Beta Test for New Fantasy Boardgame

Welcome to the site!

The game looks gorgeous, and has great design!

As you want to Beta-test the game, you may want to produce some sort of feedback forms. If the intention is to test the game further, you need some way to gather any comments, advice, problems found, etc etc.

What is your aim for the game? Will you look to produce hardcopy versions for sale, to sell as pdf's online, or to keep it free?

Nestalawe'

Hey!

True, I did notice the Yahoo Group after I posted!

But definately some sort of feedback form would be useful, something clear and easy to fill out with easy directions on how to get it back to you.

Do some searching around these forums, as there are all sorts of threads discussing playtester feedback forms, what types of questions to ask etc etc.

Good Stuff!

I had a chance to skim through the rules. I have to concur with the others, the visual presentation is excellent and the world and backstory seem very well thought-out.

Unfortunately, unless I've missed something major, it seems like the story doesn't really come through in the gameplay very much. It seems like you would just kind of wander around, bump into some encounters, go into the dungeon/mine/castle, do whatever you do in there, and go home. But it doesn't seem like the game gives the players a clear motivation for why their characters prefer one destination over the other, and it seems that the encounters, while somewhat determined by your locale, are not much less randomly determined than if you simply had a deck of encounter cards.

To me, the biggest missed opportunity is the lack of development in the different cities/territories/races. It doesn't seem like you'd have a strong feeling of being in one place as opposed to another. I wonder if there isn't a simple way to achieve this more effectively. Perhaps you could give each race 3 or 4 attributes that each affect the game in some way. For example,
Generosity
Knowledge
Magic-aversion
Bargaining

and then give each race a different rating in each category on a 3-point scale. That would give the possibility to create 81 different races. The key is really how you structure the categories and their interaction with the game. For example, maybe you'll go a little out of your way to visit the Kardane because of their broad knowledge, but you incur some risk in going there because they are very suspicious of magic and your party includes a powerful wizard.

In other words, I think you've focused too much on the micro-scale issues like character stats, encounter resolution, etc. I think that if you take a step back and try to make the world feel a bit more impactful on the mechanics of the game, and give players a little more reason to feel like they should want to go to Point X instead of Point Y, it will really help make the game more three-dimensional.

Just some impressions after reading the rules. Hope this helps!

Good luck,

Jeff

My pleasure. As I said, the visual presentation is so great that it's one of those games that makes you want to like it even before you know anything about it.

I think that's quite accurate. But in reading the game, realizing this was a huge let-down, given how articulated the world seems to be. You've apparently invested a ton of work in the backstory, but it has no impact on the game whatsoever; why then are we given the backstory in the first place?

Yes and no; the narrative of the Hobbit obviously is leading up to a specific accomplishment (the recovery of the dragon's treasure), and also intersperses snippets of a larger story (the discovery of the ring). But I think that what works so well in the Hobbit and that seems lacking here is the specificity of the characters that you encounter, and we can zoom out to Tolkien's entire world to see that -- we get the sense that elves are different from dwarves are different from people, and moreover, the elves of Mirkwood are different from the elves of Rivendell are different from the elves of Lothlorien. Now, granted, this is way easier to accomplish in a book than in a game, but I think that there are probably simple ways that you could more strongly model your races, your cities, and your encounters so that players get a true feeling of place.

I agree, it's clear you've put a lot of thought into the micro-scale of the game, and I bet it would be fun to play.

The concern I have is that I don't think that what happens along the way will differ much from game to game except in degree. I should back up and confess that I haven't really played any of the dungeon crawlers that are out there so I don't exactly know what makes them enjoyable or not. But it seems to me that games like Runebound or Descent offer a very similar experience of being able to go on an adventure, encounter some bad guys, advance their skill levels, etc. I think the real potential for differentiation for your game comes in the potential for characters to feel like they are exploring and experiencing the broader world you've created. I think it's a missed opportunity to not try to incorporate it.

I guess I just feel like I'd want to say after a session "that was fun to explore the mountains; next time, let's try to sail along the coast of the inner sea and check out the towns there, or maybe pass through the great forest into the Barbarian lands", and have the differences be more consequential than just setting you in a different column on the encounter table.

Out of curiosity, how far along is the game? How long have you been working on it, and how much has it been played? It has a close-to-done feel, so perhaps my suggestions are more back-to-basics than what you're really looking to consider at this point...

-Jeff

Hey!

I agree with Jeff in that there should definately be a strong feel of the world inthe game. I haven't played it, but there is obviously a very richly detailed wold there that should be utilised, players should feel immersed in the game world, and every game/adventure should be different.

Because the world is so rich and gorgeous, players should really feel they have been to the places as described in the background and the map, they should fight the creatures local to the areas they are wandering though, meeting the inhabitants and gaining favour/distrust from the locals depending on the races and natures of the player's characters.

I think the hard thing is to be able to keep this all within the bounds of a boardgame! In effect you are creating a boardgame version of a rpg, so you need to look at what the core excitement of a rpg is.

I agree that there should be location specific encounters, creatures, locations and effects. Adventuring through the Elvish lands should feel very different to wandering across the Dervish lands.

Maybe a manageable way of developing this would be to focus on one 'Empire' at a time. Each extra Empire could act as an expansion to the game. So a player investing time/energy/cash into the game could begin playing with one empire, then they could print out and make the bits needed for an adjacent empire and build up from there. As the players develop, they would want to travel more etc. Some areas could also be a lot harder than others, adding to a Campaign feel to the game, with players starting in the safer areas, then travelling into the more difficult places.

Maybe it would be worthwhile thinking back to what the core goals of the game design are. My initial impressions were that the players are exploring and adventuring, discovering interesting things and developing their characters. Also that the main focus of the game was buliding up a story around the actions of the characters and the places they explore. But for this to be truly enriching you really need to make all the different places unique and true to your game world. Each game needs to be different and engrossing, and players need to discover and do new things each game. One way of doing this is for the characters to be able to make a range of decisions, and as you mention, manage their resources, but it is also about the players immersing themselves in this world, imagining where they are and having unique adventures each time...

On another note, it would be very cool to develop your world and map into a nation level strategic wargame, let me know if/when you want to start working on that one ;)

Keep up the good work!