Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Cybit" data-source="post: 6264076" data-attributes="member: 66111">Understood, but I think part of the problem is that it seems people expected a Pathfinder-esque playtest, where the entire game would be laid bare before launch.  That works for Pathfinder, which is a modification of a game on OGL, and that has been played for years prior to launch.  Not as much for 5E; which is a whole new system.  Remarkably similar to older systems, sure, but not a wholesale conversion of one.  Also, I think they believe that it is very easy to get lost in the minutiae of feedback (should fighters get a +1 or +2 with this ability, hrrrm) when you get into that level of feedback, and lose sight of the forest as a whole.  As for fluff and crunch having a coherent relationship - that's probably the single most defining guideline in terms of overall design.  Based on conversations with the designers / developers at PAX Prime 2012 & 2013, and various other places (geeky bars ftw), the very general idea is this (in no particular order):1) Does it make sense in world?2) Is it fun?3) Is it balanced?Only when all three of them are met are they really locking something down / calling it done.  The first two seem to be what they center the public playtest around; since that's something that is harder to determine on a broad scale.  Math can help with the third, but it's hard to step back as a developer and see if the first two make sense to people besides yourself and your friends (who might agree with you due to self-selection).  I don't doubt that there will be something somewhat broken at launch, such is the nature of the game, and frankly, no amount of testing will catch everything, period.  <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /><img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /><img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /><img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /> slips through the cracks, no doubt.  But the hope (for me) is that such things will be rare and errata-able, and life will go on.  My hope is that the game will be fun, the game will make me feel like I'm in a world, and I won't have to feel like I'm useless because I don't optimize.  If it does those three things for me (and is easy as hell to DM, but I sort of know that's the case already), I will be happy.   I also really, really find the idea of trying to expand the overall RPG pie rather than targeting a niche ala PF / 13th Age / other systems a much more admirable goal.  There are unfortunately not many new TT players that aren't 2nd generation fans (IE their parents get them to play it), and I do not want the TT RPG to die with us.     That said, I do hope that they release one last public playtest document in April or something, just to fire up enthusiasm again / mass sanity checks. But I don't know if that will happen or not.</blockquote>

Verification