable, nothing can be done. I'm a solo practice lawyer. If I can't do X task, X task won't get done. The last time I got called for jury duty, it set me back more than a week.

My father is a solo practice doctor. He nearly wound up getting called for jury duty on a capital murder case. That cost him a day. He had a health scare that hospitalized him for most of a week. His patients had to wait or make other arrangements.

And when he got called up for Desert Storm for several months, it nearly bankrupted him.

My Mom handles his books. She went on a trip for a week in 2013, leaving him to do his own accounting. He screwed it up so badly, the staff was lucky to get paid- we're still cleaning up some of his mistakes.

One of my computer jockey buddies was a member of a 3 man team. Over time, that team was whittled down to him. They refused a reasonable salary increase request, and he opted to look for another job. They hired another guy, but it turned out the replacement wasn't as proficient at the job as my buddy. He got hired back a "consultant" to train his replacement for a few months...at a higher salary. In the time between his quitting and their realization of how badly screwed they were, the company was stymied.

 

[Colmarr]

Are you for real? Businesses break promises all the time, and far bigger ones than a free conversion guide for a D&D edition at that.

And how many of them advertise the fact that the promise is broken because they can't handle one guy being absent? I'm not a 5e player so the delay doesn't bother me at all but the PR stuns me.

I didn't know there were only eight people working on the brand. I can understand that losing access to 1/8 of your workforce is a problem. Perhaps not as much of a problem as the fact that the workforce is only 8 to begin with...

 

[bogmad]

Since Mearls said "approve" not write, it's probably someone in a managerial or legal role and not really part of the (small) D&D team.

I had the same thought. Then I thought it was just amazing if they were from legal and actually got selected to the jury! How rarely do both sides let an actual lawyer slip through selection?
Don't get me wrong though: Sucks for the delay, but really, life happens sometimes. Let's not protest the moon landing just yet.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

It is rare but it happens.

 

[Trickster Spirit]

And how many of them advertise the fact that the promise is broken because they can't handle one guy being absent? I'm not a 5e player so the delay doesn't bother me at all but the PR stuns me.

I didn't know there were only eight people working on the brand. I can understand that losing access to 1/8 of your workforce is a problem. Perhaps not as much of a problem as the fact that the workforce is only 8 to begin with...

Eh, it's only a problem if you're expecting to see a lot of 5E product come down the pipeline. Keeping the D&D staff small means less expenses means more profit for the division. I believe the actual size of the D&D division is ~16 (not sure if that's the number from before or after recent layoffs), but only half of it is working on the RPG side of things. The other half is working on licensing and branding side of things - stuff like D&D board games, video games and movies. Tabletop games are not a very large market, and Wizards is looking to expand D&D beyond it. The tabletop game will still exist but it'll only be receiving minimal support to keep the name alive, now that the core books have sold the real profits will come from the other half of the team that have nothing to do with the game itself.