Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.
Rocket your D&D 5E and Level Up: Advanced 5E games into space! Alpha Star Magazine Is Launching... Right Now!

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Mercurius" data-source="post: 5352529" data-attributes="member: 59082">I apologize if this has been discussed before, but I did a search and didn't come up with anything. Here is a link to [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HOzuu45mfTw"]Part 1[/ame] of the Design & Development Seminar at Gen Con on YouTube. It has eight parts and is almost two hours long but is worth skimming through, with lots of Q&A with Stephen Schubert, Rich Baker, and Bill Slaviscek. I really got the sense that Slaviscek is the man in charge, or at least the guy who has the most clearance to say (or not say) certain things. Not a surprise, really, given his position, but you really see it clearly in these videos. There were quite a few questions about Essentials and you could tell that they, Slaviscek in particular, were getting a bit annoyed and maybe a tad frustrated. Unfortunately you can't hear the questions and they only repeat them occasionally, but you get the gist of what they were by their answers. I'm pretty sure that someone asked them in a later video if Essentials was 4.5, with BS shaking his head and laughing painfully, saying "No, it is all just Dungeons & Dragons" and then SS saying "We can't use numbers around Bill."I found Parts 2-4 particularly interesting in terms of Essentials. Slaviscek describes the core rulebooks as being getting on the highway at "10th street" and Essentials is getting on at "1st street." This also clarified to me why I probably shouldn't buy any more Essentials products (I'm toying with canceling my pre-orders for the DM's Kit, HotFK and MV, although will probably still get MV but not the other two).He also says that "This is the direction we're going to use moving forward." I'm not entirely sure if he means Essentials as a whole, the physical presentation, or the rules adjustments themselves. Maybe all of the above? He also says, as I've heard some say here, that these were things they had in mind from the beginning, that the first couple years would be about converting old players to 4E and the next phase would be about acquisition. He pretty much says, without outright saying it, that sales have been somewhat disappointing, especially in terms of bringing in new players. Finally, he did say that there will be more hardcover books, although he also said something to the effect that format in the future depends upon the success of the Essentials products (I can't quite remember how he phrased it, but that was what I took from it).Any comments or thoughts on this seminar? Did anyone attend?</blockquote>

Verification