D&D 4E Your plans for 4e

[(contact)]

I can't help feeling that I'm missing something about this Drake guy...?

DRAKE DARKNITE IS 137th LEVEL AND ITS ALL LEGITEMATE BECAUSE PIRATECAT INITIALED MY D&D CARACTETR SHEET:

DRAKE DE LA DARK IS MY OLDEST AND GREATEST CHARACTER.

HE HAS DONE MANY THINGS.

HE HAS HAD MANY ADVENTURES.

HE HAS BONED MANY HOT D&D CHICKS.

HE HAS DEFEATED (A PARTIL LIST): ORCUS (TWICE), ZEUS AND ODIN (TOTALLY INTO EACH OTHER BTW), THOR (FROM THE COMIC BOOKS NOT FROM REAL LIFE), ORCUS, ASMODEOS, ELRIC AND BLACKRAZER, HARRY POTTER AND ALL OF HOGWARTS AND A TARASK WITH FIVE IDENTICAL FRIENDS WHO LOOK LIKE GODZILLA AND RODAN COMBINED.

HIS TREASURE IS WORTH ONE MILION TIMES ONE MILION (ITS ON HIS CHARACTER SHEET NEXT TO THE CART, 10 FOOT POLE AND GELATINOUS CUBE REPELLANT).

 

[Kid Charlemagne]

And he can't be back-stabbed and he rides into battle on Tiamat - it says so right on the character sheet.

 

[(contact)]

Omg, How Did U No?!?

R You My Other Dm?

 

[Plane Sailing]

D'oh!

I just got an email about the playtest -- first email with any rules. And I've been instructed not to let anyone know that I'm playtesting . . . so . . . everyone here forget I said anything. I'm going to be playing Shadowrun for the next year.

glowy gnome out

Well, you've not broken that rule, since we knew from before it was a rule.

OK, I know that you can't tell us anything about the playtest rules without breaking an NDA, and I'm not asking you to do that.

But since we know that you ARE playtesting "some new rules", could you give us some feedback on how things are going?

Not asking for any mechanics specifics, but stuff like "my players loved/hated making PCs under this system", "it was much easier/harder for me to do stuff on the fly", "I feel liberated/hamstrung by the rules"

Cheers

 

[Radiating Gnome]

Well, there is a lot of information out the now about the rules, much of it speculation based on the various wizards playtest blogs, but I still want to be careful about not giving anything away. So I have to be very vague. Like a frustratingly obtuse martial arts mentor in a bad movie, I will speak in circles . . .

You will be ready for 4e when 4e is ready for you.

But its too early in the morning to keep that up.

I will say that we have played two sessions of playtest so far. We have had a limited set of rules, limiting our test to just the play at the table. We had a blast, and we are all feeling a bit disappointed going back to our 3.5 campaign.

But it is also very different - more of a change than there was from 2e to 3e. They have really rethought a lot of the tropes in the game, holding nothing sacred. It still feels like D&D, but i think it stays out of its own way a lot more than previous editions.

Which is not to say there are not things that we felt need a little more love before the final version. But overall we are more excited now about the new edition.

RG, who is talking about Shadowrun.

 

[Plane Sailing]

Thanks RG, I appreciate you sharing about Shadowrun experiences this way. It reminds me of "The Sphinx" in Mystery Men

I'm encouraged that you had a blast, and that 3.5 seems disappointing in comparison

I'm encouraged that there has been a radical rethink, but managed it while still keeping it 'feel' like D&D. I don't want to see sticking plasters, I want it to be -better-, and that is rarely done with timid changes.

Interesting your comment that it 'stays out of the way' too.

Cheers

 

[Piratecat]

I got a "you want to playtest?" email, responded -- and have heard nothing since. Disappointing! I'm glad you're having fun. That bodes well.

 

[Plane Sailing]

I got a "you want to playtest?" email, responded -- and have heard nothing since. Disappointing! I'm glad you're having fun. That bodes well.

You are the second person that I've heard say that... I wonder what is going on?

FWIW I didn't receive any such email, but being outside the U.S. I didn't really expect to make it onto their list anyway.

 

[(contact)]

Thanks for the thoughts on Shadowrun, RG.

I got a "you want to playtest?" email, responded -- and have heard nothing since. Disappointing! I'm glad you're having fun. That bodes well.

I had the exact same experience. It sucks. After a week with no reply, I emailed back, politely requesting a heads-up. No reply. Two weeks later, I emailed again, politely requesting a heads-up. No reply.

Whiskey Tango Foxtrot, over? WotC is apparently having a very difficult time un-f*cking themselves. The more I see, the more I'm convinced that they got their release date pushed up by 6 months. If my theory is true, it contexually transforms all the bad/clumsy decisions into reasonable/crisis managment ones.

If my theory is not true, then they just kind of suck at their jobs, at a number of different levels (although the actual meat of the matter -- game design -- seems to be going well).

 

[Radiating Gnome]

The sphinx would like me to tell you:

"If you have been asked if you wanted to playtest, then testing your play has already begun."

no? how about

"If you wish to be a playtester, you must first be a Tey plaster."

Hmm. How about

"Only the mongoose can defeat the snake. Be the mongoose, lest the snake ask you to sign an NDA that makes you talk in riddles about Shadowrun."

Nope. I got nothing. Sorry for your experience. If it's any consolation, the guys administering the playtest seem to be very harried.

rg