Play-testing!
Ok, I can’t put this any simpler:
I want to play-test 4E!
“Sean, how can play-test a game when you’re going to be dealing with newborn twins?”
Er…uh…shut up!
Stupid reality messing over my grand plans…
Ok, so I won’t be as much into D&D for the next few months.
My wife knows how much I love D&D and it’s not like she’s chaining me to a couple of cribs. And I could not in good conscience leave her with two newborns while I run off and play a game out with my friends. But I assure you that I’ll be back to gaming the moment I have the opportunity.
“Well why don’t you bring your babies to the game?”
Because doing that is the epitome of selfishness.
“Hey guys I’m ready to game. Oh just ignore the screaming. They’re just hungry or something. It usually stops after an hour.”
Some of you might be thinking that never happens. If so, then you are very wrong I’m sad to say.
One time at a game store I saw a guy playing in a card tournament with his 3 month old. When the baby started getting hungry, rather than apologize to the other players and deal with the issue ASAP, he finished the game. And by the time he finished the game the baby was screaming its head off, a very unpleasant thing to hear.
Maybe I’m just a snob when it comes to people and their babies, but when I’m the one who has to tell you what is the polite thing to do then you’re in need of help.
But anyway…
I want to play-test 4E!
I’ll figure something out, even if the group has to play a month without me, I will do what I can to get us into that limited list of play-testing groups.
First step is to make sure we have the 6 total players needed that we’ve been told we need to have to be considered. I’ve actually had to turn away players the last few months and Justin said he has a friend or two who are up to playing. So that’s covered.
Now what separates us from every other group out there who wants in on the play-testing?
My blog?
No big help there. Any yahoo can get a blog.
Some yahoos slam the game.
Some yahoos act like they’re married to the game and kiss up to everyone in the hopes of not offending anyone.
I’m honest with my opinions about the game. I don’t slam the game. I bring light to the issues I think need addressing and try to alleviate them as best I can. From what I’ve seen and heard coming from WotC designers so far, we are seeing eye-to-eye on what needs some attention.
Our group’s experience?
That will help. We have around a hundreds years of accumulated gaming experience. Dale’s been playing since the late 70’s. I’ve been playing since mid 80’s. That’s half a century for just the two of us.
But gaming experience only cuts down the play-testing competition a little.
Our group’s stability?
We’ve been playing steadily for years now. Players come and go, but we have a core group of players who want a stable and fun game.
We do it by keeping out people who would take away from the game and we only D&D. Granted I’m the one who pushes that part the most, reasons for which I’ve explained in a previous entries to this blog.
That cuts out a little more of the competition, but not quite enough I think.
Now I need something else that will push us above the rest on some level.
“You could spend a lot of money on an overhead projector and display a map down on the game table like I’ve seen others do online.”
Ack! We don’t have that kind of money. And trust me, we have looked, especially Aaron. But even the cheapest projector is way out of our “$1 a week in dues” price range. We couldn’t even afford a replacement bulb.
And I am not about to shell out another $1000 for D&D. I did that last year for my podcasting equipment…
Hey…
We have decent recording equipment from my podcasting period!
We could record our sessions, I could cut them down to maybe 15 minutes of the best parts, and then we could give our reports of our play-test that way.
Even if I had to skip a game, I could still take the recording equipment to Aaron’s place, set it up and start it, then go pick it up later.
And this isn’t some cheap $50 USB microphone stuff. I spent nearly $1000 to buy some good microphones and stands, a mixer, and a laptop.
Since the play-testing will only be temporary I won’t have to worry about the long term loss of time like I had before when doing the podcast. I could just listen for the best parts and copy them over to a new track.
Just think about the people having to read all those play-testing reports. They could listen to the reports directly from the players voicing their opinions.
Podcasting equipment, that probably cuts the competition down to a manageable size.
So the last thing would be why I (well “we”) would want to play-test in the first place.
Off the top of my head I can think of two reasons.
I’m not going to lie; the first reason for me is to get a sneak preview of what’s coming up in 4E.
I know I wouldn’t be allowed to say anything or post anything on web-forums about the specifics of 4E thanks to the required non-disclosure agreements, but just being able to satisfy the curiosity would be great.
The second reason it to offer our aid in the design process.
Being able to give clear reasons why we think rule X needs some reworking, class Y is broken, item W is alright but could use some tweaking, or rule Z is great and should be duplicated elsewhere makes me feel like we could help out a lot.
I want us to be able to help make this version of the game what WotC is promising.
I’d much rather it be us saying something before hand than complaining about it after we have the books in hand.
I want to be able to post on this blog that WotC has some good plans and that you won’t be disappointed with 4E (without violating the NDA obviously).
Is that too much to ask?
I want to play-test 4E!
“Sean, how can play-test a game when you’re going to be dealing with newborn twins?”
Er…uh…shut up!
Stupid reality messing over my grand plans…
Ok, so I won’t be as much into D&D for the next few months.
My wife knows how much I love D&D and it’s not like she’s chaining me to a couple of cribs. And I could not in good conscience leave her with two newborns while I run off and play a game out with my friends. But I assure you that I’ll be back to gaming the moment I have the opportunity.
“Well why don’t you bring your babies to the game?”
Because doing that is the epitome of selfishness.
“Hey guys I’m ready to game. Oh just ignore the screaming. They’re just hungry or something. It usually stops after an hour.”
Some of you might be thinking that never happens. If so, then you are very wrong I’m sad to say.
One time at a game store I saw a guy playing in a card tournament with his 3 month old. When the baby started getting hungry, rather than apologize to the other players and deal with the issue ASAP, he finished the game. And by the time he finished the game the baby was screaming its head off, a very unpleasant thing to hear.
Maybe I’m just a snob when it comes to people and their babies, but when I’m the one who has to tell you what is the polite thing to do then you’re in need of help.
But anyway…
I want to play-test 4E!
I’ll figure something out, even if the group has to play a month without me, I will do what I can to get us into that limited list of play-testing groups.
First step is to make sure we have the 6 total players needed that we’ve been told we need to have to be considered. I’ve actually had to turn away players the last few months and Justin said he has a friend or two who are up to playing. So that’s covered.
Now what separates us from every other group out there who wants in on the play-testing?
My blog?
No big help there. Any yahoo can get a blog.
Some yahoos slam the game.
Some yahoos act like they’re married to the game and kiss up to everyone in the hopes of not offending anyone.
I’m honest with my opinions about the game. I don’t slam the game. I bring light to the issues I think need addressing and try to alleviate them as best I can. From what I’ve seen and heard coming from WotC designers so far, we are seeing eye-to-eye on what needs some attention.
Our group’s experience?
That will help. We have around a hundreds years of accumulated gaming experience. Dale’s been playing since the late 70’s. I’ve been playing since mid 80’s. That’s half a century for just the two of us.
But gaming experience only cuts down the play-testing competition a little.
Our group’s stability?
We’ve been playing steadily for years now. Players come and go, but we have a core group of players who want a stable and fun game.
We do it by keeping out people who would take away from the game and we only D&D. Granted I’m the one who pushes that part the most, reasons for which I’ve explained in a previous entries to this blog.
That cuts out a little more of the competition, but not quite enough I think.
Now I need something else that will push us above the rest on some level.
“You could spend a lot of money on an overhead projector and display a map down on the game table like I’ve seen others do online.”
Ack! We don’t have that kind of money. And trust me, we have looked, especially Aaron. But even the cheapest projector is way out of our “$1 a week in dues” price range. We couldn’t even afford a replacement bulb.
And I am not about to shell out another $1000 for D&D. I did that last year for my podcasting equipment…
Hey…
We have decent recording equipment from my podcasting period!
We could record our sessions, I could cut them down to maybe 15 minutes of the best parts, and then we could give our reports of our play-test that way.
Even if I had to skip a game, I could still take the recording equipment to Aaron’s place, set it up and start it, then go pick it up later.
And this isn’t some cheap $50 USB microphone stuff. I spent nearly $1000 to buy some good microphones and stands, a mixer, and a laptop.
Since the play-testing will only be temporary I won’t have to worry about the long term loss of time like I had before when doing the podcast. I could just listen for the best parts and copy them over to a new track.
Just think about the people having to read all those play-testing reports. They could listen to the reports directly from the players voicing their opinions.
Podcasting equipment, that probably cuts the competition down to a manageable size.
So the last thing would be why I (well “we”) would want to play-test in the first place.
Off the top of my head I can think of two reasons.
I’m not going to lie; the first reason for me is to get a sneak preview of what’s coming up in 4E.
I know I wouldn’t be allowed to say anything or post anything on web-forums about the specifics of 4E thanks to the required non-disclosure agreements, but just being able to satisfy the curiosity would be great.
The second reason it to offer our aid in the design process.
Being able to give clear reasons why we think rule X needs some reworking, class Y is broken, item W is alright but could use some tweaking, or rule Z is great and should be duplicated elsewhere makes me feel like we could help out a lot.
I want us to be able to help make this version of the game what WotC is promising.
I’d much rather it be us saying something before hand than complaining about it after we have the books in hand.
I want to be able to post on this blog that WotC has some good plans and that you won’t be disappointed with 4E (without violating the NDA obviously).
Is that too much to ask?
posted by BlueBlackRed at 7:00 PM
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