WotC_Rodney...Chris Perkins...a black dragon...a playtest
- Thread starter TerraDave
- Start date
Irda Ranger
First Post
My thoughts too. Cutting it very close to the wire.Grymar said:
Eh, it's not like I'm that worried though. Any game they come up with would be better than one I came up with.
A couple of points, both on Chris Perkins as a DM and on a concern about 4e timing.
I had the privilege to play in a 4 hour session at Gencon 2000 for the launch of 3e with Chris as the DM. Great fun. If there's one thing I'll never forget it is how he ran the dragon encounters during the session.
At one point the party bard had been frustrating the dragon with his musical abilities so as the dragon rounds the corner Chris pipes up in a sinister voice "where's the one that sings?". Sent chills along everyone's spines and put smiles on our faces. That man knows how to give dragons personality.
Now to my concern about 4e, which I hope is unfounded ... Quote from the blog
"It brought up some interesting issues with some recent changes to the fighter class, especially in regards to how well it played with the ranger and the rogue. It actually led to a long...discussion.. .today in the development pit about the way the way those mechanics work, and it was pretty amusing seeing the way things shook out."
I underline the thing that worries me. I've felt for some time that the launch was being rushed. If they're still hammering out mechanics (heroic, low level tier) at this point, 4 to 5 months from release while the PHB is going to typesetting, will they be able to get us a solid product in June or will we end up being the real beta test? I hope this is something so minor as to not even be a real concern.
Even though I'm still sitting on the fence about 4e I sincerely do not want this to portend anything bad.
What's holding me back from serious enthusiasm about 4e is that I'm running long-term Ptolus campaigns (plural) and converting that much material would defeat my purpose for buying it to begin with. I want to spend time playing, less time preparing and the Ptolus stuff gives me tons of material to use without much work.
I had the privilege to play in a 4 hour session at Gencon 2000 for the launch of 3e with Chris as the DM. Great fun. If there's one thing I'll never forget it is how he ran the dragon encounters during the session.
At one point the party bard had been frustrating the dragon with his musical abilities so as the dragon rounds the corner Chris pipes up in a sinister voice "where's the one that sings?". Sent chills along everyone's spines and put smiles on our faces. That man knows how to give dragons personality.
Now to my concern about 4e, which I hope is unfounded ... Quote from the blog
"It brought up some interesting issues with some recent changes to the fighter class, especially in regards to how well it played with the ranger and the rogue. It actually led to a long...discussion.. .today in the development pit about the way the way those mechanics work, and it was pretty amusing seeing the way things shook out."
I underline the thing that worries me. I've felt for some time that the launch was being rushed. If they're still hammering out mechanics (heroic, low level tier) at this point, 4 to 5 months from release while the PHB is going to typesetting, will they be able to get us a solid product in June or will we end up being the real beta test? I hope this is something so minor as to not even be a real concern.
Even though I'm still sitting on the fence about 4e I sincerely do not want this to portend anything bad.
What's holding me back from serious enthusiasm about 4e is that I'm running long-term Ptolus campaigns (plural) and converting that much material would defeat my purpose for buying it to begin with. I want to spend time playing, less time preparing and the Ptolus stuff gives me tons of material to use without much work.
Walking Dad
First Post
TerraDave said:
Can you give a link? I cannot find the orginal
Lonely Tylenol
First Post
Well, they're now operating on the software design model for finishing the game. Release whatever you have on the deadline, and then patch it until it works the way it's supposed to. With the electronic errata system, they don't need to worry about getting it right the first time...not that they did with 3.0, but now they won't even need to go through the process of selling us on a 3.5 again.Grymar said:
Argh. As much as I like what I'm hearing about the new edition, the playtest schedule has been and continues to be a major "WTF" item for me.
Lonely Tylenol
First Post
A large black dragon (young adult) is a CR 9 encounter in 3.5. Why do so many people consider it remarkable that you can fight dragons at lower levels? Does no one remember Calcryx?Sitara said:
Zamkaizer
First Post
I also voice some apprehension about the discussion of low-level mechanics this late in development, though I wonder if a good deal of that discussion was over whether or not the potential issue was significant enough to warrant examination.
I also wonder how current this post is.
I also wonder how current this post is.
Dr. Awkward said:
I think it unlikely they'd be dumb enough to go with that plan. Electronic errata work tolerably well in the software industry, but there's no way to update a physical book, and nobody likes having to constantly cross-reference an errata sheet.
If they were doing this, it'd be a horrific blunder, but I can't believe the same design team that is so hell-bent on streamlining the game experience would then make that same experience heavily dependent on errata sheets.
I do share your worries about the schedule... although, to be fair, we don't know how big a deal this really was. And speaking as someone who likes designing games, there's always one more thing to tweak, one more cool idea to work in somehow. So maybe that's all this was.
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