WotC Dan Dillon and Eytan Bernstien on the Bamf Podcast, youtube stream notify link.

[darjr]

Bamf Podcast with Dan Dillon and Eytan Bernstein. The "notice" link for the future live stream. Thanks to @Velderan.

 

[Parmandur]

Interesting: looking forward to see what these guys do moving forward.

 

[darjr]

Live soon. five minutes?

 

[darjr]

live now.

 

[darjr]

Takeaways.

Both of them would do their time at WotC again, no questions. Including moving across the country to do so. Dan even said he took into account the yearly layoffs when he went. They loved their time there and learned a lot and worked with amazing people. They also seemed happy about the severance, even without giving any details.

Both of them were involved in reading and working with the playtest feedback. The playtests they take seriously. They use it the way they've been saying they do. We have now several employees that worked on playtest feedback, from before 5e, during it's initial playtest, and right up till now. I think it's unquestionable that the playtests are a real thing.

Both of them are bullish on the 2024 rules. Dan especially seems happy about them so far. He's looking forward to folks seeing what they've done. They also really do think it's generally backward compatible. Though they did talk about using a monster from 2014 to 2024 can be done but might play slightly differently. Which is an interesting statement.

Eytan may have a patreon setup soon. I'll definitely pst about that asap. In fact maybe a thread about that is warrented.
Dan didn't seem so sure. I wonder.

Both were bullish on the SRD in CCBy.

There were a lot of questions they either couldn't answer or couldn't talk to directly.

I'm super glad they did this. I was surprised at how upbeat they both were, realistic, but upbeat. Especially toward wotc and especially the designers there and what they are doing.

A special thanks to Owen K. Stephens for getting this put together. This was cool.

Edit: I want to also state they were suffering from being let go. It's not fun no matter what.

 

[Parmandur]

Though they did talk about using a monster from 2014 to 2024 can be done but might play slightly differently. Which is an interesting statement.

I think it was Owen K. Stephen's who pointed put that means that a '14 Red Dragon or a '24 Red Dragon would play differently, like a '14 Red Dragon would play differently than a '14 Black Dragon: different star blocks, the situation will play out differently...but compatible within the same framework.

Eytan was particularly emphatic that he has bo motivation to blow skoke about "backwards compatibility" for marketing purposes now, bit really wanted to emphasize that Crawford & WotC have been in earnest the whole process and mean it.

They also seemed happy about the severance, even without giving any details.

I'm super glad they did this. I was surprised at how upbeat they both were, realistic, but upbeat. Especially toward wotc and especially the designers there and what they are doing.

Yeah, I'm glad they seem to be in a good place.

 

[Distracted DM]

Part of me always figures people aren't slagging off their old employers in public tweets, podcasts, etc. because they want to get work from new employers, ya know?

 

[darjr]

Part of me always figures people aren't slagging off their old employers in public tweets, podcasts, etc. because they want to get work from new employers, ya know?

Absolutely.

But watch the video, it’s more than that.

 

[Parmandur]

Absolutely.

But watch the video, it’s more than that.

It was more than that: they could have avoided the topics entirely and nobody would blame them. They were outright, genuinely enthusiastic about the '24 rules changes, even given their situation.

 

[UngeheuerLich]

It was more than that: they could have avoided the topics entirely and nobody would blame them. They were outright, genuinely enthusiastic about the '24 rules changes, even given their situation.

That was actuallay the part I watched. Yes. They were very enthusiastic.

Also the monsters will be different (hopefully, because otherwise we would not need a change). But they explicitely said, you can use a 2014 character vs a 2024 red dragon or a 2024 character vs a 2014 dragon an both works fine.

The last thing I saw was, when they said that being laid off at christmas is actually not the worst of time, because it makes everything easier with taxes.
And being laid off before summer holidays or before school fees are due are not actually better.

May take: they are paid for part of december at lest and the severance might be big enough to actually pay for christmas gifts.