Front Page

Content

Authors

Game Index

Forums

Site Tools

Submissions

About

TToA Playtest, Arise!

Hot
JL Updated
There Will Be Games

Well, 6 months after getting publisher feedback, I finally finished revising Thrilling Tales of Adventure! It was a lot of work, taking up every last minute of spare time that was already at a premium since we had welcomed a new addition to the family in December. The biggest change was throwing out the old movement system and replacing it with one that would theoretically tie in better to the other game systems, but I made a host of other changes as well. I brought the map size down about 20% to open up more table space, redesigned the basic card layout, and tweaked nearly every other aspect of the game in some way.

I decided to produce two prototypes at the same time, and with the generous production assistance of some of my students, finished them up earlier this week. Then, on this past Wednesday and Thursday nights, we ran two playtest sessions concurrently.

The first night took the wind out of my sails, since the new movement system generated a number of problems. It's definitely easier and more  intuitive than the old one, but there were still issues with getting around and completing Adventures within the prescribed turn time limits. A couple of players had frustrating experiences, which I tend to take pretty hard because I'm so concerned with people having a good time. By the end of the Wednesday session I was demoralized, thinking about cancelling the Thursday night session, and contemplating giving up on the whole project altogether.

Luckily my students encouraged me not to give up, pointing out the positive aspects of the design and the ways in which they had been having fun. They convinced me to carry on with the Thursday session. I went home, thought about what short-term changes I could make to the design, and came back the next night with notes and newly-printed combat tables in hand.

I'm happy to report that the Thursday session went much, much better. There are still some issues, but a few small changes steered us clear of what had been disastrous about the movement system the previous night. One of the two games was taken to the end, coming down to a face-off between Rockwell Jones and the Arch Villain Baron Zero in his fortress in the Gobi Desert with the military occupation of Eurasia in the balance. It was right down to the last die roll, and Rockwell won it.

We had to cut the other game short  at 1a.m., but the Heroes had a satisfying final Adventure that took them into the depths of the Earth beneath Atlantis, where they fought Mole Men and the Death Sphinx before defeating General Midnight in his subterranean bunker. That game took longer because it was a learning game with four players who had never played before.

So, overall, it turned out for the better. People were having a lot of fun, there was a lot of laughter, and a lot of dramatic tension. After collecting everyone's feedback and seeing how the new systems work (or don't), I am once again faced with the task of producing another prototype. Luckily it will be a case of tweaking everything that's already there, so it won't be as big a production as this last version was, but it will probably still take me another couple of months. In the meantime, the two prototypes that I do have are workable, and we'll continue to test them as we have the opportunity. Onward!

Many thanks to all of my awesome students and friends who have contributed their time, effort, and encouragement to this crazy project!

There Will Be Games
Log in to comment