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.

 

[ExploderWizard]

I am so not surprised by this. I have been running two 5E campaigns for months now partially using converted material from AD&D and B/X. Conversion guide? Not a high priority.

 

[delericho]

This company baffles me. They continue to find ways to bungle things, no matter what the context. They have a home run in 5E yet they continue to find ways to fumble the ball.

This puzzles me. While I can (and have) been critical of WotC over several things, I don't see how this one is indicative of a fumble.

They've had one of their few employees pulled into jury duty that will likely last 4 months. That's hardly WotC's fault!

And while they could probably shuffle things around a bit so that someone else does it, that's a question of priorities: is there someone else working on something lower priority? And is it worth taking a hit of retasking that person, letting them get up to speed on the halted project, and then finishing it off?

It would appear that the answer is no. Perhaps everyone else is busy putting the finishing touches to the Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting, or to the next storyline, or the OGL, or bringing back the magazines, or whatever... I don't really know what it is, but if they're all on higher priority stuff, then fair enough.

And credit to WotC where it's due: they didn't have to tell us why there was a delay. Heck, they didn't even have to tell us that there was a delay, since they'd never actually told us when to expect these guides. But they did, and given the complaints about lack of communication, that's at least a step in the right direction.

 

[Mark CMG]

This puzzles me. While I can (and have) been critical of WotC over several things, I don't see how this one is indicative of a fumble.

Perhaps because it wasn't developed by playtesters during the playtesting process running up to the release of Basic or the core books and shared at that time instead of six months after the fact having to explain that the conversion guide for the new edition might be approved sometime around the one-year anniversary of the Starter Set and Basic Rules.

 

[Trickster Spirit]

People are also assuming that "approval" means signing off on a finished product, but it's also entirely possible that they're talking rules approval, not editing or legal approval. Who's to say the dedicated rules crafter on the project isn't the one out of commission, Jeremy Crawford for example, and their internal playtesting has shown the docs need another pass before they're ready?

Would anyone actually prefer they pull someone off of a hypothetical FRCS or working on Dragon or Dungeon for these docs?

 

[meomwt]

Perhaps The Guv'Nor could organise a contest. Write a set of Conversion Guidelines, whoever gets closest to what eventually sees light of day wins EN5ider for a month. Or something similar.

Heck, I'm busy converteering T1-4 flying by the seat of my pants. It might not look pretty, but it will be FUN.

 

[TerraDave]

Is it Jeremy Crawford? Is Jeremy Crawford on jury duty, that's why we are not getting the sage advice column?

...


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.

Why would legal need to approve a document on how to use, say, 3E materials or characters in a 5E game?

I don't think we are talking about OGL or equivalent. That could be delayed for lots of reasons.

 

[Trickster Spirit]

Perhaps because it wasn't developed by playtesters during the playtesting process running up to the release of Basic or the core books and shared at that time instead of six months after the fact having to explain that the conversion guide for the new edition might be approved sometime around the one-year anniversary of the Starter Set and Basic Rules.

They were working out what 5E was going to look like during the play test, and the game was still in flux even by early 2014 - why would they have wasted time working on conversions when the game was still rapidly changing? They rolled out the three core books over five months because they needed the whole team working on one book at a time, are you arguing that they should have delayed that further to start working on conversion docs?

 

[Mark CMG]

They were working out what 5E was going to look like during the play test, and the game was still in flux even by early 2014 - why would they have wasted time working on conversions when the game was still rapidly changing? They rolled out the three core books over five months because they needed the whole team working on one book at a time, are you arguing that they should have delayed that further to start working on conversion docs?

You can't possibly think it isn't something that would have lent itself to more easily being developed in tandem during the playtest. I am sure you understand that part of their goal for the edition was to integrate aspects from all previous editions and utilize people who primarily play one or more of the various editions. I can't doubt you comprehend that the surveys at that time included gleaning information from these people regarding what they liked from previous editions, what they'd like to see brought forward, and how it would translate from an older edition to the new one. At some point you have to realize that this is the crux of what the conversion guide is and that it is a no-brainer to put it together at the same time. At some point someone needs to stop making excuses re-examine an employment policy that cuts them so thin they can't complete work this Spring that should have been done last Summer.

 

[Trickster Spirit]

Is it Jeremy Crawford? Is Jeremy Crawford on jury duty, that's why we are not getting the sage advice column?



Why would legal need to approve a document on how to use, say, 3E materials or characters in a 5E game?

I don't think we are talking about OGL or equivalent. That could be delayed for lots of reasons.

Let me clarify, I just threw out Crawford's name as an example. Jurors aren't allowed to publically discuss trials and if this is a high profile case it's possible that means even acknowledging publically that you have jury duty (as someone could theoretically deduce what case they're on and try to influence their verdict).

Honestly we probably know too much about the situation already, Mearls probably shouldn't have said anything at all. That's the danger of sharing some info with one fan who's asked over the internet, now everyone knows more than they should - someone in this thread has already investigated and found out that there are three ongoing murder cases in that county.

If I were a judge presiding over one of those cases, I really wouldn't be comfortable with the internet taking such a close look at one of my jurors, even if it is just one thread in a tabletop RPG forum.

 

[Zaukrie]

Shocking that a tiny staff can't deliver when one person is gone. Shocking.