Community

So, as most of you reading this will have known WotC put out the second playtest packet a few weeks ago and they (thankfully) managed to avoid the mess with the distribution that dogged the release of the first playtest packet. Dutifully - no, EAGERLY, I downloaded the new packet and planned the next playtest session with the intention of seeing just how 'pick-up-and-play' the game could be. What follows is an overview of the players, the game session and some of the more important feedback that my playtest session created. Much of this blog post will be broken down and placed in the relevant forums later.


These second phase of D&D Next playtests have spanned several sessions with a group made up of players with disparate histories with D&D and with RPGs in general. Some were part of my

I've been lurking about on various RPG forums recently (such as www.enworld.org, www.ukroleplayers.comand, of course, community.wizards.com/go/forum/viewcateg...) and I've noticed that the edition wars haven't quite faded away yet.

Whilst the fires aren't raging like a Balor stepping out of his molton lava shower onto the upturned plug from his iPod charger the embers do still seem to glow brightly.

I've been giving the whole edition war subject a lot of thought and I believe that I may be able to answer that firebrand of a question, "What am bestest game plz?" (or, for those of you who didn't waste language slots or feats learning to read Internet Goblin, "What is the best game system please?").

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First, a little background. Those of you who have read any of my ramblings

This is the second part in my blog series about returning to RPG games after an absence. In the previous part I talked about some tips for catching up to your game of choice and gaining confidence to play. This time I want to look more in-depth at actually planning to play in your first game.

The first game is always scary. The first time you ever played RPGs you were probably nervous, excited, confused, inspired and apprehensive, all at once. The first game back from an absence feels similar in many ways but with the added advantage that you at least know the nature of RPGs and know a little of what to expect.

The first thing to note is that nervousness and apprehension are perfectly normal and should be accepted as such. There really is no need to worry about getting things right or