Saturday, October 31, 2009

Rough Draft Completed - Now Looking for Playtesters!

I started working on the Fifth World three years ago. Tonight, I finished the rough draft. It has changed immensely over the years and gone through several major revisions, but I have a confidence in this one unlike any previous iteration. I think the final product will have, at the very least, a family resemblance to what I finished tonight. It takes the form of a 154-line, 1,289-word poem, written in heroic couplet, in ten sections. You read the poem as part of play; the poem sets the stage and introduces the rules, one element at a time. I use that to also pace the story and drive an escalation towards climax. Then it ends with a round of epilogues and questions.

I'll introduce it publicly for the first time at GASPcon 10 in twelve days.

Twelve days means I need to get in a LOT of preliminary playtesting. This will require a very vigorous schedule, so I'll need as many playtesters as possible. I do intend to publish once I have a worakble product, so your time will garner the juicy reward of a printed playtesting credit. This version I can run over Skype, so if you want to volunteer, but don't live in western Pennsylvania or don't have a lot of time available, we can probably play online over Skype. I hope to start as early as tomorrow, so if you'd like to join in, please comment on this post.

9 comments:

Vulpinoid said...

I'd love to have a look, and give it a try in this part of the world.

Jason Godesky said...

What times would work for you?

Anonymous said...

i'd love to play with you. i can play this wednesday in the evening (toronto ontario time) or thursday around lunch.

jamesnowak@hotmail.com

email me if that works

james

Anonymous said...

i can also play today (monday) until about 4 ocklock my time. (5 hours from now)

Alan Post said...

I don't have time over the next couple weeks to help playtest (alas!), but I'm ridiculously excited by the teaser you've provided here.

Total state of the art. I can't do anything but cheer for you, but I'll do my absolute best at that!

Josh W said...

Wow, that would be an experience! First skype story-gaming I would ever have done, but I don't have time in the next fortnight. Any chance of picking up the opportunity again later?

Jason Godesky said...

Alan: Thanks!

Josh: Certainly! I really need to get a lot in this week and next, but I'll still need more over the months to come.

Rebecca said...

Jason-
I think it would be a blast to play test your game... but I don't have much experience with story games. I imagine this will either make my play testing rather useless or quite valuable - depending on if you are targeting new users.
Give a shout if you have interest in playing with a newbie.

R

Jason Godesky said...

That puts you in a little group I like to call "my target audience." I'd love to have your input in the playtest. You can find my email in my profile--let me know what times you could play, and I'll do what I can to arrange a game for you then.