Friends! I’m a couple weeks away from releasing an alpha/ashcan version of Lonesome World, a PbtA one-on-one Western-themed game.
In your experience, what is the most important piece of an early-version PbtA rpg to help play-testers feel comfortable with a new game? (i.e. besides the basics of moves, character creation, advancement, and agenda/principles, what else should I be sure to include?)
Bonus question: If you’ve done any play-testing without the author present, what’s been the most convenient way for you to provide feedback? (compose quick email, complete survey, have a phone call, etc.)
Many thanks!
I’d toss in a 1 pager of gotchas – anything where assumptions from other PBTA games might throw someone off – so they find those things up front rather than halfway through play. These include rules-specific stuff, but even things like changes in emphasis and (most critically) subtle changes in things like moves deserve a call out.
I find a basic overview of how a session of the game would look like pretty useful, specially if the game deals with a kind of story that is not evident or well-known by most people. Something like “here’s the structure of a typical session” helps me a lot is these cases.
Rob Donoghue Great advice! Because of the one-on-one approach, there are sets of moves that sit a bit outside the typical framework. Any examples from other games you’ve looked at?
Hijos Del Rol I added this pretty early as I realized that with just two, the improvisation requires greater effort.
A compelling piece of cover art helps sell the idea of your game and held to anchor the game in the mind (and on social media).
As someone who has processed a ton of feedback on PbtA stuff over the years, I strongly prefer emails. Usually, I end up having to followup with people when they fill out a survey because the problem/solution cycle is so specific. (Also, hat tip to Brand Robins who just sends me PDFs with comments stuck all over them for playbook feedback.)
Marshall Miller Sage advice! Thanks Marshall! As a tangent, I’ve found that this side project/hobby is constantly testing my commitment to it. I chose to take it more seriously a few months ago after listening to Alex Roberts interview with John Harper, which meant leveling up my historic research, testing efforts, and production. Now I ask myself, “If you’re really taking this seriously, how much time are you going to spend to find just the right cover art? Will you spend your own money to license it?”
Adding to what Rob Donoghue already mentioned are whatever playtest playbooks you are providing to be as polished as possible as that is all a player might read, and any special guidance you think is crucial for GMs to know in order to make LW succeed (especially since it is designed specifically for one-on-one play).
By the way, if you’re interested and available for an online play-test session (evening, US Eastern time), sign up here. I’d be grateful for the help!
docs.google.com – Lonesome World Play Test Sign-up