Time to Shut Down the Beta?

I was looking at the ICE forums this morning and it struck me that the text for RMu is now fixed. No changes are going to be made, but the discussions are still on going.

This can lead to two things. Either the perception that ICE are not listening. Or that RMu is just being pushed out the door regardless of its state.

No one can say that ICE have rushed RMu to market. I just cannot see the debates about how each and every part of RMu works ever ending.

Two that jumped out at me were Haste and the Simple Round. The reason why these struck me was that they were both Action Point related issues. Action Points are seen as new and they are not something most GMs are used to.

Lock the Forums

If there is going to be a ramping up of media coverage for RMu, that should bring about more visitors to the forums. People interested in the new RMu will be drawn to the Beta forums being the only place to find out about RMu.

And there they will see daily posts about things that people see as not working, or not working well.

This is not the best first impression.

Why not lock down the beta forums and create a new forum for RMu Companion One?

Now we can debate proposed revisions and alternative options and in doing so create the impression of a forward thinking and active community. A game where new things are in the pipeline.

RMu has the dubious honour of being a game where house rules were published before the actual game. Hurin’s individual skill costs per profession were put out in the GC, possibly, two years ago now?

The Guild Companion finally died in May 2019, so that is 14 months ago, and I am sure it limped along for a few months with just previews of HARP books.

Look Forward Not Back

I think trying to paint the RMu community as forward thinking and creative, with new books, adventures, and options being lined up for publication will create a better impression than pointing out more flaws in a game that has had its last editing pass and is now going to layout.

Picking holes in the text now is not going to improve the game or its chances of success in a really tough market.

If we want RMu to be successful, we need to put it out there as being a great game to play and fun to bring to your table.

5 Replies to “Time to Shut Down the Beta?”

    1. One would hope so, Nicholas is a Computer Science Professor. It is probably a simple tickbox to lock the forum to new posts, then create a new forum for New Companion One.

  1. Obviously I don’t entirely agree (I wrote both those posts) but I do agree in principle.

    The text isn’t set in stone until layout and design. I don’t think they have the art yet and the other books haven’t been edited, so if they still wanted to make changes they could. Before the website went down I noticed a discrepancy in the rules that needed to be addressed. If that happened again I think they would still make changes.

    I suspect the haste suggestion is already in the current draft as it is a fairly obvious improvement given the new movement rules. If not, I don’t think adding a short sentence is out of the question. The simple round reaction system is not a suggestion to change the rules, however, I do criticise both the simple and phased round in the discussion so I can see what you are getting at.

    I agree that when (if?) they start a media drive, they should lock the beta forum and open a new one for RMU.

  2. The developers suggested quite recently that while the rules are in the editing process, there was still a chance to change things, so that’s why I think the discussions keep going. There is also the fact that people who are running games want a place to see the latest version of the beta rules, especially the updates since beta2.

    However, I do agree that it might be a good time to lock the beta forums. The optimal time to do that I think is when they release the preview version of the rules, which has all those updates. I get the impression that this preview is imminent.

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