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Champion
 
Group: Eos Staff
Last Login: Yesterday @ 3:48 AM
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| So, we've gotten together a pretty comprehensive system for Insurrection, our dystopian high fantasy game. I'm told that the next stage is to playtest it. The embarrassing thing is that, um, we don't really know how to do that. So what's the best way to push a shake a system up and see what falls out? Are there any useful hints and tips you could give us? Cheers,
Joe
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Joe Rooney, the Enemy Of Fun
Insurrection LRP: high fantasy in a dystopian setting. First event: 24-26 October 2008, in Leicestershire. Book online before October 1st for £10 discount!
Bladelands: Raoul Ortez - heretic, medium, bodyguard and scumbag
EOS: staff
Joe R's LARPCard
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Prodigal
Group: System Moderators
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At CUTT, we've been doing playtesting for new bits of our system by running 'mini-linears' at weapons practices, with encounters between PCs statted at various levels and monsters trying out various interactions in the new rules that we expect might be broken or hard to understand or otherwise interesting. It's been easier to knock the edges off linear-style combat encounters than PvP or tavern-night circumstances with this style, though.
Maelstrom: Jessily the Wemic, previously Tourmaline of Weaver
CUTT: Ref 07/08, previously Kallestra Lorelai Aostare of the Sapphire Tower
EOS: Study the Venin
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Heroic Knight
Group: Basic Members
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The real point of a playtest is to get people enthusiastic about coming to play your game for money...
PD: without portfolio
Serenity: Redshirt #2, Crew of the Qi-Lin
Almost-RL: Photographer for hire
www.disturbing.org.uk
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Wag
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raggedhalo (6/22/2007)
The embarrassing thing is that, um, we don't really know how to do that. So what's the best way to push a shake a system up and see what falls out? Are there any useful hints and tips you could give us? Cheers,
Joe Unless your going to specifically exclude them (ie run invite only) invite the biggest rules lawyering, piss taking, powergaming tits you can. Watch for whats hideously abused then remove the ability to do so.
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Prodigal
Group: Basic Members
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| As Chessypig says, mini-linears are a good idea but PvP playtesting is trickier. I suggest you seek out creative people with really sick imaginations and ask them to look for loopholes. As an example: DUTT have a low-level spell which allows people to create a pint of water somewhere within 30 feet of the caster. This sounds like a pretty harmless spell. However, we've found it necessary to tweak the way it works, because otherwise it would be technically possible for starting characters to instantly kill people by magically inserting a pint of water into their brain. We have another seemingly balanced spell which could theoretically allow characters to make a fortune and disrupt the politics of an important IC nation by cheating on horse races (which might be something you'd want to allow, since it allows enterprising characters to have a major effect on plot- but in a high fantasy system where magic has always been relatively common, it might be expected that racecourses would be aware of the problem). Some spells make surprisingly effective torture techniques, especially if used in conjunction with other spells- this isn't necessarily broken, but again it's something that the refs might want to know about in advance, especially if they're writing plot that could be influenced by this. There are lots of people out there who are imaginative enough to find hidden loopholes in a system but OC sensible enough that they don't actually want to break the game. These people are very useful to you. You need to find and cultivate them. Posting your rulebook on here isn't a bad idea, either- people who don't have any immediate interest in the game may be quicker to spot loopholes than people who are involved in running it.
WARNING: the information above may have been subjected to dangerously high levels of ignorance.
OOC (and on Pagga): Carrie
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Champion
Group: Eos Staff
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Mini-linears sound like a good idea -- particularly as a means of getting people interested in coming to a proper event!
We already ran our system by our rules-lawyery friends, but there's always room for more, particularly as we've changed it quite a lot since then. I do like the idea of posting the rulebook up here, too...could be a very useful idea. Thankyou!
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Joe Rooney, the Enemy Of Fun
Insurrection LRP: high fantasy in a dystopian setting. First event: 24-26 October 2008, in Leicestershire. Book online before October 1st for £10 discount!
Bladelands: Raoul Ortez - heretic, medium, bodyguard and scumbag
EOS: staff
Joe R's LARPCard
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Champion
Group: Eos Staff
Last Login: Yesterday @ 3:48 AM
Posts: 424,
Visits: 1,813
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raggedhalo (6/28/2007)
I do like the idea of posting the rulebook up here, too...could be a very useful idea. Thankyou!
And with that echoing in my ears, I have done so here. I'd be really grateful if you could take the time to look over it and tell me what you think. Cheers,
Joe
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Joe Rooney, the Enemy Of Fun
Insurrection LRP: high fantasy in a dystopian setting. First event: 24-26 October 2008, in Leicestershire. Book online before October 1st for £10 discount!
Bladelands: Raoul Ortez - heretic, medium, bodyguard and scumbag
EOS: staff
Joe R's LARPCard
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