It's occurred to me that since my Cold Steel Wardens playtests are going to be occuring on Wednesdays and Saturdays, it's probably not going to be feasible for me to blog on those days.
As such, I'm going to be amending my schedule slightly. While I'll still be updating on weekends--usually on Sunday afternoons or Saturday evenings--I'll now be updating this blog on Tuesdays, instead of Wednesdays.
Look for some of my playtests notes this weekend, as well as impressions on that time-old tradition of character creation! See you then!
Please fill us in on your mechanisms for evaluation. How will you judge the success or failure of elements of your game? Comparatively? Measured or "holistic"? Do tell.
ReplyDeleteOne of the biggest benchmarks for me is to keep the system streamlined and fast, with the focus less on combat and more on investigation and crime-solving. If I can eliminate mechanics or situations that take the focus away from those, I'll have done my job well.
ReplyDeleteBy and large, my experience with playtesting rules has always been "subjective", rather than "objective". Altering rules numerically can make differences--we found that out in our first session, already, in dealing with the Mental Strain loss associated with critical hits--but what's "broken" in one game could be perfectly balanced in another.
I actually have a player that built a "combat monster" at starting level. He totally dominated the sample combat we ran through, and the other players were raising their eyebrows. I looked him straight in the eye and said, essentially, that he's going to have a heck of a time when it comes to investigation and social interactions, which will be the bulk of the game. While he can kick butt and take names, he's going to rue the day he has to talk to someone or intimidate them...
Thanks for the comment, brother!