The Sky is Not Falling

[gweinel]

Why is the playtest likely to change? Has someone stated something that I unaware of?

Do you think that after Monte's departure will the course of the development of 5e (this includes and the playtest) will be the same?

 

[El Mahdi]

I'd posit that the sky is both falling and not-falling, until Schrodinger's Alien opens the box containing our Universe and observes it...

 

[HardcoreDandDGirl]

I wonder how bad this really is. I would love if David "Zeb" Cook could come in to replace him.

I want this to be what they promissed, a mix of all the edtions. I don't want to see this become more of the same. I do want to belive in WotC, and Mike Mearls

 

[gweinel]

I wonder how bad this really is. I would love if David "Zeb" Cook could come in to replace him.

I want this to be what they promissed, a mix of all the edtions. I don't want to see this become more of the same. I do want to belive in WotC, and Mike Mearls

Actually the only person that crossed my mind that i thought would be able to replace Monte is Zeb Cook. However, i think, Zeb is more suited to the creative department (he was one of the creators of Planescape afterall) and not of the designing.

 

[ForeverSlayer]

I just saw Mearls' response on WotC's site. This bit is interesting (the bold is mine):



Interesting. So it seems like Monte quit because he didn't get his way. That could be good or bad, I guess depending what his way was and what the fan's way was, and which personally fits your preference.

Or Monte, who has been a designer for many years, knew what was best for the game and the heads at Wizards didn't. This happens all the time at different companies and usually ends up biting them in the ass.

The safety rules for one manufacturing company in particular that I know of is written by a guy who sits in an office all day, and has never even walked around in the factory part.

It's not always about someone not getting their way. If I am an engineer and I tell you the best way to build a bridge is X and a big wig from the company says different, mind you I look at his idea and I see that something bad could happen with his plan, then by God I will leave because if that bridge were to fall then people would look at me because I was the head engineer.

Maybe Monte sees the game heading for a bad direction and he doesn't want to be the one blamed if something bad does happen. Lead designers do get a lot of flak when something goes wrong.

 

[B.T.]

Monte Cook is not a very good designer. I've never met a product of his that I liked. His fame in the RPG community baffles me in the same way that Mike Mearls's does--both are mediocre at what they do, routinely producing junk, and yet they are "star designers."

Monte's participation on the 5e team is the same as his participation on the Pathfinder team: he contributes an idea or two and the D&D writers get to put his name on the product. Instant star power.

It's like when the Simpsons does their celebrity-of-the-week cameo to compensate for their stale, unfunny, post-90s dreck.

 

[gweinel]

Monte Cook is not a very good designer. I've never met a product of his that I liked. His fame in the RPG community baffles me in the same way that Mike Mearls's does--both are mediocre at what they do, routinely producing junk, and yet they are "star designers."

Monte's participation on the 5e team is the same as his participation on the Pathfinder team: he contributes an idea or two and the D&D writers get to put his name on the product. Instant star power.

It's like when the Simpsons does their celebrity-of-the-week cameo to compensate for their stale, unfunny, post-90s dreck.

Out of curiosity, who do you consider to be good designer?

 

[Bedrockgames]

Monte Cook is not a very good designer. I've never met a product of his that I liked. His fame in the RPG community baffles me in the same way that Mike Mearls's does--both are mediocre at what they do, routinely producing junk, and yet they are "star designers."

Monte's participation on the 5e team is the same as his participation on the Pathfinder team: he contributes an idea or two and the D&D writers get to put his name on the product. Instant star power.

It's like when the Simpsons does their celebrity-of-the-week cameo to compensate for their stale, unfunny, post-90s dreck.

Man it must be great to know so much about the inner workings of the D&Ddesign team

Some people dont like his stuff but a larger number seem to appreciate Cook's work. I thnk he is a great designer who has a solid handle on both mechanics and flavor.

The reason he is a star deigner is he keeps writing books people buy and rave about. He has been putting out great product for years.

 

[Gundark]

Do you think that after Monte's departure will the course of the development of 5e (this includes and the playtest) will be the same?

Monte stated that he was leaving due to "differences of opinion with the company". A lot of people are taking this to mean that he had differences with the design of 5e. Only Monte and WotC know this for sure. The other possibility is that Monte left for other reasons (OGL, rate of pay, workload, differences of opinion over contract, or 10 other reasons) than the design of 5e.

Saying that 5e will be different from this point on without Monte's influence than it might have been had he stayed is a given. That's like saying that the dinner party with your friends will be different without "Bob" there. Different does not equal bad

Saying that 5e is now "broken" or "bad" or that he was the only person there making the game playable. Or that the end result now going to be absolutely something that he didn't want is hyperbole/ "THE SKY IS FALLING" thinking. Which is a fallacy. Unless you have insider information and/or a time machine that I don't know about.

 

[gweinel]

Monte stated that he was leaving due to "differences of opinion with the company". A lot of people are taking this to mean that he had differences with the design of 5e. Only Monte and WotC know this for sure. The other possibility is that Monte left for other reasons (OGL, rate of pay, workload, differences of opinion over contract, or 10 other reasons) than the design of 5e.

Saying that 5e will be different from this point on without Monte's influence than it might have been had he stayed is a given. That's like saying that the dinner party with your friends will be different without "Bob" there. Different does not equal bad

Saying that 5e is now "broken" or "bad" or that he was the only person there making the game playable. Or that the end result now going to be absolutely something that he didn't want is hyperbole/ "THE SKY IS FALLING" thinking. Which is a fallacy. Unless you have insider information and/or a time machine that I don't know about.

I never mentioned anything from these things. I said that the course of the development of 5e will change and so will change the playtest since it is part of that development.

I will never claim that the future game will be bad or broken because the designers are high skilled professionals (except if they will get overwhelmy pressed by the company and produce a rushed project).

However, speaking for myself, the thing that i guess, is that the game is very likely to take a turn that it will doesn't appease me because i trusted most of the works that Monte had done in the past (especially his Planescape stuff).