This is what I'm trying to say. I can see reasons to dislike the change. (Par for the course with Wizkids.) I can see reasons to dislike the communication. (Again, par for the course.) But I can't see reason to attack the guy, or accuse him of anything, regardless of personal feelings on the ruling.

I think people are angry because he used his official position to alter the way Gandalf and Nightwing worked to match his personal preference. That's further compounded by the fact that he has no interest in the source material for the game and that it was originally represented as a change directed by game design rather than requested by an RA.

RAs are supposed to identify inconsistencies or incompatibility in the rules and "patch" them with rulings that try to replicate game design's original intent as best as possible, not to "fix" rules that are perfectly clear that they don't like. It's particularly galling when there is a host of rules that the community has wanted addressed (colossals piloting cars) that were ignored in favor of "fixing" these two pieces.

I just re-listened to my interview with Sean. In fact I listened to the relevant segment a few times and took notes. I will agree that I don't think he communicated the reasons for the change as well as he could have. But I don't think he gave anyone any justification for calling him a liar.

Here is what he said:
1.) He saw a need to closely look at figures with an ability to choose keywords before or after you reveal your force.
2.) This was done with the intent to consolidate and streamline the wording.
3.) He took the issue to game design to determine intent
4.) He wanted GD to rule one way or the other and didn't seem to have a preference on how it was ruled
5.) He understands peoples' wishes for Nightwing and Gandalf, but it "didn't fall that way from Game Design and the Rules Team."
6.) He wanted the effect of this change to clearly define these powers and Traits.
7.) The intent is to correct inconsistencies and make the game better going forward.

So I'm really unsure where you guys are getting the idea that he lied.

See all of the bolded sections? Sean said NONE of those things. You, and some others, are reading far more into his words than were really there.

You know what happens when we assume?

I don't believe he ever said that he doesn't care for keywords. At least not in as many words. He might have said that he doesn't think they should be the end all be all of team construction, but I see those same sentiments every day on here. No reason to vilify him for these opinions.

Sean did not change any rule. End of story.

That last bolded line is the only thing you got correct. Game Design agreed that the wording of these and similar powers needed to be streamlined, so Sean wrote the errata. On Game Designs orders. He doesn't get to just edit things willy nilly. He saw a potential problem, took it to Game Design and a solution was handed down. He did his job. And frankly, I'm quite sick of all the hatred and vitriol being spewed over it.

No, he didn't. He brought a selection of figures to Game Design's attention. This selection of figures happened to include Gandalf and Nightwing. Game Design then decided that these figures' wording needed to be streamlined and had the Rules Team take necessary steps to do this.

Sean Braunstein did not do this evil thing that so many of you are accusing him of. If you want to vilify someone, vilify Game Design.

Of course I'm not sure why LE Madrox still works during force construction, but if I had to guess it would be because he was missed while the errata was being typed up. I bet he is supposed to work the same way as the rest. If not, and only then, would I ever agree that things don't add up.

I'd been meaning to re-listen to the ClixCast in light of the accusations stemming from it, but hadn't had a chance to since this thread (re-)kicked off.
Thanks, theavengerthor, for taking that time to break that down, since those are the facts in question.

Being incompetent in no way prevents people from leading or being part of a conspiracy.

Just means, instead of a conspiracy of silence, or of arms, or a variety of other types, it's a conspiracy of incompetents.

No. It's not.

It's the RA's job to interpret the rules that come from WK.

The antithesis of his job is to make up rules and then have GD agree to them.

His job is to go, "OK, this is what you, the designers, intended, this is how it's worded, this is how it's being interpreted, let me show the players how you want things to go."

His job, to maintain the dignity of the position and integrity of the rules, should also prevent him from leading personal crusades to change things.

He is betraying the principles of the RA.

Except for the fact that making you choose a keyword EVERY SINGLE TURN in no way, whatsoever, streamlines ANYTHING.

You want streamlined, easy to follow and understand? You pick a Keyword ONCE, at the start of the game, and you keep it that game. THAT is easy and streamlined.

And part of the RA's job, seeing as he's the mouthpiece between public and GD, is to be vilified by the people he wrongs, intentionally or not. Or the people WK wrongs. He's the public face, so that's part of his duties.

He don't like it, he can grow a thicker skin or quit, but asking people to 'be nice' when he does them wrong, and does his office a dishonor? Yeah, that's not an option.

I'd bet a couple dollars that nobody has "be a punching back on the Internet" as part of their job description.

Is it inevitable? To a degree. But does that make it ok?


Do I even need to answer that?

You don't pick the keyword every turn. It is at the start of the game.

And who are you to define the parameters of his job? Just because Norm was a very public RA doesn't mean that Sean has to be. In fact he isn't. The Deputies are the public faces of the rules team. Sean is the go between.

And to the best of my knowledge he hasn't asked anyone to "be nice." He probably hasn't even read one post of these threads. He hasn't wronged anyone. He saw a problem with the way certain characters powers read and how they were interacting with the game on a whole and then brought that information to Game Design. That sounds more like the definition of his job as it was explained to me. Anything else is just conjecture.

Funny. It is streamlined then, by your own definition.

I mean really. Check your facts. That's the exact point theavengerthor was making...


Oh the irony...

I think we would have been fine if they just made it the same way as they did Morgan le Fay. They don't count for against theme team probs, but they don't break them either. This let's both parties win and (at least for me) people wouldn't be so upset. I mean, no matter what GD was thinking, Nightwing shouldn't break a Batman Family team.

Alright, I'm jumping into this against my better judgment, but I'm going to make one post and then unsubscribe from the thread while I still have my sanity. If anyone has any further questions or comment for me, they can pm me, but I'm not going to stick around in the thread.

To my recollection, this whole thing started with an email while working on the current player's guide saying that Nightwing wasn't working as he was supposed to.

This led to a discussion about keyword-affecting mechanics in general, which spiraled out to a whole bunch of different characters, and included a lot of different people with opportunities to comment on it.

After discussion and review from people with Wizkids in both volunteer and employee capacities, we ended up with what's in the player's guide now.

So to vilify Sean, and Sean alone, is utterly illogical.

I dont care what the Cosmic Cube does,
I care what it does for it's points.

Compare to Eye of Agamotto,
Batsignal,
10 point Utility Belt, etc.

We're vilifying everyone involved.

I'd be willing to take your couple dollars

Honestly, I've known a couple people who were/are the web presence of their company and were specifically told some variation of, "You're there to be a face for their abuse."

Heck, IIRC BroMags called that part of his job description more than once (back in the days when WK actually had someone whose job as to talk to the public).

This is what I heard in the podcast. There seems to be some question in people's minds as to why there was a need to look at it. Some seem to think that it was a personal crusade by TechG0D, and I'm just not convinced of that at all from what I heard.

Was this about him getting his way just for the sake of it? That's what I'm not convinced about. I do think, like hair10 and nbperb before him, TechG0D wants this game to be the best it can be, and thought this change is best for the game going forward.

Maybe Nightwing and Gandalf aren't broken now - but a future figure might have caused a future problem with the ambiguities, and this change was to try to secure against that.

And seems to have done it in the way laid down by Wizkids. There were communication problems over the change, and it once again that you need to be clear and careful when communicating in text on the interwebs.

I do think that the echo chamber of the internet - and a few rabble rousing members who keep swinging the stick at the beehive - has made this issue far more than it actually is. They have taken it far more personally than was intended and made it unnecessarily personal in return. Disagree with it fine - turn it into attacks in either direction and now we've moved into silly territory.

Once again proving:
anonymity + opinion = jerk on the internet.