AnSR Games
  • Home
  • News
  • Games
    • CH35S
    • ManaSeekers
    • U3 RPG
    • YMOR Games
    • ZipWarZ
  • Upcoming Games
  • About
  • Home
  • News
  • Games
    • CH35S
    • ManaSeekers
    • U3 RPG
    • YMOR Games
    • ZipWarZ
  • Upcoming Games
  • About

News and Musings

RPG Designer Diary: The First Playtest (06)

5/20/2015

 
A'n'SR -entertainments is making a new version of our role-playing game, -U- the Game of Stories. As part of the process, we are sharing our thoughts and insights. This time around... our first real playtest of our first completed book.

The Non-Playtest

When we started making the new version of -U-, we started with the rules. We were playing a campaign of our game Angels, and between adventures, we changed to the new -U- system so that we could fiddle with the mechanics. This was kind of our first playtest. We were solely working on mechanics and character sheets, and the overall feel of the game as a rules-lite system. We made some changes to how characters are created (a whole article on its own) and to the dice (I think we have finally decided on six-sided dice), but overall, we worked out a lot of bugs in the system.

While we were working on the mechanics, we were also writing our first book, -U- Angels: The Demon's Hunt. The adventure in it is a bit of a departure from the adventures we have previously published. In fact, it is a lot different. So, when we sat down to run through the adventure, we were truly testing a new game system with a new adventure style. So how did it go?

1st Run-through

Picture
The first time we ran through the game, we decided to do a duet game (1 Main Character player, 1 Game Narrator). Character creation went very fast, but then again, we had a player familiar with the rules doing it. Still... the longest part was thinking of the character concept.

Next came the actual adventure/story. The Demon's Hunt book is made for a fast fun adventure that plays out like a TV show. The Main Characters are introduced, they come across a conflict, they search for a resolution, and the adventure ends with them back where they started, only more experienced. It is written with lots of read-aloud text and some key Character Checks and moments where Main Characters do stuff.

The game, honestly, went very well, with only one poorly written, yet key part of it falling flat. A quick rewrite, and it was solved, though. Some things we found out during the session, both about the game and the rule set were:
  • When you roll the dice, we were calling it a Dramatic Action. That really didn't work for us. So, we changed the term to Character Check. Much better. More descriptive of what the dice were rolled for.
  • The head Demon in town is really a fun character, and can easily steal the story, if not careful.
  • We needed more logic in the story to connect the plot points.
  • The game can play in 2 hours from beginning to end with 1 Main Character.
  • The rolling of 6-sided dice vs 20-sided dice we had before worked really well.
  • We want to write more adventures like these.

Summary

So, the first round went well. We are looking forward to running this story a few more times and working more bugs out with it. The read-aloud text parts worked very well, and helped keep the story moving and the tone of the tale in place.

Next Time...

Next time, we talk about the the idea of the 3-hour RPG... no, really.

A'n'SR is at Geekway this weekend!

5/15/2015

 
Picture
Aaron and Steph here. We are at the Geekway to the West convention in St. Louis this year. If you are around, catch us walking around or set-up at a table help us playtest our new RPG!

    RSS Feed

    Archives

    January 2023
    December 2022
    May 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    September 2021
    July 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    June 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    November 2018
    August 2018
    May 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    December 2017
    October 2017
    August 2017
    April 2017
    December 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    June 2016
    January 2016
    October 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    March 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013
    December 2012
    November 2012
    October 2012
    September 2012
    August 2012
    July 2012
    June 2012
    May 2012
    April 2012
    March 2012
    January 2012
    December 2011
    November 2011
    October 2011
    September 2011
    August 2011
    July 2011

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.
Photos used under Creative Commons from KrautScientist, Francois Karm, wwarby, rodtuk, stevendepolo, Fareham Wine, mikecogh, davis.steve32, vidurskye, Cubmundo, Ramon Oromí Farré [calBenido], Phil Roeder, byzantiumbooks, Creative Tools
  • Home
  • News
  • Games
    • CH35S
    • ManaSeekers
    • U3 RPG
    • YMOR Games
    • ZipWarZ
  • Upcoming Games
  • About