Community

So it's the big day.  Hooo-boy, isn't this exciting!  Shortly we will get all of our grubby little mitts on all the juicy goodness that is in the public playtest.  Whee!  It's an exciting time, but it is also a risky time - this is the first opportunity for many people here to see the material, and it's all too likely that things will be running a bit hot for the near future.  I for one think that the fundamental purpose of this forum is to make Next the best game it can be, and to that end there are some things I hope people do and some things I hope we can agree to try to avoid.

Read the Whole Thing

This may seem like a no-brainer, but every single person participating in the playtest should read every section of it.  Whether you like it, whether you don't, doesn't matter - read the whole thing.  Many aspects undoubtedly will seem strange and bizarre at first glance, but will start to make sense once they're put into larger context.

Don't Panic

Welcome advice for any hitchhiker, but this really is the big one.  There will undoubtedly be feature X that is on your list of "oh god not that worthless drivel."  But if you let that feature get in the way of looking objectively at the rest of the things, or the system as a whole, then the likelihood that your contributions will form constructive feedback will drop drastically.  At worst, you might write Next off completely and stop participating in the playtest.  We need everyone's perspective on this, and the worst thing possible is to hold back on a perspective based on an initial red flag.

Think Beyond Your Game

The easiest sort of feedback to give is "This is how I did it before, this is how I want to do it now, this is how the playtest material does/doesn't let me do it the way I want."  This is valuable.  It's the on-the-ground, real-table sort of feedback that WotC is definitely wanting.  But it's not the only feedback they're going to want, and it's not even necessarily the most helpful.  Another type of feedback steps back from your immediate situation and considers how whatever thing you're taking a closer look at impacts the system as a whole, and how that might affect the games of people who might not play the exact same way you do.  Given Next's focus on inclusion and there not being a "wrong" way to play, this is really important.  Even if you really like a particular feature, being able to say "Well, I really like this, but I can see how other people may have a problem with it, here's how you could tweak it so that it still meets my needs but doesn't shut out others" is the sort of thing that will really help WotC meet that goal.

Play The Game

We're about to get the packet materials, and if there's one thing I've learned about game forums (tabletop, video, and otherwise) it's the tendency to take information that's posted, whether it be a playtest packet or datamined patch notes, and make sweeping claims and judgments on the basis of a read-through of the text but without actually trying it out.  To be sure, the read-through reaction has merit, but it's also the most likely thing to turn into flamewars on the forums.  Posting a strong statement, either positive or negative, based on the text alone leaves the opening for someone to say "Well, we actually tried that out and it's not what it seems because of XYZ."  And if people get their backs up when that happens, then we have a major argument, bad feelings, ORCs, etc. 

Recognize that this is a work in progress

The way things are now are not the way things will be.  Period.  Even if something in the playtest material is a complete and total dealbreaker or a complete and total must-have, don't take that as a given for future rounds.  We're very early in the process still, and any changes will take time.  Respect the developers' efforts in that they will be making changes as fast as they feel is appropriate.  Don't expect everything to change based on your feedback too quickly.  The developers are listening to our feedback.  They do care what we think. 

Be specific.

The sort of feedback that is most helpful is that which is most specific.  "I don't like Vancian casting" isn't particularly useful.  The response is "Ok, that's great, but now what?"  Instead, be as specific as you can possibly be about what aspects of a given topic are awesome and good or horrible and bad:  what impact does it have on your game, the system as a whole, whether it's confusing or counterintuitive, whether it seems incomplete and missing a key component, how it might first appear to be unimportant but have larger ramifications in other areas, etc.  As specific as you can get, the better.  While general feelings have merit, even if they ask a nebulous and subjective question like "Does the game feel like D&D?" then there's still opportunity to be specific.  Rather than just "Yes/No" you can look to specific game elements that are the thing that really make or break it for you.  Point to those directly, because it gives the development team something they can look at more closely.

Post the positive and the negative

If the nature of the internet is any guide, it will be easier to post about the things you hate rather than the things you love.  But they both need attention.  Sure, fixing problems is a big deal, and one of the most important functions of the playtest, but that doesn't mean that everything else that isn't at the level of "problem" in your opinion isn't worth discussing.  Things that are just kinda 'meh' can slip through the cracks.  The solution to making Next the best game possible is going to be found in all aspects of it, and tweaking something may have impact across the whole system.  Furthermore, the things that are good could possibly be made even better.

Have fun!

Most importantly, this is a game, and the point is to have fun doing it.  I know I have already, and I hope that everyone here can as well.

May 24, 2012 -- 8:24AM, dracosian23 wrote:

Great advice.  I'd also like permission to print and share with my players.

Honestly these responses baffle me, I'm not entirely clear why I have to give permission.  The point is that you use it!