D&D 5E How will the playtest of D&D next go at XP?

[Gundark]

Yeah, I've decided that should the opportunity fall my way I won't choose to playtest or sign an NDA.

Kudos to you, that's a tough one to pass up.

 

[drothgery]

Yeah, I've decided that should the opportunity fall my way I won't choose to playtest or sign an NDA.

If I were you (or anyone else writing for a major gaming site), I wouldn't sign any kind of long-term NDA, as it would keep you from collecting and publishing rumors. But if WotC were willing to let you look at something a few days before they were releasing it to the public so you could have your article ready to post the second they went live, I'd think I'd do it.

 

[Morrus]

If I were you (or anyone else writing for a major gaming site), I wouldn't sign any kind of long-term NDA, as it would keep you from collecting and publishing rumors. But if WotC were willing to let you look at something a few days before they were releasing it to the public so you could have your article ready to post the second they went live, I'd think I'd do it.

That's what we did for the announcements (we saw stuff late last year and had the articles waiting to go).

 

[enrious]

Seems fair enough, since it's doubtful you'd have had the information otherwise and if you did, it's arguable that a premature release of information (that is, before WotC was ready to back it up) would have been damaging to all concerned.

Journalism doesn't have to be nihilism. Journalism should be a mixture of integrity and intelligence.

 

[blalien]

As long as the information gets out, I guess it ultimately doesn't matter to me.

Unfortunately, we have no way to know which of the information is true. A ton of people are going to put fake leaks on the Internet just to troll. Do you remember how many fake Harry Potter spoilers were online before the last book released? I would take any leaks from the playtest with a grain of salt until they've been confirmed by Wizards or journalists.

 

[enrious]

Epistemology is a useful tool.

 

[Mengu]

I'm not entirely sure what the conditions of the NDA will be. What I am sure of is, when I get back from ddxp, my friends are going to drill me to find out what they can about 5e. I can be a jerk about it and say, I can't talk about it (and risk being subjected to chinese torture devices). Or I can tell them about my experience, trying to avoid details. I'm sure there will be many folks in my boat. Let's say one of us lets it slip a rules bit, hypothetically, fighter's don't mark any more. That slip can go viral on the internet in a matter of minutes. There will be shouts and cries of how they are nerfing fighters in 5e, or how they are making defending meaningless, or how the end of D&D is 2012 (as predicted by the ancients of Maztica).

It seems, controlled information would be wiser than a rampant game of broken telephone. I guess soon enough, we'll see how it goes.

 

[enrious]

Which is why in addition to their lawyers, I think WotC should fire their PR people.

Or whoever dreamed this up.

 

[Gundark]

I'm not entirely sure what the conditions of the NDA will be. What I am sure of is, when I get back from ddxp, my friends are going to drill me to find out what they can about 5e. I can be a jerk about it and say, I can't talk about it (and risk being subjected to chinese torture devices). Or I can tell them about my experience, trying to avoid details. I'm sure there will be many folks in my boat. Let's say one of us lets it slip a rules bit, hypothetically, fighter's don't mark any more. That slip can go viral on the internet in a matter of minutes. There will be shouts and cries of how they are nerfing fighters in 5e, or how they are making defending meaningless, or how the end of D&D is 2012 (as predicted by the ancients of Maztica).

It seems, controlled information would be wiser than a rampant game of broken telephone. I guess soon enough, we'll see how it goes.

yeah , this. That scenario is bound to happen . On well

 

[Gundark]

Which is why in addition to their lawyers, I think WotC should fire their PR people.

Or whoever dreamed this up.

I don't think that this is fair. I wouldn't call this a PR blunder, a mis step maybe. Firing people seems a bit extreme.