Showing posts with label Intrigue onboard the Fleur-de-lis. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Intrigue onboard the Fleur-de-lis. Show all posts

Wednesday, September 16, 2009

First playtesting! OMG!

Yesterday evening I run the first ever playtest game of Intrigue onboard the Fleur-de-lis (link to alpha draft). Thanks to my uber-awesome friends Nicola Ferrari (who also volunteered to host the game, at a very short notice - "very short" as in: less than 2 hrs) and Lorenzo Marcheselli (who also drove me to Nicola's place).

The good:
  • Both Nicola and Lorenzo said they enjoyed the game.
  • The fundamental concept of the game is indeed viable.
  • The basic structure of it appears to hold water (ah-ah!).
  • The game sort of automatically generates actual play reports. I didn't think of it, so kudos to Nicola for pointing this out.
  • Intelligent apes with jedi swords. No kidding. And ancient table forks.
The bad:
  • Too long! I was aiming for 3 hrs or less, but hadn't we improptu cut it short by arbitrarily removing a round of Charts from Open Sea mid-game, it would have lasted 4 hrs or more.
  • Too exhausting! My brain still haches from the effort of keeping all the pieces of information together. Two hours and a half into the game, I had an expression of pain on my face and was longing for it to end... I was almost crying for sweet, sweet release! (Luckily, my friends disagree with me, or so they say. Is this a game for murder mistery enthusiasts, maybe?)
  • My math sucks! All of the dice rolls were piece-of-cake, with base numbers no lower than twice the target numbers. Not a single player marked any Xs on his character sheet in the whole game.
  • Too much writing, and too much time spent writing. The worst is, I still can't think of a workaround.
  • There are a few grey areas in the mechanics, in dire need of clarification or - you know - to actually be designed. No big deal: this is what playtesting is for.

Things I'm probably going to change in the next playtest run (and I suggest you consider in case you do attempt to play the game):
  • Each player only prepares 3 "Charts" (one per type, period). You still discard one per type before starting the game, so you're going to have a total of 6 in play (instead of 9).
  • The Tangle Rating only increases by 1 per 4 scenes played (as opposed to 3). It does not further increase with Acts concluding (which was a mess anyway): just count scenes.

Also, a very special and heartfelt thank goes to the overwhelmingly awesome Dan Maruschak, who took the time to wade through the linguistic horror of my draft and provide precious editing suggestions. A native-English-speaker editor! I still can hardly believe so much kindness exists in the world, but here's proof it does.
I will integrate Dan's corrections in the next draft (be it an Alpha.2 or a Beta version), together with any substantial changes emerging from playtests.

Thanks again, Nicola, Lorenzo and Dan!

Monday, September 14, 2009

Intrigue onboard the Fleur-de-lis

My entry for Game Chef 2009 is online and was submitted, like, one hour ago for a Two Weeks medal.
This makes it the first entry I ever submitted on time for any Game Chef ever.

With some luck, I'll be running a playtest tonight.
This would make it my first playtested entry into any contest whatsoever.

Sunday, September 13, 2009

All I need to know I learned from Edgar Allan Poe

Yes, I had a feeling that re-reading The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym was key to completing my game/entry, but as I discovered yesterday morning... I was actually underestimating the importance of it!
In fact, casual mention by Poe lead me to discover the existence of monsieur Kerguelen. Starting from there, everything easily fell into place like a deliberate, carefully crafted puzzle the wacky side of History had a lot of fun leaving for me to solve.
Now I just need to write a set of Omens (random encounter cards of a sort) before I can submit the draft and begin playtesting it.

Thursday, September 10, 2009

Getting closer to having an entry to brag about

Done:
  • a draft of the rules.

To do:
  • nail down the (historical and geographical) setting, down to naming the three main characters;
  • write a deck of random encounter cards;
  • playtesting.

I missed a 1st week medal, but thanks Jay Walton for thinking of a "2 weeks" milestone. Playtesting is unlikely to happen within said two weeks, but a full first draft is definitely gonna be uploaded in time, people!

Monday, August 31, 2009

Be obvious: your first idea is the best one (and much more so as the clock is running fast)

I want to design a single-scenario game, mostly suitable for convention one-shots and fully compatible with the Flying Circus format: this way, it'll be easier to get some real playtesting done (reduced mental overlap with my other design projects, including huge, multi-scenario Trame and campaign-oriented Il vizio della spada, is a nice plus). Knowing that already, I checked the theme and ingredients today...
"Dividers", "Seabird" and "Star" immediately suggested a sailing ship for a backdrop. Obvious, of course, but so much better than going game-chef-cruft. "Fleur-de-lis"? It's probably depicted on the ship's flag, meaning it's like a French ship or something. Le quart livre springs to my mind (or, rather, it was already sitting there since yesterday evening, for no particular reason).
Then there's the Cerberus Award: "make a game for three players" - a nice number, indeed, and a way to give my chances to run playtests a little boost. Gotta take a shot at that one.
"Intrigue" as the theme, though... I can well conceive intrigues taking place onboard a ship at sea, but I won't be bothered to design just another game in which players keep secrets from each other and scheme behind each other's back toward some kind of victory. Don't hear me wrong: it'd be a nice sort of game, but it's been done to death already (being the oldest hat in RPGs, actually, if you accont for Braunstein) and I have friends who are so much better than me at designing that sort of thing, so no, not my cup of tea, thank you.
I want the intrigue of this game to be out in the open, instead: something players collaboratively spin on a "metagame" level, then fit into the past by ret-con. Retroactive continuity! Yes, this one's been on my mind for a long time: designing to support and promote retconning.
Now, I "just" need to set a few more points in my mind and write down a draft. In English. Despite the too many things I'm supposed to do this week (mostly game-related things, thankfully!). Well, that, or I'll just pass on the first deadline and go for the 2 weeks mark (Mark Twain? Gosh... let's stop with the Owlbear related in-jokes at once!).