errata (borderline rant)

[Tar-Edhel]

For example, now having to pay the XP Component of spells in item creation for every day of the item creation, making several items completely 100% IMPOSSIBLE to make.

You're kidding there right?? ... Right?

 

[Darkness]

Also, let's face it, how many other compainies even bother with errata? Be thankful Wizards bothers with it. Few compainies do.

You don't play GURPS, do you? 'cause the way Steve Jackson Games handles errata is the most professional I've seen so far...

White Wolf don't have many errors in their books, given that the publis mostly rules-lite books and have pretty good editing (apart from page number references in the 1st edition of 50% of their core rulebooks ), but they clean up after themselves too when they screw up.

AEG are slightly better than WotC.

(etc.)

 

[Darkness]

From what I've seen, most errata is not about typos, but rather clarifications of rules which players are wont to misunderstand/misuse.

Then you have obviously had different experiences with D&D 3e books than me. You're partly of course right, though - a lot of clarifications come out. But there are also in many cases lots and lots of typos...

 

[Crothian]

You don't play GURPS, do you? 'cause the way Steve Jackson Games handles errata is the most professional I've seen so far...

White Wolf don't have many errors in their books, given that the publis mostly rules-lite books and have pretty good editing (apart from page number references in the 1st edition of 50% of their core rulebooks ), but they clean up after themselves too when they screw up.

AEG are slightly better than WotC.

(etc.)

Don't play GURPS anymore, last time was about 8 years ago. So, I'm not familiar with how they do errata. White Wold isn't bad, but I have read some glaring mistakes that just make me cringe. And yes, they do have errata on their website, not that I've every looked through it.

So, that's SJG, White Wolf, and WoTC that does errata on a reguliar basis, and proably a few others that I missed. Out of how many RPG companies? And the errata is only found on the net. I'd have to say that there are more gamers who never use the net then do. So, the errata doesn't get to everyone that needs it. Most compainies seem to just wait for that next printing to fix things. THere was one company that did a total turn around in one of there books. I was using the first printing and when someone wanted to use it but described it as he knew, from a third printing, I thought he was going mental on me or trying to slip one by me. But then we compared books and found glaring differences.

So, what's the solution? Better editing so less errata is needed. Slow down the production of books, I'll wait I'm a patient person. Offer better errat, full pages of fixed documents instead of item by item lists. That's only good if I want to go through and manual fix my own book, which I never will. Makes it look cheap and unproffesional.

Maybe this should be brought up in the d20 Publishers forum. Least then we get the opinions and comments of people actually in the business and they can tell us how feasible this is or if we should give up and admit defeat.

 

[Holy Bovine]

Maybe this should be brought up in the d20 Publishers forum. Least then we get the opinions and comments of people actually in the business and they can tell us how feasible this is or if we should give up and admit defeat.

Boy, you sound so depressed about this! Cheer up, its not all doom n' gloom out there y'know

Seriously I don't get too worried about errata and rarely use it. Although I do have both printings of the PHB (found a 2nd printing one at a used bookstore for $17 CAN! Woohoo!) I really don't notice the differences (assuming they did make all the changes in the errata listings to the 2nd printing?).

Is this errata all that useful? What kind of things actually are changed? I always assumed it was stuff like mislabelled tables and (minor) typos.

I'll keep trudging through with my (uncorrected) D&D books - somehow Ill survive

 

[Crothian]

Boy, you sound so depressed about this! Cheer up, its not all doom n' gloom out there y'know

I don't use errata, and sorry if i sound depressed about it. I'm really not worried about it at all.

I'm just offering ideas in an overly dramatic way.

 

[Number47]

The only errata for the PHB that I looked and said "Wow, gotta make sure that's changed" is the damage for Delayed Blast Fireball (I think). There should also be a save for some-spell or other. But really, has it ruined anyone's game if Continual Flame shouldn't work as a Glamer? You probably didn't even notice. Has anyone quit playing D&D because Shocking Grasp should be Permanent until Discharged? Again, you would never realize any problem unless you saw the errata first. Quite frankly, I am tired of all these errata-whiners. Do you want a perfect book, or an affordable one? Why do you think college textbooks cost so much? Name me any other full-color hardbound book you could get for twenty bucks!

 

[coyote6]

I realized something last time I read a recent WotC errata document (I think it was for Magic of Faerun) -- it was an internal document. It was quite clearly written by one developer for others -- and that explains why there's so much "change the nth word in the xth paragraph" type stuff.

Heck, one item said, basically, "make sure this matches the similar spell from Masters of the Wild." Which, while useful for in-house use, is not so great for someone with Magic of Faerun & without MotW.

OTOH, if it means getting errata significantly sooner, I can deal with internal documents.

SJG's GURPS errata setup is superior, IMO, because it's easy to locate, read, easy to understand (i.e., written as explanation rather than internal notes), and even submit possible new errata. There's one master page for GURPS with links to errata for individual books (even individual editions & printings), and a separate page for new errata in general (so one can see what's new at a glance). And it's all plain HTML, in a nice, easy to navigate structure. Also, IIRC, SJG usually keeps minor typographical-type errata (stuff like "italicize the words foo and bar in the third paragraph") on a private list, so it doesn't clutter up errata documents.

Hmm, speaking of GURPS errata . . . must submit some.

 

[Lord Pendragon]

Then you have obviously had different experiences with D&D 3e books than me. You're partly of course right, though - a lot of clarifications come out. But there are also in many cases lots and lots of typos...

Hmm...this is news to me. I own the PH, MotP, and S&S, and have access to T&B, DotF, and S&F, but don't seem to recall this. I think this must be another case of my brain skimming over the errors as unimportant as I looked for things I wanted to see, (i.e. interesting PrCs, feats my PCs might be interested in, etc.)

You learn something new every day. I guess I should take a closer look at some of those books.