Saturday, October 25, 2008

Playtest Report

Since the first playtest, I've spent a month rewriting a lot of rules, and writing up the first complete catalog of spirits, blessings and curses. We just finished the second alpha playtest. Consensus opinions:
  • Flowed much easier with rules changes
  • Feel came through much more

Questions (rather than riddles) helped unify the story thematically, despite a narrative split this time that divided us into two parallel storylines. The main points to come up in post-game discussion included presenting questions earlier in the game so they can provide a better focus (great idea—thanks, Brett!), and some discussion about whether a particular blessing worked. I can't tell you how proud I feel that at the end of our second playtest, we can already dive into something as nitty-gritty as the balance of a particular blessing! I consider that beta playtest material. It reminds me of Maslow's hierarchy of needs: you never run out of things to worry about, but the things you get to worry about says how well off you've gotten. Discussing particular blessings means we've gotten farther than I would've guessed. Hey, maybe I've got something here after all, huh?

4 comments:

Jason Godesky said...

Oh, and I should have noted--least of all lest I forget to add it to the actual, written rules--that multi-player prisoner's dilemma works just great!

Willem said...

Congrats! Looking forward to the beta.

Matt said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Matt said...

I second what Willem said :).