Home Stretch Playtest

[mwaschak]

Hello all,

Tyrel will be putting the final touches on the pre-layout version of second edition in the next few days. We have carefully reviewed the new changes and are ready to forge ahead. So, we need you! We are planning a two week forum based playtest that focuses on the fundamentals of the rules and need some players. If you are interested please post here, or email one of the VBAM Games team.

Thanks!
Jay

[mavikfelna]

I'm still interested.

--Mav

[OneMadOgre]

Yes please.

[Asguard101]

I've never played your system, but I'm will to give it a go.

[FlyingMonkey127]

I've never played your system, but I'm will to give it a go.

Ditto, I'm completely new to this but ready to dive in head first.

[mwaschak]

Thank you everyone. I am organizing the final details with Tyrel and will get back to you shortly with the playtest scenario.

-Jay

[Emiricol]

Well, you know I'd love to playtest! Can you give me a rough estimate of turn frequency and how much time weekly would be required? I do not want to over-commit and then not come through!

[Tyrel Lohr]

I've spent the last week that I've been on holiday getting the last of the rules in place and making sure I'm not missing anything important. There are still a few areas that need to be finished based on the previous work + development notes, but the rules are effectively feature complete. Bridging/narrative text, examples, and final game setup rules will be written as we run the playtest to make sure we cover all the necessary details and (more importantly) that they match how the rules have evolved since the last major period of development.

I'm going to leave most of the logistics of running the playtest up to Jay, as he can do that while I'm writing rules and integrating changes. I did get him a map and system stats this evening that he could use in the playtest, which might help get things started on that end.

I have to confer with Jay but we'll probably release a draft copy of the rules on Friday evening so that people can start reading through them and looking for any obvious problems. I still have to do readability, spelling, and grammar edits of the rules but haven't worried about doing that until it looks like the rules are in final form and don't need anymore substantial revisions.

I'm not sure what rate of turn generation Jay is going to be able to achieve, but it'd be nice to keep the game flowing so that we could get through several turns a week. If there are any playtesters that would be interested, I think I'd like to try getting a group together via email/IM/Skype one weekend this month to try and play out a bit quicker game and see what happens. Email is the most practical, as then we could run probably 6-8 turns each day (about one an hour, possibly faster on turns where nothing happens). It probably isn't feasible, but it'd be nice to give a shot. With a small enough map it should be possible.

In the meantime as I prepare playtest pack materials I'm going to be setting up a series of solo campaigns to test the rules out. Again I have to ask Jay about this first, but I think most of the data I'm putting together for the playtest should be able to be released alongside the playtest draft (i.e., it doesn't need to be held in secret for fog of war concerns). That way players will have everything they need to jump in and start playtesting.

[mwaschak]

Thanks everyone. I have sent you a PM (or email) so I can get you the files we need.

Over the next few days you will be receiving playtest material directly from me. This will include the map for the upcoming game, the system stats, and a copy of the 2e playtest rules. It is our hope that we can launch the scenarios early next week after you have had some time to review the 2e rules and have a fair idea what we are doing.

Since the purpose of this scenario is to throttle test 2e and our latest changes we will be moving this game at a relatively brisk pace. If you prefer a slower game please let me know and I will try to group you together with like minded players.

Of course, assuming things go we will can keep these campaigns going for fun but we need to look for 11th hour issues at this point.

All the best,
Jay

[EpicMan]

I assume it's too late to join the playtest game?

[mwaschak]

I assume it's too late to join the playtest game?

Please send me your email. So far I have had a few other players not respond.

-Jay