errataphobia and the 3e revision

[alsih2o]

do you think that since the 3e revision will largely be original or already published material (counting info from splatbooks and such) that it will be more err and edit goof free than the standard many people point to?

since so much of this is not on a first run basis i think we may be looking at one of the cleanest and best sdited books coming to gaming in a long time

 

[EricNoah]

I think it depends on how many and how sweeping the changes are. You know how one little thing can cascade through the rules, that's what makes editing these books such a challenge.

 

[Eosin the Red]

I think things may be clearer but like we saw it the Wheel of Time RPG and some others - tons of cut and paste errors. I have done stuff like that and I believe it is harder to catch those kind of small little errors than it is to catch others.

 

[Barcode]

I'm just hoping the Game Mechanics team sticks to a clear plan and doesn't make frivolous and untested changes.

When revising the Star Wars RPG, they apparently just decided arbitrarily that you shouldn't be able to fight defensively when making a standard attack anymore. You could use total defense as a standard action, and could still fight defensively when doing a full attack, but not during a standard attack.

We never did get an answer for why they made that change, except that it was intentional, not an editing error. Some conjectured that it was to make Combat Expertise more valuable as a feat, but then why only eliminate it for a standard attack?

I am fairly certain that they weren't responding to player feedback when they made that change, since I did a search of the boards and didn't find a single person complaining about how you shouldn't be able to fight defensively during a standard attack action.

I got the feeling they were just stuck that in after a conversation at lunch, because it seemed like a good idea at the time, but never talked to anyone else about it, much less playtest it.

Here's my cool thread on the topic:

http://boards.wizards.com/rpg/ultimatebb.php?ubb=get_topic;f=180;t=001550;p=

 

[Oracular Vision]

Hey, one of the guys writing them is actually playtesting it with his group. So you know it will be high quality! One whole set of playtesters!

 

[Alzrius]

I'm worried about buying the new revisions and then having them be slightly outdated by later reprinting also.

So far there doesn't seem to be much cause for it though. As far as I know, only the Player's Handbook and Sword and Fist have received new printings. Nothing else has. That's a good sign as far as reasons to buy the first printings of the revised books.

Of course, that may not hold true, since these books will be the main books for 3E, which will probably last at least a decade, so new printings will happen eventually. But my guess is, it will take several years.

I'm not going to wait that long to buy the new books.

 

[Davelozzi]

I'm sure that they'll be some errors (there always are) but I think that there will be considerably less than the first time around. Each major core rulebook WotC puts out seems to raise the bar over the previous ones. The revised Star Wars book is great and so is d20 Modern. So I'm going to keep thinking positive until I have reason to despair.