The D&D Next Playtest Has Begun!

That was the subject of an email I received from Wizards Customer Support at 9:29 a.m.  After clicking on the provided link, I was taken to a login screen to confirm my D&D Insider account.  D&D Insider members get to start the playtest a little bit sooner than non-members.  After loging in and executing the pertinent agreements, you then have to wait 30-60 minutes for another email with the actual download link for the D&D Next playtest materials.

There is one thing I did like about the new D&D Next Playtest Agreement.  The non-disclosure part of it has been seriously relaxed.  You still cannot distribute, display, disseminate, blah, blah, blah...  the actual playtest materials.  However, now you can publicly discuss your thoughts about the materials and your experience with them.  This is great!

As you know, every Sunday my 4E group gets together to play a modified version of the War of the Burning Sky set in the Forgotten Realms.  This Sunday, however, we'll be running the D&D Next playtest materials.  As a result of the revised D&D Next Playtest Agreement, we'll be able to post our comments and opinions on this first round of the playtest.


Update (11:41 p.m.): download link working.  Got my playtest material.

 Update (8:50 p.m.): no solutions from Wizards yet, other than try again later and hope there are less people occupying the servers.  Support thread closed again.  Its been over 10 hours and still can't get my playtest materials from WotC.  That's it for me for tonight.  Am going to some more of The Wind Through the Keyhole.

Update (6:49 p.m.): still no relief in sight for the droves of playtesters who cannot get their playtest materials due to the inadequacy of WotC's IT department. I must admit that this particular post made me laugh like a madman about the whole situation:

Well, after 8 hours of playtesting, I'm disappointed with 5E. The documents are incredibly sparse. It only seems to have one monster called "HTTP Error", and I can't figure out whether 400 is its AC, or its hit points, or what. And there aren't any character pregens, so I can't even see how an encounter might go.

Update (5:15 p.m.): support thread reopened, severs still unavailable for most playtesters, including us.


Update (4:55 p.m.): after 47 pages, Wizards closed the D&D Next Playtest support thread.  Sigh...

Update (4:13 p.m.): Wizards' playtest rollout has been a major FUBAR. The thread where Wizards' inability to provide adequate server/bandwith for the downloads is being discussed has hit over 50,000 views. The few playtesters that have been able to get their materials are attempting to help the majority by placing the playtest materials on other file sharing services like rapidshare, etc.  Of course, this is in violation of the Playtest Agreement. So, right now, we have a race in the Wizards' Community forums, with playtesters posting links to alternate download services and forum moderators erasing those posts almost as soon as they're up. So ridiculous...  6 hours later I still cannot download my playtest materials from the Wizards' servers...

Update (2:59 p.m.): Wizards' servers still cannot put up with the demand. One D&D Insider member put it best a few minutes ago, when he wrote in the Wizards Community forums:

Tried the multitude of links the have been presented between here and Enworld...Sure enough, no luck. Thanks WOTC. This is why Paizo is wrecking you. I guess i'll try back tomorrow.

Update (1:50 p.m.):  After several hours trying and retrying the download links, a good number of people have been unable to get their playtest materials - myself included. It appears that Wizards' servers cannot handle the amount of traffic the public playtest has generated.  This is baffling to me. Considering this wave of playtesting is limited to D&D Insider subscribers, how could Wizards not have foreseen the number of people that would be hitting their servers for their playtest materials? Of course, the online community is nerd-raging in the Wizards community forums, and I think I agree with them. This should not have happened.