Will there be a second round of playtests after this one? This is my first playtest, and i'm finding december 17th to be too soon to end a playtest of a book that will be released over one year from now.
Actually, the release date of the Advanced Class Guide is GenCon 2014, which is in August, so that's 9 months from now.
We send the final files—developed, edited, and laid out with art—to the printer mid-March 2014.
So that gives us from the end of the playtest to finalize all playtest-related development, get the book through editing, and get it laid out with art. And given that the end of the playtest period is right before Christmas week and New Year's holiday, that really means we only have January, February, and half of March to get all of that done.
Which is standard for a book this size.... but it's still a tight deadline.
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Does it take from mid-March until August (or late July) to get books printed?
Paizo's books are printed in China, and the number of copies we print for a hardcover means the printing company now insists on extra time to get it printed (it used to be they'd push other jobs out of the way, but I guess they don't like annoying their other clients). Plus, we have to allot anywhere from 4–6 weeks for it to get shipped back to the USA and make it through customs (one year our GenCon release almost didn't make it because it cut this deadline way too close).
So no, it doesn't literally take all of that time, but the schedule has some built-in padding to cover delays and other emergencies.
I'm pretty sure printing in China is cheaper, which probably knocks $5 or more off the price of a hardcover.
It probably explains the binding problems with the last couple of APs however. Fortunately, the hardcovers tend to be constructed more sturdily.
I don't know what you mean by "it probably explains..."
"It" meaning what?
Chinese printing houses.
Which is unfair of me to just blanket-blame Chinese workmanship as being inferior. A lot of Chinese workmanship is quite good. The AP binding problems are just likely an unfortunate slip up of their own quality control efforts.
Ah.
Well, we've been printing in China for at least as long as I've been at Paizo (5+ years). I don't know if we've switched which Chinese printer we've been using, but I don't think "you're printing in China" is a blanket explanation for any binding problems you've experienced.
Back on topic, I'm not certain we'll have time to playtest well enough if we only have up to Dec 17th. Certainly not up to 20 levels of stuff. We haven't even had the chance to make characters of these guys (which will be done this weekend) with the group I'm in (I'm a player, not a GM...so my feedback probably would be even more limited to what I see in the play and my own character).
Is there any specific plan of how to playtest?
We'll probably do lower levels, but the higher levels probably won't be touched by us at that point.
Back on topic, I'm not certain we'll have time to playtest well enough if we only have up to Dec 17th. Certainly not up to 20 levels of stuff. We haven't even had the chance to make characters of these guys (which will be done this weekend) with the group I'm in (I'm a player, not a GM...so my feedback probably would be even more limited to what I see in the play and my own character).
Is there any specific plan of how to playtest?
We'll probably do lower levels, but the higher levels probably won't be touched by us at that point.
Yeah same here.
If it wasn't for the plan to release at GenCon, I bet they're could be a second round.
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In the Paizo Blog: Playtest Thoughts: Week 1 there are a number of changes being looked at for the different classes. Any idea on when these changes will go up for play testing?
This is what I have been wondering. I would love to see a full writeup for the Arcanist. I'd like to playtest the class, but will likely miss the end of the playtest before our group finishes the current game (which I am DMing) and can try out the new rules. I'll atleast get to build one over the weekend and post my results after piecing together an actual character.
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I'm pretty sure printing in China is cheaper, which probably knocks $5 or more off the price of a hardcover.
I have no problem with the quality and workmanship of the books, but I, for one, would happily pay the extra $5 a book to have it printed in the U.S.!
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I have no problem with the quality and workmanship of the books, but I, for one, would happily pay the extra $5 a book to have it printed in the U.S.!
I would, too.
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I have no problem with the quality and workmanship of the books, but I, for one, would happily pay the extra $5 a book to have it printed in the U.S.!I would, too.
If they were printed in the US I would actually buy hardcovers. Right now I only purchase the PDFs.
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I'll take the $5 discount, but I don't care about supporting local companies over foreign ones and I'm not American :P
~Can't wait for the updated playtest~
~Can't wait for the updated playtest~
I hear ya, I am ready to see the changes too!
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~Can't wait for the updated playtest~I hear ya, I am ready to see the changes too!
If I had to guess, the updated playtest is probably coming Monday or Tuesday of next week. So that would be 9th or 10th...giving just a week to playtest ALL 10 classes with revisions. That is an awfully short time span for such an expansive addition. I usually don't agree to such things, but I feel I have to agree to a push back here. While I haven't seen the revisions for all 10 classes, some classes require FAR too much work to be simply corrected in a weeks time. Grant it, some classes are close enough to finished that a simple revision is probably all they'll need, but the Warpriest, Skald, Hunter, and few others are going to require a lot more time to become polished classes that can stand up against...every other class.
If I had to guess, the updated playtest is probably coming Monday or Tuesday of next week. So that would be 9th or 10th...giving just a week to playtest ALL 10 classes with revisions. That is an awfully short time span for such an expansive addition. I usually don't agree to such things, but I feel I have to agree to a push back here. While I haven't seen the revisions for all 10 classes, some classes require FAR too much work to be simply corrected in a weeks time. Grant it, some classes are close enough to finished that a simple revision is probably all they'll need, but the Warpriest, Skald, Hunter, and few others are going to require a lot more time to become polished classes that can stand up against...every other class.~Can't wait for the updated playtest~I hear ya, I am ready to see the changes too!
I agree i think that there should be 2 weeks of playtest with the revised classes. IMO that should be enough to fix everything up nice and shiny, and (no knowlage of your inner workings but) i imagine that one extra week wouldent be too large a strain.