[BW] Review at RPG.net

[Paul B]

Generally positive in a weirdly backhanded way. (http://www.rpg.net/reviews/archive/12/12746.phtml)

p.

[Thor]

No points deducted for a proof-reading penalty? I declare victory!

[Glendower]

Not giving the Duel of Wits more than a paragraph and then dismissing it as "too jarring" is some kind of hideous hate crime. I'm so angry my gums are bleeding.

[The Dragon Master]

Before the review was written, the reviewer should have properly playtested it. You do no one any favors by reviewing parts of a game that you have never even tried.

[Z-Dog]

reviewing a game w/out playtesting is just lame

it's like reviewing a new car by reading through the engineering specs

take the thing for a test drive ferchristsakes!

[Thor]

To be fair guys, even if I disagree with some of Dan's conclusions, he is a very well-respected reviewer at RPGnet. And while I agree that playtested reviews are definitely far superior, at least Dan acknowledged his lack of playtesting and identified the portion that was based on a demo experience.

All in all, I'm just happy to see another review up there. This is only the second review we've gotten on RPGnet for BW Revised!

But thanks for having our backs! If it really gets up your craw, you could always write your own review! ::hint, hint::

[Paul B]

Yeah...jeez. You can (usually) tell a lot about how a game plays by reading it. I think we can all agree that BW and BE buck this trend for a variety of reasons: design goals, writing style, a lot of new/odd/novel ideas all interacting at once. But come on -- you're telling me you can't read through, say, Shadowrun 4e or Conan and get a good idea of how things work?

Any car reviewer will tell you they can tell a lot about a car by looking at the engineering spec: wheel base, horsepower, weight, etc. all add up to a pretty clear picture in one's head if you're experienced. Reviewing BW is probably more like a car reviewer the engineering specs for a grav cycle.

Not to be pedantic, but dang there's a lot of hate going on here. (And, yes, I also wrote a semi-playtested-but-not-really review of BE over @ RPG.net, which I still stand by.)

p.

[TimP]

Any car reviewer will tell you they can tell a lot about a car by looking at the engineering spec: wheel base, horsepower, weight, etc. all add up to a pretty clear picture in one's head if you're experienced.

Buh? As a long-time subscriber to Road and Track, I've never seen anything passing itself off as a review of a car that's based only on specs. When they DO review (I think they actually call them tests (imagine that)) a car, subjective qualities (i.e. feel and the driving experience) often weigh as high or higher than raw specs.

Sorry to be pedantic, but that's an extremely faulty analogy.

Regardless, I thought it was a pretty decent review. The 'needlessness' of DoW (we just roleplay that stuff!) and the complicated combat are the A#1 complaints about BW by people that don't grok and/or obsess the system.

I don't think he cast those sub-systems in a particularly harsh light. His demeanor certainly wouldn't have turned me off of the game if it was my first exposure.

Besides, you'd have to playtest BW for a considerable time to fully explore it. More time than a high-volume reviewer like Davenport's going to devote to any one game...

[Kublai]

I just read it and it's about as positive as it gets! I didn't find anything that was particularly negative and the tone was very neutral throughout. Yay!

[luke]

Feel free to take this discussion public:
http://forum.rpg.net/showthread.php?t=309475

Or offer comments on Dan's review.

Generates heat and all...

Also, compare with recent Gaming Report review (when it rains...)
http://www.gamingreport.com/modules.php?op=modload&name=Reviews&file=index&req=showcontent&id=2254

-L

[Dwight]

You've been outed. ;(

There are also several ( ... what-I-call ...) "hippie" ideas as well.
Re: Dan Davenport's review

Unless those scores are out of 10, which I'm pretty sure RPGNet's aren't, I'd say that's a very positive review. It just isn't his personal bag of beans. Which is cool.

EDIT: Given that description of Luke's GMing I feel once again a bit cheated that I'm in the middle of where Luke isn't going to show up. I just added my little thumbtack to the map of NA because it looked so darn empty with those hundreds of miles of nothing between all the thumbtacks on the east and west coasts.