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General Tabletop Discussion
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Mike Mearls Talks (er, Tweets) About the Industry
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<blockquote data-quote="Jester David" data-source="post: 7674259" data-attributes="member: 37579"><p>It took a year to write 5e into a playtestable state and two more to playtest the game. </p><p></p><p>A Transformer game could use the same base rules but the text would need to be rewritten for a modern setting rather than a fantasy one. The races, classes, backgrounds, customization options, and equipment sections would need to be entirely rewritten and the rest just heavily revised. Half the damn PHB would need to be cut (plus the spell section).</p><p>They'd need to come up with all new mechanics for Cybertronians. The classes/occupations for the robots, the races and type of bot, backgrounds, etc. Plus rules for transforming, picking a new shape, vehicle combat, and the like. They'd need to brainstorm how humans would interact with the system and if they should be playable or not. And then new monsters would need to be written since this would likely be an all-in-one product including opponents, because while it's nice to be compatible with the <em>Monster Manual</em>, most Transformer players will want to fight decepticons. Oh, and lore, since it'd also be a setting book. </p><p></p><p>So, they'd likely have to write 200-250+ pages from scratch. For two people that's a three-four months right there. But after being written it would need to be playtested, rewritten, and retested. It needs to be thoroughly edited and laid out, the later alone can take a solid month. Possibly longer since they need all new art assets for the pages and borders which have to be designed. </p><p></p><p>Even if this is a project written by just two people and laid out by the same it's easily six months. Minimum. Longer if any real playtesting is to occur. The total cost in manpower is $70,000, plus art costs and such.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Jester David, post: 7674259, member: 37579"] It took a year to write 5e into a playtestable state and two more to playtest the game. A Transformer game could use the same base rules but the text would need to be rewritten for a modern setting rather than a fantasy one. The races, classes, backgrounds, customization options, and equipment sections would need to be entirely rewritten and the rest just heavily revised. Half the damn PHB would need to be cut (plus the spell section). They'd need to come up with all new mechanics for Cybertronians. The classes/occupations for the robots, the races and type of bot, backgrounds, etc. Plus rules for transforming, picking a new shape, vehicle combat, and the like. They'd need to brainstorm how humans would interact with the system and if they should be playable or not. And then new monsters would need to be written since this would likely be an all-in-one product including opponents, because while it's nice to be compatible with the [I]Monster Manual[/I], most Transformer players will want to fight decepticons. Oh, and lore, since it'd also be a setting book. So, they'd likely have to write 200-250+ pages from scratch. For two people that's a three-four months right there. But after being written it would need to be playtested, rewritten, and retested. It needs to be thoroughly edited and laid out, the later alone can take a solid month. Possibly longer since they need all new art assets for the pages and borders which have to be designed. Even if this is a project written by just two people and laid out by the same it's easily six months. Minimum. Longer if any real playtesting is to occur. The total cost in manpower is $70,000, plus art costs and such. [/QUOTE]
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