WotC Jeremy Crawford Interview: Playtests from experimental to focused. By Christian Hoffer at GenCon.

[Shardstone]

In the beginning I was worried that

Yeah there seems to be a tonal shift in outrage. I remember at the start of the play test people swore up and down it was an edition change and how catastrophic that would be. Now it's not enough, and they should have just did an edition change and catastrophic it's going to be because it's not an edition change.

Im in several early threads loving the early UAs. Ive been consistent. I was so excited to make content for this new vision of the game.

Alas, screw me.

 

[MockingBird]

Im in several early threads loving the early UAs. Ive been consistent. I was so excited to make content for this new vision of the game.

Alas, screw me.

I didn't call anyone out by name because I don't really remember who said what or what side they were on. I was just reflecting on how the playtest has been playing out around here.

 

[mamba]

Yeah there seems to be a tonal shift in outrage. I remember at the start of the play test people swore up and down it was an edition change and how catastrophic that would be. Now it's not enough, and they should have just did an edition change and catastrophic it's going to be because it's not an edition change.

no idea, I never considered the proposal an edition change then, what we seem to be getting now is more a slightly longer errata however

 

[doctorbadwolf]

All is good man, Im just trying to complain about WotC for their mid vision for a few more pages tbh

Yeah I mean I guess I just don’t get how anyone (whether this is you or not) could be surprised by the revisions not being revolutionary?

Like they pushed the envelop…of a fully compatible revision meant to just improve the same game, not remake or replace it.

Crawford has gone much further afield in the past, because he was working on a new game for a smaller company (Blue Rose), and Perkins has a labyrinthine mind of weird stuff that would bring back the satanic panic if he were allowed to just put straight into an official D&D book.

Any of these folks, from JC to Makenzie De Armas, Wes Schneider (whose face I irrationally dislike) to James Wyatt, are fully capable of making totally new games. They just won’t do so as long as they are on the D&D team for Wizards.

Maybe someday they’ll leave, or Wizards will make an imprint studio to explore weird ideas, but yeah…D&D 5e the official product is the stable tent pole, not the place in the tent where the weird trinkets get traded.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

I really need to get all the playtest docs printed out and organized.

There is a lot to mine for inspiration for my SRD based TTRPG, Chevar: Champions of The Ninth Realm.

Definitely still fully rewriting the monk tho, unless they shock me in a positive way with the next iteration, and using the martial classes in general to house various martial artists in the RPG lingo sense. Fighters with advanced grappling fighting styles and notes on using the Battlemaster subclass from the PHB to give it more tactical complexity, or theChampion to keep it simple and deadly, or the Barbarian for the Zangief or Hercules brutal powerhouse that can grab a bullette by the face and throw it into a tree, Rogue for the calculated “Sherlock Holmes as played by RDJ in that fighting pit scene” unlicensed pit fighter, etc. all of which leaves room for the Monk to be the highly specialized Tai Chi expert, Aikido master, Spanish Circle diestro, duelist/master of arms with mystical and/or esoteric/hermetic undertones.

What were we talking about?

 

[Shardstone]

Yeah I mean I guess I just don’t get how anyone (whether this is you or not) could be surprised by the revisions not being revolutionary?

Like they pushed the envelop…of a fully compatible revision meant to just improve the same game, not remake or replace it.

Crawford has gone much further afield in the past, because he was working on a new game for a smaller company (Blue Rose), and Perkins has a labyrinthine mind of weird stuff that would bring back the satanic panic if he were allowed to just put straight into an official D&D book.

Any of these folks, from JC to Makenzie De Armas, Wes Schneider (whose face I irrationally dislike) to James Wyatt, are fully capable of making totally new games. They just won’t do so as long as they are on the D&D team for Wizards.

Maybe someday they’ll leave, or Wizards will make an imprint studio to explore weird ideas, but yeah…D&D 5e the official product is the stable tent pole, not the place in the tent where the weird trinkets get traded.

Im not really surprised, I just actively choose to hope Crawford could really rise to the task and figure it out. For me, it is frustrating to see. The rest of the rpg industry, even in just 5e, evolves by leaps and bounds every year.

Homebrew designer laserllama has designed innovative and well playtested revisions of ths classes that maintain backwards compatiability. MCDM has put out a monster book strikingly 5e but far more enjoyable and useable than anything WotC has. A5E and Cubicle 7 have both put out streamlined and fun journey rules. And there are many amazing gm guides from very prolific authors and adventure designers.

Every problem 5e had going into 1dnd has been solved by someone else. They didnt need to steal these materials, just use them as inspirations for the first party game. Or, even, hire these ppl to come together and build your game for you. The money is there. The interest is there.

I will keep hoping and asking for a better dnd. Ive seen that it can be done, and ill never stop asking for them to do it.

 

[MGibster]

Pretty sure it’s Aubrey Plaza

Snarf is Aubrey Plaza!!!

 

[MGibster]

If I'm not mistaken... you've already said in another thread you've lost all respect for me, so I'm not exactly sure why my opinions matter to you?

I still love you but I'm not in love with you.

 

[FitzTheRuke]

Yeah there seems to be a tonal shift in outrage. I remember at the start of the play test people swore up and down it was an edition change and how catastrophic that would be. Now it's not enough, and they should have just did an edition change and catastrophic it's going to be because it's not an edition change.

That's because the people talking about it are not a hive mind! Nor are they organized in any way, shape, or form. Some people believe one thing, others the other, and some... inexplicably, still hold to their first impression, whichever way that went.

 

[Pedantic]

That's because the people talking about it are not a hive mind! Nor are they organized in any way, shape, or form. Some people believe one thing, others the other, and some... inexplicably, still hold to their first impression, whichever way that went.

I don't know that it's really that inconsistent, if the complaints were primarily about messaging. Big changes or things that break compatibility make it quite clearly an edition change and it's dishonest to message otherwise...and without doing an edition change, we're stuck with all of the existing 5e problems that would require a new edition to fix. One could quite reasonably hold both opinions.