D&D 5E Tracking the Changes with Each Packet

[Connorsrpg]

Is anyone else having trouble keeping up with the changes to each packet? As a DM I feel I have to reread ALL of the modified documents each time and then it becomes very confusing. It is hard to remember or even see some of the changes.

I just wish Wizards made this a LOT easier, especially for all those minor 'clarifications' that are not singled out in the Read First doc.

I suggest simply changing the font colour for the new wording/material/rules. So when something is different than the last packet it will appear in blue type for eg. That would make it SO much easier to scan through and note the changes. (We did this with our ever expanding 3.5E House Rules).

DMing once a month makes this harder of course, but even so, whilst a player can keep up by simply using the new spell descriptions, it is a lot harder/slower for a DM to be checking to make sure you are up with the latest Stealth ideas for eg.

 

[Chris_Nightwing]

I would have thought that they have an internal version tracking system that's capable of outputting different colours/highlighting. We don't want the fiddly details you might get with Track Changes, but there are tools to highlight differences between documents (that many use on each new packet themselves to report the changes anyway). They're a publisher, and whilst their IT competence is.. dubious.. they still ought to be able to do something.

 

[Bow_Seat]

The problem is likely occurring because they don't use .pdf's in their internal testing. If they are like any other major company they'll use the (admittedly poor) microsoft word, which has its own method of tracking changes between multiple users. I write a lot of papers with professors at my university and when we take the word document that has all of the highlighted changes and edits that have been flagged over however many different edits and turn the document into a .pdf file all of these highlights go away.

 

[Stalker0]

I agree that the read first document is a bit lacking.

For the playtest, its important to know what changes. We aren't going to reread the document every time, and even if we did, its very easy to miss those little details when you are used to things a certain way.

 

[vegaserik01]

I just read over any pdf with a newer date in the packet. If it has an older date then it's the same as last time. I skip over spells and monsters since I don't need to know that stuff until later.