Amanda Hamon is the new D&D Senior Designer at Wizards of the Coast

[Gyor]

https://koboldpress.com/hark-news-from-the-warrens/

She is beyond qualified having done Editorial, Development, and Design work for Paizo and Kobold press. She co-created Starfinder, was lead editor and developer for Southlands and Deep Magic, has written APs for Paizo, and more. Before working in the TTRPG industry she was an editor and journalist covering health, science, and government.

So shd has piles of experience and qualifications and talent.

[Millstone85]

Does this mean that she replaces Jeremy Crawford?

[Xervous]

Does this mean that she replaces Jeremy Crawford?

I don’t think it works like that. Didn’t they say no errata to the core rulebooks?

[noob]

Starfinder is an horrible game due to many problems with the main most easily watchable is the equipment problem: you need constantly to have level appropriate equipment and you can not get equipment for people above your level so you feel you are jogging constantly just to stay on place.
So whenever it is a good or a bad thing or will change nothing significant is hard to guess.

[PhoenixPhyre]

Starfinder is an horrible game due to many problems with the main most easily watchable is the equipment problem: you need constantly to have level appropriate equipment and you can not get equipment for people above your level so you feel you are jogging constantly just to stay on place.
So whenever it is a good or a bad thing or will change nothing significant is hard to guess.

Hopefully that issue is handled by Bounded Accuracy (and thus not depending on gear for basic system math). 4e had the same problem of a hard-coded gear progression/treadmill where deviations broke everything, although they fixed that later with the inherent bonus progression system. System-enforced gear requirements suck. If the characters need a certain set of numbers to make the math work, give them those up front in the level progression. /rant

[Gignere]

Starfinder is an horrible game due to many problems with the main most easily watchable is the equipment problem: you need constantly to have level appropriate equipment and you can not get equipment for people above your level so you feel you are jogging constantly just to stay on place.
So whenever it is a good or a bad thing or will change nothing significant is hard to guess.

Isn’t this inherent in 3.X / PF systems?

It was balanced to wealth by level a proxy for magic equipment by level. You needed level appropriate magic items or you can’t run it without the DM heavily modding it.

[Zhorn]

I look forward to seeing what announcements come from the WotC side of things, whether this is a shake-up in leadership, or bringing on an experienced person into a position that needed filling.

'Senior Designer', I don't know if that is a title held by only one staff member at a time, or if there's more than one. Also from title alone I don't know what responsibility she'll be taking over.

[Unoriginal]

Well hopefully her Paizo work won't influence her D&D work.

[Luccan]

Cool!


I look forward to seeing what announcements come from the WotC side of things, whether this is a shake-up in leadership, or bringing on an experienced person into a position that needed filling.

'Senior Designer', I don't know if that is a title held by only one staff member at a time, or if there's more than one. Also from title alone I don't know what responsibility she'll be taking over.

Yeah, I'm a little unclear if she's replacing someone or not and what exactly her position means. Still, I hear almost universal praise for Kobold Press stuff, so I'm hopeful.


Well hopefully her Paizo work won't influence her D&D work.

That seems unlikely, given Paizo's whole thing is being alternative D&D. That's probably part of why they hired her. Though I hope she considers her Kobold Press experience more relevant, considering they've been the most popular 3pp for 5e, AFAICT.

[MaxWilson]

Does this mean that she replaces Jeremy Crawford?

I don't think so. AFAIK Jeremy Crawford has never been a Designer on the 5E team. That job originally belonged to Mike Mearls and Rodney Thompson, e.g. Mike was the official gatekeeper of rules during 5E development, the guy you needed to persuade if you wanted to add a rule to the game. Jeremy Crawford was a Developer (what that entails for a TTRPG as opposed to a video game has never been entirely clear to me, although according to the video linked in my .sig he did help Mike and Rodney write the PHB). After Mike Mearls moved over to online 5E development like Baldur's Gate 3, the Senior Designer role sat empty AFAIK, and she would be filling Mike's old role here, not Jeremy's.

Since 5E has already been published I'm not sure exactly what kind of rule design there is to do, but if they were going to add rules for e.g. spelljamming ships, I'd expect the Senior Designer to be involved.

[jaappleton]

Been saying this for awhile:

They're expanding the team. She's likely leading a team. Crawford leads another. Perkins leads another. If there's any other team leaders, I don't know, but I do know that Crawford's team includes Dan Dillon and Ben Petrisor at least.

Crawford makes new mechanical crunch. Monsters, subclasses, that's what his team works on.

Perkins makes adventure books.

And these people don't exclusively work on certain things. Dan Dillon will work on some adventure books, make some encounters, etc. Its not solely subclasses he works on. But he's under JC's team, I believe.

They've said they're updating three classic settings.
They're likely working on a new MM / Volo's, whatever you want to call the next one.
That's not including anything unannounced, likely Yawning Portal 2 or some other collection of old adventures being brought to 5E.

They're expanding the team to churn out more content. We were getting like 3 books a year, give or take? Expect five.

[micahaphone]

The end times are upon us, everything is coming apart. Nothing shall survive!






That has nothing to do with the new Senior Designer, seems like she's a good pick for the job. Just wanted to throw some doom prophecy out there.

[Willie the Duck]

She co-created Starfinder, was lead editor and developer for Southlands and Deep Magic, has written APs for Paizo, and more. Before working in the TTRPG industry she was an editor and journalist covering health, science, and government.

Kobold Press's Deep Magic is solid 3PP for 5e, with most of my critique being that a bunch of it is decidedly niche ('here's a Elven High Magic supplement for those trying to create an elven tree city,' 'here's time-travel magic'). It had one thing in it a player of mine really liked that we feel they botched hard (sorcerous origin: aristocrat -- 'my blood's so blue, it's magical!' which gave you school specialty for sorcerers plus recharging your spell slots in a broken fashion because... why?), but otherwise is solid. I know Starfinder was something of a letdown, but I think it was something of a doomed project, TBH. 'Pathfinder 2 playtest, but in spaaaaace!' was not a good starting point. Wish it were easier to track down the health, science, and government reporting, as that's my actual IRL wheelhouse. Not that it would necessarily tell me much about her game designing competence. Can't wait to see what the usual suspects make of STEM journalism. Regardless, overall it sounds like a positive development. Some new blood, new ideas, maybe just a shakeup of the status quo.

[noob]

Isn’t this inherent in 3.X / PF systems?

It was balanced to wealth by level a proxy for magic equipment by level. You needed level appropriate magic items or you can’t run it without the DM heavily modding it.

You do not become close to being unable to participate just because your equipment is 4 levels old and many pf classes works fine with no magical equipment at all while in starfinder you are doomed if your equipment is 4 levels old.
The minimum level for equipment in starfinder is here because nearly all the power of a character is in the equipment while in pathfinder a low or average(depending on class) proportion of the power of a character is in the equipment.
If you gave a +10 sword to a level 5 pathfinder fighter he would not be suddenly roughly as strong as a level 15 fighter but it is how it works in starfinder hence why starfinder gives a minimum level for equipment.(which does not makes sense: why is this lightweight dagger impossible to wear for anybody but the most elite people that can eat rockets and have them explode within them while driving a spaceship is easy)

There is also the oddity of most weapons having both extra cheap versions and versions that are so expensive you could instead equip and pay the wages of an entire army while none of the fluff says why the high quality one should cost this much.

[MaxWilson]

If you gave a +10 sword to a level 5 pathfinder fighter he would not be suddenly roughly as strong as a level 15 fighter but it is how it works in starfinder hence why starfinder gives a minimum level for equipment.(which does not makes sense: why is this lightweight dagger impossible to wear for anybody but the most elite people that can eat rockets and have them explode within them while driving a spaceship is easy)

That sounds terrible.

[KorvinStarmast]

That sounds terrible. It sounds like Diablo 3. (CRPG/action, more or less all dungeon crawl all the time)
Many items can't be used until your alt hits a certain level.

[PhoenixPhyre]

It sounds like Diablo 3. (CRPG/action, more or less all dungeon crawl all the time)
Many items can't be used until your alt hits a certain level.

Or really any traditional MMO, where stats from level make up a lot less of your power than do stats from gear. And gear is level-locked.

[KorvinStarmast]

Or really any traditional MMO, where stats from level make up a lot less of your power than do stats from gear. And gear is level-locked. Yep, sounds real familiar. :smallyuk:

[MaxWilson]

It sounds like Diablo 3. (CRPG/action, more or less all dungeon crawl all the time)
Many items can't be used until your alt hits a certain level.

Yes, it does sound like Diablo, and for a TTRPG that's terrible.

[TheUser]

Will she be fielding sage advice questions? I still haven't any comment from JC on Shapechange and Inured to Undeath :P

[KorvinStarmast]

Will she be fielding sage advice questions? I still haven't any comment from JC on Shapechange and Inured to Undeath :P I hope not, as I am not sure of her expertise on 5e.

[Emongnome777]

I hope not, as I am not sure of her expertise on 5e.

To be fair, I question the "expertise" of many content creators at WotC. If she can't tell the difference between a "melee weapon attack" and a "melee attack with a weapon", she'll fit right in. LOL

[noob]

I hope not, as I am not sure of her expertise on 5e.

I am not sure 5e expertise is useful for being a good 5e dev: many confusing 5e things could probably be fixed by a dev who sees the game from a new view point.
(many things can be broken too)

[J-H]

So what has she actually been responsible for developing/designing? I am not familiar with Kobold Press work at all.

[PhoenixPhyre]

So what has she actually been responsible for developing/designing? I am not familiar with Kobold Press work at all.

My only experience with them was their monster books. Which are decent, although the balancing is kinda all over the place (at least in the Tome of Beasts, which is the one I have).

The design (ie non-mechanical implementation) is fine, but some of the mechanics are heavy on debilitating effects or things that are odd to adjudicate at the table. Still good monsters, just not slick to run all the time. And significant setting-assumptions for their Midgard setting.

[Dienekes]

To be fair, I question the "expertise" of many content creators at WotC. If she can't tell the difference between a "melee weapon attack" and a "melee attack with a weapon", she'll fit right in. LOL

In fairness here. That was always a strange nitpicky distinction with poor word choice that flies in the face of the simplicity model the game was pitched on. Should’ve never made it to print.


My only experience with them was their monster books. Which are decent, although the balancing is kinda all over the place (at least in the Tome of Beasts, which is the one I have).

The design (ie non-mechanical implementation) is fine, but some of the mechanics are heavy on debilitating effects or things that are odd to adjudicate at the table. Still good monsters, just not slick to run all the time. And significant setting-assumptions for their Midgard setting.

Any examples you could give on the negatives?

At first blush the thought of enemies having more effects and riders to go through sounds like a step in the right direction to me. I’ve been pretty much homebrewing every monster my players have been facing for the last year to make them more mechanically interesting.

[WadeWay33]

With the implied return to Barovia in the near future, we better be glad we have someone who knows the power of Hamon.

[Azuresun]

Been saying this for awhile:

I've started to take these words in front of a post to invariably mean "furious speculation inbound". :smallbiggrin:

[PhoenixPhyre]

Any examples you could give on the negatives?

At first blush the thought of enemies having more effects and riders to go through sounds like a step in the right direction to me. I’ve been pretty much homebrewing every monster my players have been facing for the last year to make them more mechanically interesting.

I'd have to go through the book again, that was just the impression that lingered.

And it wasn't about having riders, just about having things that required lots of steps to figure out what a given attack did. Felt more kludgy than interesting. But I prioritize speed/smoothness over detail, so YMMV.

[KorvinStarmast]

I am not sure 5e expertise is useful for being a good 5e dev: many confusing 5e things could probably be fixed by a dev who sees the game from a new view point.
(many things can be broken too) Sorry, but you are not a credible witness. (regardless of how many things we do agree about)

[ProsecutorGodot]

I am not sure 5e expertise is useful for being a good 5e dev: many confusing 5e things could probably be fixed by a dev who sees the game from a new view point.
(many things can be broken too)

Having experience in game design would usually mean, in my opinion, that you can't look at a system with that "fresh view" without bias involved, whether that's due to your general knowledge of design or your expertise in this specific area of design.

I'd also argue (again, my own opinion) that having a more than passing knowledge of 5e is required to make the changes that others with a high level of knowledge in the system are looking for.

To be honest, I'm not sure you could reasonably make "fixes" when you don't have requisite knowledge to understand what you're fixing and why it needs fixing.

[Zhorn]

I've not got first hand experience with their work, but looking at a few of their interviews on youtube over their experience with being on design teams in combination with regularly DMing not just for home groups but a LOT at cons with strangers, where you cannot account for levels of expected competence and rules familiarity, it would give them good insight into what styles of rulings work better versus what were poorly implemented systems that require more off-book GM adjudication.

It's a wealth of experience, so colour me hopeful and optimistic.
Experience = Experience
Be it coming from a winning product or a dud, all of it feeds into a level of understanding on
"is this fun"
"does this make sense"
"is this rule easy to decode"
"is this rule compatible with other areas of the system"


Plus I'm really wanting Spelljammer in 5e, so bringing in someone with a ton of experience in the TTRPG-in-space genre bodes well.

[Amdy_vill]

Well hopefully her Paizo work won't influence her D&D work.

I disagree I think Paizo and kobold press are better at balance and interesting concepts than the current dnd team. most of paizo missteps in pathfinder 1e and star finder 1e came from shackling themselves to some of the worst ideas from 3e and not ditching them sooner, choices Amanda Hamon had nothing to do with.

[Dork_Forge]

I disagree I think Paizo and kobold press are better at balance and interesting concepts than the current dnd team. most of paizo missteps in pathfinder 1e and star finder 1e came from shackling themselves to some of the worst ideas from 3e and not ditching them sooner, choices Amanda Hamon had nothing to do with.

Kobold Press mechanics that I've seen I have been either unimpressed with or they've been overtuned if not outright too much a lot of the time. Every single Kobold Press one shot that I've played in felt like it would run better at a level higher than was recommended.

I can't speak for Paizo but my feel of KP is that it's higher difficulty and higher powered, I certainly hope she doesn't bring that kind of thing to 5e, we are on an upward powercreep trajectory as it is.

[PhoenixPhyre]

Kobold Press mechanics that I've seen I have been either unimpressed with or they've been overtuned if not outright too much a lot of the time. Every single Kobold Press one shot that I've played in felt like it would run better at a level higher than was recommended.

I can't speak for Paizo but my feel of KP is that it's higher difficulty and higher powered, I certainly hope she doesn't bring that kind of thing to 5e, we are on an upward powercreep trajectory as it is.

Agreed. And Paizo is all in for the "complex, mechanics-heavy, very granular mechanics" way of doing thing. Which is something I strongly dislike.

[Gyor]

I don't think so. AFAIK Jeremy Crawford has never been a Designer on the 5E team. That job originally belonged to Mike Mearls and Rodney Thompson, e.g. Mike was the official gatekeeper of rules during 5E development, the guy you needed to persuade if you wanted to add a rule to the game. Jeremy Crawford was a Developer (what that entails for a TTRPG as opposed to a video game has never been entirely clear to me, although according to the video linked in my .sig he did help Mike and Rodney write the PHB). After Mike Mearls moved over to online 5E development like Baldur's Gate 3, the Senior Designer role sat empty AFAIK, and she would be filling Mike's old role here, not Jeremy's.

Since 5E has already been published I'm not sure exactly what kind of rule design there is to do, but if they were going to add rules for e.g. spelljamming ships, I'd expect the Senior Designer to be involved.

So Amanda is the new Mike Mearls.

I think they are bringing her in for experience at creating popular setting books like Southlands

So they will likely have her working on Setting Books.

[Gyor]

Oh btw according to Kobold Press Amanda will still fulfill her current obligations to Kobold Press like the current Southland books being kickstarted, but once all those obligations have been met, that will be it, she'll only be doing WotC stuff.

[jaappleton]

Oh btw according to Kobold Press Amanda will still fulfill her current obligations to Kobold Press like the current Southland books being kickstarted, but once all those obligations have been met, that will be it, she'll only be doing WotC stuff.

What's super strange about that is I think Dan Dillon, who was hired at WOTC while at Kobold Press, is still able to do Kobold Press stuff. At the very least, he actively promotes their stuff and is in a streamed game sponsored by them.

So... How can he keep doing stuff, but she can only finish out her current obligations?

Could be wrong here. And I can only speculate. But its quite weird to me.

[ProsecutorGodot]

What's super strange about that is I think Dan Dillon, who was hired at WOTC while at Kobold Press, is still able to do Kobold Press stuff. At the very least, he actively promotes their stuff and is in a streamed game sponsored by them.

So... How can he keep doing stuff, but she can only finish out her current obligations?

Could be wrong here. And I can only speculate. But its quite weird to me.

We can only speculate at this point but it's entirely possible that she doesn't want to continue designing for kobold press after her obligations are done.

[jaappleton]

We can only speculate at this point but it's entirely possible that she doesn't want to continue designing for kobold press after her obligations are done.

A highly possible and likely scenario.

[IsaacsAlterEgo]

I'm not familiar with her work (Really want to try Starfinder at some point though!) but I'm always glad to see more diversity at Wizards.

Also glad if this means we're one step closer to getting rid of Mearls, but that's wishful thinking I suppose.

[Arkhios]

While there are many things I like in Starfinder, I do still very much prefer Pathfinder 1e over both Starfinder and Pathfinder 2e (which is beyond obvious heavily influenced by Starfinder). Starfinder suffers a lot in how it handles equipment (every damn item has a level, much like in 4e, including mundane armor and weapons, and weapon damage in particular increases exponentially until it gets bat-****-crazy).

Honestly, I wouldn't say being Starfinder's co-creator merits high praise.

[Necrosnoop110]

AFAIK Jeremy Crawford has never been a Designer on the 5E team.
I'm confused by your response. When I look at my PHB, DMG, and MMI I see first under Credits "D&D Lead Designers: Mike Mearls, Jeremy Crawford." On his wiki page I see that he subsequently also became the Lead Rules Developer and Managing Editor. Are you saying he did no original designing? Why is he listed at the top of the credits as "Lead Designer" of the big three books?

Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeremy_Crawford

Development on a new edition started in 2011 and Crawford became the Co-Lead Designer, along with Mike Mearls, of the 5th Edition of Dungeons & Dragons. Crawford also became the Lead Rules Developer and Managing Editor of the edition.

[KorvinStarmast]

So they will likely have her working on Setting Books. I sure hope she likes Dark Sun. :smallcool:

Also glad if this means we're one step closer to getting rid of Mearls, but that's wishful thinking I suppose. Mearls is a good "idea man" but I get the feeling that he needs someone "crunchy" and "balancy" to partner with so that the pieces fit together.

My only frustration with Crawford is that he was too willing to toss of a reflexive twitter reply to sometimes nuanced questions. On the bright side, while I don't always agree with what's in the Sage Advice Compendium, I appreciate the effort he put into that to explain some of the ambiguous or somewhat tricky to understand rules interactions.

I am also a fan of one of his lines (seen in many tweets) that made it into Tasha's: follow your bliss. In other words, make it work in a way that's fun at your table.

[Amdy_vill]

I'm confused by your response. When I look at my PHB, DMG, and MMI I see first under Credits "D&D Lead Designers: Mike Mearls, Jeremy Crawford." On his wiki page I see that he subsequently also became the Lead Rules Developer and Managing Editor. Are you saying he did no original designing? Why is he listed at the top of the credits as "Lead Designer" of the big three books?

Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeremy_Crawford

so my understanding is the during 5e Development Mike Mearls was functional the "Lead Designer" he was the guy with the true final say and that Jeremy Crawford took over that role after the baselines of the game were finished and the core 3 were coming out.

[MaxWilson]

I'm confused by your response. When I look at my PHB, DMG, and MMI I see first under Credits "D&D Lead Designers: Mike Mearls, Jeremy Crawford." On his wiki page I see that he subsequently also became the Lead Rules Developer and Managing Editor. Are you saying he did no original designing? Why is he listed at the top of the credits as "Lead Designer" of the big three books?

Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeremy_Crawford

As the phrase "AFAIK" indicates, there are lots of things about WotC's internal workings that I don't know. I do know that Mearls was the final rules authority (see video linked in my .sig), that I've always seen Crawford introduced as a "Lead Developer" instead of "Designer" (hadn't noticed the PHB/DMG credits you point out), and that he has a history of making shady claims about 5E's design intent/history that undermine confidence that he was involved in those decisions. Most recent example off the top of my head: Crawford has in the past claimed that Devil's Sight is intended by RAI not to function in dim light, because it is purportedly on-theme for warlocks to have no penalties in bright light or darkness but to still suffer penalties in between (dim light/shadows). But if this was truly the design intent, why would Astral Monks get the exact same language about seeing normally in darkness? Are we supposed to believe that it is also RAI for Astral Monks to be penalized in dim light because it's "spooky"?

But thank you for pointing out the PHB credits. They are interesting. Maybe that's why I can never figure out what WotC means by "Lead Developer" as opposed to "Designer"--maybe there isn't a real distinction after all. (Maybe it's like the difference between "Software Developer" and "Software Engineer": just a matter of what the person who entered your new title into the system happened to type.)

[KorvinStarmast]

Maybe she has been hired on to coordinate the new RPGs coming out soon, like the Power Ranger one. That might call for a Designer position. (But as Max observes, I too am not so sure of the inner workings of WoTC).

[MaxWilson]

I sure hope she likes Dark Sun. :smallcool:
Mearls is a good "idea man" but I get the feeling that he needs someone "crunchy" and "balancy" to partner with so that the pieces fit together.

Mearls is definitely more loosey-goosey with balance, e.g. if you ask him "is there a reason sorcerers don't have more spells known?" he's the one who's more likely to say "here's why we did it that way but on reflection there's no reason you couldn't bump the number up if you were so inclined". IMO that openness to tweaking details is a good thing, not a bad thing. It's not like WotC's spreadsheets and "crunchy" processes have prevented them from originating useless stuff like Dragonborns and Witch Bolt, or overpowered stuff like Healing Spirit v1 and Simulacrum, so Mearl's approach at least has the virtue of refreshing honesty. No, there really isn't a good reason why you couldn't let dual-wielding scale a little bit better; no, there's no master plan that you'll break if you give sorcerers more spells.

Anyway, I'm glad their new lead designer has editing experience. Wish they'd had a real editor around when they wrote the PHB/DMG, but at least they did a good job on Rising From the Last War (they even made logical choices like putting the Artificer spell list right next to the Artificer class description!) even though they dropped the ball again with Tasha's (made it quite difficult to determine which classes "should" get access to which new spells as part of their class lists, unless you assume the answer is "nobody except Artificers and Aberrant Minds, and Bards via Magical Secrets"). Maybe she won't be able to change anything but at least someone at WotC will feel the pain of e.g. using technical jargon like "charmed" in class descriptions but not introducing that terminology up front (it's not defined until the appendixes!) or putting page refs. Maybe somebody will feel the pain of index entries which refer you to other index entries instead of just giving you the page number you were looking for. She may not be able to change anything but at least someone will know there's a better way, and maybe she can do better for the next edition.

[Thunderous Mojo]

Starfinder suffers a lot in how it handles equipment (every damn item has a level, much like in 4e, including mundane armor and weapons, and weapon damage in particular increases exponentially until it gets bat-****-crazy).

Honestly, I wouldn't say being Starfinder's co-creator merits high praise.

So I have no familiarity with Starfinder. I agree that 3e's Wealth by Level expectations, and pre-errata 4e's mandatory equipment upgrades, made DM-ing a chore.

Other RPG systems, (Traveller and Cypher system come to mind), assign everything a number. The assigned numbers, in those systems, actually speed up game resolution.

(Even in Traveler it doesn't take long to realize that TL15 alien homing, plasma bolt just tore through your ballistic armor and killed you.)

So is Starfinder more like 4e in equipment level, or more like Cypher system?

JC doesn't really work on creative products. WotC needs to staff up, if it is going to produce more product per year.

[Gyor]

Maybe she has been hired on to coordinate the new RPGs coming out soon, like the Power Ranger one. That might call for a Designer position. (But as Max observes, I too am not so sure of the inner workings of WoTC).

The Power Rangers RPG is being done by Renegade Studios, not WotC, so I doubt she will have much if anything to do with it.

[KorvinStarmast]

The Power Rangers RPG is being done by Renegade Studios, not WotC, so I doubt she will have much if anything to do with it. Ah, yeah, that's right.

[Gyor]

For mechanics I think it's far more useful to look at what 5e work she has done then another system were she might have been under specific orders and where we don't know which parts of the team made what choices. We don't know which team member designed Starfinders equipment rules or why they did it like that. But her experience in world building and editing is still meaningful in those pre5e products, just not the mechanics.

[noob]

For mechanics I think it's far more useful to look at what 5e work she has done then another system were she might have been under specific orders and where we don't know which parts of the team made what choices. We don't know which team member designed Starfinders equipment rules or why they did it like that. But her experience in world building and editing is still meaningful in those pre5e products, just not the mechanics.

No you can not use what they did in 5e to estimate their skills at making 5e mechanics because it is not yet published.
You will be able to some time later but not right now.

[KorvinStarmast]

No you can not use what they did in 5e to estimate their skills at making 5e mechanics because it is not yet published.
You will be able to some time later but not right now.
Given how much sloppy third party material there is out there, I think noob has a good point here.

[ProsecutorGodot]

Given how much sloppy third party material there is out there, I think noob has a good point here.

Yep, it's easy to homebrew and say "well it worked for my table" or even at a bit of a grander scale like "it was well reviewed by my audience of a couple thousand" however we know plainly that popularity (OG Bloodhunter) doesn't at all mean a class is well designed or balanced.

Obviously not all material that actually sees print makes it to the "well designed" metric but if we put an arbitrary number to it like 80% I'd be more than willing to say that material that doesn't get published or go through the design processes that would put it closer towards publication would be at a solid 5-10%.

My point being, whatever internal guidelines they have for vetting material for publication usually ends up with it landing pretty close to the mark. Without knowing what that process is, we end up with some wild variance that might only touch on being "acceptable" for publication by mistake.