Today’s Playtest Feedback
I ran another playtest of Wordplay today which, on the whole went very well. It was another sword and sorcery set in the world of Conan. The game was well received and a lot of fun. Here’s a summary of the feedback taken form the feedback forms I handed out at the end.
- Mileage in having a grey area where dice rolls are close (+/- 1d) instead of just for exact ties?
- Having helping dice from companions is a very good idea.
- “Touchy-feelyness” of the game is great - rather than it being overly rule bound.
- Extended campaign would be interesting.
- Is there any Trait atrophy effect in addition to Tait morphing and building.
- Like goals and the effect they can have. Perhaps too easy to invoke them - maybe something to qualify this?
- Challenges great but dice pools can be too easy to build up with harsh consequences.
- Quite easy to be knocked out of the game very quickly. Some kind of ‘life’ may be nice like fate points of something.
- Feels very like HeroQuest.
- Challenges feel fast and furious, although very brutal.
- Outcomes see very random at times. Seem,ed to swing easily from overwhelming victory to crushing defeat.
- Some traits might be difficult to find alternative uses for.
- Goals best in an extended campaign rather than a one off.
- Character sheet doesn’t need ‘D’ next to dice as redundant.
- I like the momentum rules.
- Bennies or Hero Points? Maybe as an optional rule for a cinematic game. Or maybe eacxh player just gets 6d from the pool each session to use as helping dice.
The bit that I need to give some thought to is the ‘brutality’ of the combat or the high variance in results especially when characters are facing off with 11+ dice. It only takes a high number of sixes in the roll and you could be racking up a Victory Level of six or more. We were a bit surprised by this and hence the request for some sort of Hero Point get out of jail card.
I don’t think anything is broken, but has given me some food for thought. The game was quite combat intensive and gave a good test of how that plays out.
Payback challenges for magic were also used. The sorcerer quickly realised how dangerous it was to use magic and found it difficult to win those challenges. I think they will need some fine tuning.
As the sorceror in that game, I actually liked the feel of the payback challenge, except you may want to put in an option to scale this in a more magic rich environment (like HQ rather than like D&D). It made the whole thing feel dangerous, and I was deliberately pushing it to the hilt rather than playing careful. If it had been a campaign game I would have probably toned down my response.
So from this playtest would you say honestly the rules are in fit shape for a reasonably straight forward game - was any of the ‘bumps’ found show stoppers?
Others may wish to pitch in, but I don’t think so. The game played very well indeed and we mustn’t lose sight of that. The only issue that I am wrestling with is the effect of potential high variance in results for large dice pools. If you roll crap and your opponent rolls really well then you can suddenly go from holding your own in a multi roll challenge to being knocked out with a six difference in results.
People remarked that it could be bloody and deadly. We then got a bit confused with the term ‘gritty’ which I don’t think it is.
This is no different to SimpleQuest and other games. Somebody rolls a crit , and you roll a fumble and it’s game over man! But what happens if you want to pulp it up some more, snatch the game from the dice and survive to wreak your revenge in the next challenge? Hero Points. They’re going into the game.
My next blog post will introduce how I plan to incorporate them. They will function not dissimilar from SW Bennies. Fortunately I will not be lumbered with such a silly name for them!
Cool. I’m considering test-running Wordplay this Sunday, since my regular group is taking a break from HQ due to one of the ‘unholy’ trinity of Black Horse County Badasses being in China for a month.
Newt, in the game only Tom and I had played before (as far as I know) and there were no problems at all, even in introducing it to new players. It went very well!
I realise that this is moderated, but you could at least do with a message to say your comment is awaiting moderation to avoid spam!
There might be a way to do that but I’m no Wordpress whizz so might not find the place to change the message!