D&D 5E Rate Playtest 1 vs. Playtest 2

[Gundark]

Playtest 2 > Playtest 1. I am expecting the playtests to get better as we go .

 

[ZombieRoboNinja]

There are enough issues with 2 that I can't give it 5 stars, but it's probably my favorite edition of the D&D classes it presents (except maybe rogue) and has the best core mechanics overall - and that's compared to the final versions of 3e and 4e.

The first playtest was a good start but clearly not up to par with the second, so I gave it a 3.

 

[Li Shenron]

I gave playtest #1 +1 point over playtest #2 . Obviously this in perspective, because in absolute terms the second package clearly has more stuff.

But there were a few things I preferred in playtest #1 : surprise, channel divinity/turn undead, starting hit points and a few more...

 

[MortalPlague]

...but it's probably my favorite edition of the D&D classes it presents (except maybe rogue) and has the best core mechanics overall - and that's compared to the final versions of 3e and 4e..

I'm on the same page here. I'd xp you if I could.

I find more and more I wish I were playing 5th Edition when I'm playing other versions. And the thought that there's more to come makes me very happy.

 

[Goonalan]

I gave it a '1' and a '1'- for playtest 1 it was like its 1978 again and me and four other 11 year olds were taking it in turns to run in to a cave and take swipes at a flavourless monster-shaped lump, kill it, get its gold and then run back to town to chat up the pretty barmaids. Maybe x3 or x4 and the day's done.

Playtest 2 didn't do it either.

My players (ten of them) are 50% 4e and 50% 3e- of the ten then maybe one sorta gets it and is mildly excited, the others want no more to do with the playtests, or rather they don't want to give up their regular session for the playtest any more.

Sorry, not flame, just fact for us- I'll try to get them to play the next variation, we'll see.

Cheers PDR

 

[UngeheuerLich]

4 on both. the first playtest and the second clearly ha different focusses and are not really comparable as a whole.

First I was not so please with combat superiority, but seeing it in play, I must say, I am very pleased.

All in all, it is a game I would play in an instant over 4e and 3e. But it is still clearly in an alpha stage. Some things need to be done. Some things are intentionally left out or different because it is a test run (xp tables e.g.).

I am very pleased with the warlock and the sorcerer as concepts. They may need some fine tuning, but all in all. Great ideas.

 

[Neonchameleon]

Playtest 1 was a joke. The maths was just plain daft in places. The fighter was pathetic. The hit points were ... wrong. The classes ... no. Most of what was there simply wasn't good.

Playtest 2 was better. Not as obviously wrong (other than the Warlock's power to run through walls and create ten pints of flaming oil). That's not just fine tuning. That's sitting down the designers with a rolled up newspaper and saying "No!" Still left a lot to be desired.

 

[UngeheuerLich]

Playtest 1 was a joke. The maths was just plain daft in places. The fighter was pathetic. The hit points were ... wrong. The classes ... no. Most of what was there simply wasn't good.

Playtest 2 was better. Not as obviously wrong (other than the Warlock's power to run through walls and create ten pints of flaming oil). That's not just fine tuning. That's sitting down the designers with a rolled up newspaper and saying "No!" Still left a lot to be desired.

I am of a totally different opinion. Playtest 1 was a great way to say: Hello, we are here, we use old ideas and have new ones. And our main fokus is creating a game, that runs fast and feels like D&D with modern mechanics. And we start so early, that we are able to incorporate changes that fix issues which show in playtests...

And yes, the warlock issues are just fine tuning. The concept is pretty much spot on. Removing a single power is nothing. It is not as if you took twin strike from the 4e ranger.

 

[The Shadow]

There are enough issues with 2 that I can't give it 5 stars, but it's probably my favorite edition of the D&D classes it presents (except maybe rogue) and has the best core mechanics overall - and that's compared to the final versions of 3e and 4e.

I also would xp you for this if I could. I agree, very much. Next shows a great deal of promise, though it does need work.

In other news, I'm finding the results of the poll fascinating, even if it is a self-selected biased sample. Playtest 2 is a beautiful symmetrical unimodal distribution centered a bit north of 3, but playtest 1 seems bimodal. It would seem that there are two populations, one that likes it a fair bit (average 3.5 or so) and one that hates it (average 1.5 at best).

At a guess, playtest 2 won over the population that hated playtest 1? So now we're all one big Gaussian family?

 

[Magil]

I am of a totally different opinion. Playtest 1 was a great way to say: Hello, we are here, we use old ideas and have new ones. And our main fokus is creating a game, that runs fast and feels like D&D with modern mechanics. And we start so early, that we are able to incorporate changes that fix issues which show in playtests...

Well, I'd argue that there weren't a whole lot of "new ideas" in the first playtest... but there were a lot of old ones. At least, that's what I managed to decipher from the pregens.