Is there really any way to make June?

[Cadfan]

1: Everything's in flux! No one knows what's up or down, black or white, dogs and cats living together! Its chaos! They'll never make June!

2: Everything is already set in stone! Playtesting is a lie! They're just trying to trick us with Prestidigitation spells!

Pick one. There are no alternatives. The middle ground is a demilitarized zone filled with landmines, and both sides shoot on sight.

 

[WhatGravitas]

Ditto. It's not that I "believe in them", but rather that I believe that they will do everything necessary to make the June deadline.

Yep. They've announced all that stuff, it's up on amazon, it's in the trade catalogues - if they miss that, they'll be at the receiving end of major trouble and negative publicity. They cannot do that. They'll rather bring out something sub-optimal (perhaps lacking in the editing-parts), then errata these tidbits.

Cheers, LT.

 

[(Psi)SeveredHead]

So they are still saying they're gong to deliver all three core books in June even though other designers are saying the core books are "in constant flux"? It sounds like they are still working on the core mechanics and classes. I worked in publishing and 7 months before you're supposed to land in stores isn't a happy time to not be well into the copyediting stage. Bets on when they are really going to hit stores?

IMO WotC shouldn't even know the publication date. Rules snafus can crop up, that need to be fixed, or something surprising can happen during playtesting, etc. Alas, in the real world, deadlines matter. Only super-rich companies like Blizzard Entertainment can just say "when it's ready".

 

[jodyjohnson]

I'll have to dig out the actual timeline when I'm back at home, but for 3e I was one of the original Living Greyhawk Triads, and they sent us early galleys of the 3e rules to prepare to run LG adventures at GenCon with the launch. As I recall, it was some time before sale date and there was very little change between the copies we got and the published product.

Is this a good thing or a bad thing?

Maybe they should have fluxed more and avoided 3.5 3 years later.


The books go to the printers 2 months before street so there is a lot of time to sort out the flux.

 

[(Psi)SeveredHead]

Is this a good thing or a bad thing?

Maybe they should have fluxed more and avoided 3.5 3 years later.

This could be just a rumor, but I heard that WotC had to get 3.x out right away to keep the DnD line alive, so that meant a lot of problems couldn't be fixed.

3.5 couldn't change too many things, either, so that's why 4e is here. I hope they have enough time to actually playtest things.

 

[Ranger REG]

So they are still saying they're gong to deliver all three core books in June even though other designers are saying the core books are "in constant flux"? It sounds like they are still working on the core mechanics and classes. I worked in publishing and 7 months before you're supposed to land in stores isn't a happy time to not be well into the copyediting stage. Bets on when they are really going to hit stores?

Initially, they were to be on sale in May. They now changed to June. They still have 6 months to work the kinks out if the playtesters found any.

Do you want them to release later than June? If quality is more important, then yeah. Many of my friends agree with me that we'd rather wait for the [corrected] Second Printing.

 

[Piratecat]

Considering that the sorcerer was shoved into 3e at the last minute, and they realized when the thing was about to hit the printers that they had forgotten to put the d12 in the game, it's no surprise things are "currently in flux".

Neither of these is true.

This could be just a rumor, but I heard that WotC had to get 3.x out right away to keep the DnD line alive, so that meant a lot of problems couldn't be fixed.

Nor is this.

 

[mxyzplk]

OK, am at home and looked through my records. So for 3e, we were supposed to get the finished rules by Winter Fantasy 2000. We got the galleys on 2/2/2000 in order to prepare for the Gen Con launch. Just as a point of comparison - they seem to be way behind that kind of schedule and are aiming for June not August. (And not that they seem to be going out of their way to have anyone prepare for anything related to it.)

 

[The Little Raven]

So for 3e, we were supposed to get the finished rules by Winter Fantasy 2000.

My memory's a bit hazy from this time, but was this the version that had sorcerer spells divided by dragon color, or was that the preceding version? In the first quarter of 2000, I got a copy of the rules sent to me, with the sorcerer-as-dragon-blooded idea still firmly entrenched.

 

[mxyzplk]

My memory's a bit hazy from this time, but was this the version that had sorcerer spells divided by dragon color, or was that the preceding version? In the first quarter of 2000, I got a copy of the rules sent to me, with the sorcerer-as-dragon-blooded idea still firmly entrenched.

No, though it did mention the dragon-blooded sorceror theory, all the mechanics were 99% what ended up coming out.