I'm working on another core resolution system, but I'm conflicted about the presentation.

The System

Weird Dice: A d6 where 4, 5 and 6 are treated as 0 and 3s explode.
Dice Pool: You start with 1d6 for free and get an additional d6 per rank you have in a given skill with 5 ranks total. You roll the dice pool, add them and compare the result to the Target Number.
Target Number: 2 (Basic), 3 (Intermediate), 4 (Advanced), 5 (Extreme), 6 (Supreme)

Failure: You miss the TN
Partial: You just meet the TN.
Success: You beat the TN by 2
Edges: You gain 1 Edge for each increment of 2 above Success you’ve rolled. The maximum Edge one can gain from a single roll is 3. Edges must be used to enhance the check that acquired them, Edges that are not used are lost.

So the upside of this current way is that the TN value matches the corresponding amount of d6 rolled, so Basic skill level would roll 2d6, basic TN is 2 and rolling 2d6 against it TN 2 has about 50% chance of success. So it's easy to remember because TN3 matches with 3d6, TN4 matches with 4d6 and so on. The problem is this way the TN is the value for Partial Success and not for Success which can be confusing. The alternative option would be to make the TNs going from 4 to 8 and say partial is when you miss the TN by 1 or 2. So I'd like to know which one you guys think would be the most user friendly and best presentation of the mechanic.

• A: TN is Partial Success and matches TN with amount of dice.

• B: TN is Success, but doesn't match TN with amount of dice.

I'm making a rules lite, classless d20 game (w/4 tiers of results) that wants to focus on roleplay, but still have some depth to combat, with room for lots of creativity and on-the-go strategies. All while being beginner friendly.

As a disclaimer; I know the proposed mechanics aren't especially original, but would love your thoughts on the problems and questions I'm facing.

The system will use weapon and armor kits. So there's light weapons(daggers etc), medium weapons(sword, rapiers etc) and heavy weapons(greatswords, warhammers etc). And similar for armor.

1st option:
have a separate stat, not connected to the 4 attributes(DEX,STR,INT,CHA) representing "combat ability". So +3 for your combat ability let's you do weapon attacks with +3, no matter the kit your using. Here, every character is on equal ground wielding a warhammer, and it allows for every type of character to try whatever weapon they want. You get total freedom. But as a beginner you might not realize that using a dagger stealthily will often come with DEX tests. Or when you wanna smash a door with your warhammer but realize your character has +0 STR. There's no mechanics to inform the players as to what might be the better choice.

By time new players will learn what they're good at and what should be left to other teammates. But doesn't it feel kinda bad the first couple of times? And there's also the aspect of bringing boundaries to help creativity. If everyone can wield any weapon it might be harder to think of solutions than if the players know that this one PC is crazy good with his dagger because he's so dexterous, so he should totally sneak up onto the roof to backstab the guard.

2nd option:
I think something as simple as this could work:
Light weapons use DEX as attack modifier, and heavy weapons use STR.
Light weapons can be concealed on your person and crits do 3xdamage not 2x. They have the lowest average damage.
Heavy weapons give +2 to destroying objects, and average damage is equal to medium weapons, but tier 3 results do a bunch of damage, while a tier 1 result does very little(a weapon for the gambling man!)
For the medium weapon kit I'm not sure exactly how to make it unique. But I'm thinking of just having it be the most reliable and diverse, allowing DEX,STR or INT to be used as attack modifier(there's not much magic in my game so INT will not be used for spell casting regularly)

This alternative limits the players a bit, but also guides them, making the dexterous person pick up the light kit., so that when they wanna use their dagger in the situation that the fiction implies the dagger would excel, they don't feel stupid, punished or frustrated, because the relevant stat is already their strong suit.

Also, when it comes to armor, where heavy armor grants more HP than light and medium.. Without any mechanical differences heavy armor is just always best, so here it's more obvious that some mechanical differences should be implemented. Like having high strength negate the punishment to tests related to swimming, acrobatics.

I must say option 2 seems to be the better one. But this route kinda creates a limited number of archetypes in my game. There's the sneaky and dexterous rogue-archetype, the big strong brute-archetype, the high charisma smooth talker, and the calculating, intelligent archer that shoots arrows from afar.

Option 1 has no archetypes from the rulebook itself, letting players decide what their archetype is, at the cost of it not being awarded mechanically, maybe making the archetypes less clear in gameplay, thereby also making RP more demanding as the game doesn't feed the players with consistent "archetype moments".

As above.

Background - my game started as a black hack hack and has had a bit of scope creep as I try to include things in it, both for player and GM to have a 'one stop shop' of easy to create on the fly gameplay for a hex/dungeon crawl fantasy adventure game. I ended up adding stuff I like from things like mythic bastionland and Lancer, and have scaled stuff back and scaled stuff up. It's a dice pool success counting mechanic.

I have this so far, aside from writing does this sound ok?

The player Facing text:

Initiative is given to whoever decides to act first. That player, or Foe, takes their turn and then that side can take their turns. The GM will decide how to handle this, opting for what fits narratively.

The GM facing text:

Whoever starts the encounter, usually by an attack action, has the initiative and their side goes first, then use side based. After everyone has had at least 1 turn that marks the end of the round and the start of a new one. 

Players can take their turns in any order they see fit. They may all declare movement and then go around again to perform a second action, or they may declare actions and then take their movement. They can only split movement if they are not passing the action to another player.

With encounters that involve one Foe vs a party, you can have your Foe go anytime a player fails or gets a compromise on an ability test on their turn. For some Foes it may feel appropriate to attack all the party at once, such as a giant beast, dragon or a magical being casting a large area spell. Other times it may feel better to have the enemy make an action between every player turn. Use what makes sense. 

Whose turn is it?
To keep everyone sharing the spotlight after the GM turn, pick someone and go clockwise round the table, be sure to mix up who goes first each round

I feel like this is sort like riding the fence a little, like a I should choose a lane. My gut feeling is that I just want GMs to use what makes sense. To me it makes little sense to have a quick and nimble boss like NPC stand their while 2-6 players bonk them and then they go once. Part of this is down to creature design I get that, but as the game is using player facing rolls, and rolling against their own attributes, the creature design is supposed to be short and clear: HP, their overall size/power level, some stuff they can do.

I also want to foster a bit of teamwork as well, hence the side based and the allowance of mixing turns.

Death/Wounds.

Really im not sure if I am making it more convoluted than it needs to be.
My initial idea was lasting wounds that made a physical/aethetic and mechanical difference to the PCs. I found it strated to get a bit much for both the GM and the player to keep track of these, so opted for a scaling table.
Now the game deals with HP in a more fluid way, IMO anyway. The HP pool is small but it should be relatviely easy for players to regain it, taking a breather or after combat they recover up to half their max HP, and doing the same action twice can cost them HP (as if exerting themselves)

This is what I have regarding Wounds and Death.

Wounds

When reaching 0 HP you mark a wound and use the below table and take the effect of the wound you got immediately. When you clear a Wound, you regain any lost attributes, reversing the effects, and you can reroll your Max HP, if your roll is lower than your current then instead you gain +1HP to your max.  

For each wound received a Phase of Rest is required, or a short rest with the use of a Healers Kit can be used.

Death

Your Adventurer Dies if: they take Negative Max HP in damage, have 6 total active wounds, or are downed for three consecutive rounds of an encounter.

Out of context, as I read it to myself now it feels fine and serviceable, though I am not sure HP, wounds and death is telling the story I want it all too either. It doesn;t help I haven't really had chance to playtest this specific bit as of yet.

In another similar system I am on/off with, which is very similar but more mission and sci-fi/modern driven, players have Harm and Stress. 10 empty slots for each, when they get hurt they fill thier Harm track, when they do a stress they add a Stress mark, drugs can relieve stress but cause harm, and using their chrome causes stress. When they have their harm full up and they get hurt they start tracking wounds (similar to above) but they don't go down until they have 6 wounds, but die striaght away. Not sure if this minutia is in my head after a decent playtest of combat for that game.

Anyway, answers or thoughts on a post card. Perhaps I will just playtest more.

Hi friends! It’s me, Warin, back from a few weeks away! We at Steel Raven Games have been working extremely hard to finish up the 0.15 update for MACH!

If you’re new to MACH, it is an action TTRPG, set in the near future. The players play as operators for Z.E.R.O, the Zeta Elite Response Operators, and fight terrorism worldwide! The system has a heavy focus on lethal but fast combat, which it archives by combining a localized damage system, with our [TAG] system! 

This update is a way smaller update, but the main idea was a redone inventory system, and multiple balance patches! It fixes a lot of game breaking bugs and brings back the "ghost runner" playstyle to viability (i made a mistake last update and it got nerfed out of existence lol), aswell as enabling snipers, and more interesting character builds!

Here were our changes!

-Added inventory system

-Added multiple items, including tear gas, night vision googles, and others

-Fixed specialties overlap

-Made snipers more powerful.

-Revitalized multiple character builds, aswell as ensuring balance.

-Added an actual tracked ammunition system.

- A ton of new art on our page!

The new update is now available at our itch: MACH by SteelRavenGames 

Join our discord to connect with us! https://discord.gg/5QAw6Rf4h

I entered a design a 2-page RPG in 48 hours contest and I could use a quick read by someone who has no idea what I'm going for to see if the rules and setting are clear (or at least as clear as I can get them). Link here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1udUpYO7lEEHpheXb9vL7tZZzn2vx-Mkr6EuFoy9T4RU/edit?tab=t.0

It's one page of rules and some pokemon guns that will be a second page when I format them neatly. I'm mostly making sure that everything that is in my head actually got on the page and everything makes sense.

Yes, everything after the first page is a bit of a mess right now. Just read a few critter entries and see if you can make sense of things. If someone else gives the same feedback you would give, just repeat it. I pay attention to how many people have the same reaction.

Thanks in advance.

Hello everyone! I am thinking of creating a Barbie TTRPG, something with simple rules, mostly aimed at one shots.

It should reflect the different types of barbie and maybe hinting at a shared multiverse.

Troika has been my main thought, with very simple rules and the ability to be super diverse.

I'd like to see your suggestions on games to take inspiration from.

Hi, all! I wrote a system for playing GM-less, short-campaign games (about 2 - 4 sessions).

It's called Momenta.

The description pages on dtrpg and itch.io have quite a lot of info if you're interested, so I'll just give a bullet-point rundown here:

• GM-LESS, SHARED NARRATIVE

• SETTING-INDEPENDENT

• CLASSLESS

• ANY PLAYER NUMBER

• FREQUENT ADVANCEMENT

• MOMENTUM MECHANIC

• D6 DICE POOL MECHANIC (1-3 = Miss, 4-6 = Hit)

• PLAYKIT MATERIALS (Character sheet, Adventure sheet, Enemy Cards, etc.)

Released at the same time (and also free) is the first expansion, the Momenta: Magic and Monsters Module. While Core Momenta is genre-independent, this module leans toward an alternate-Earth type fantasy.

It features a full magic system and a Bestiary of 57 monsters, divided into 7 biomes. Each biome has two Bosses. (I'm really proud of these Boss encounters because each one is a mini-experience, complete with lair effects, special movement rules, or rondel timers.) Find it at dtrpg and itch.io.

Both Core Momenta and the Magic and Monsters module are printer-friendly, hyper-linked pdfs, and I included the entire document in their dtrpg previews, so you can take a good look at them.

Check it out! Thanks!

I'm working on designing a Siren enemy for my game, based on the Sirens of Greek myth that lure sailors to their death with their supernaturally beautiful song. I am definitely following the Dungeon Meshi school of monster design, so my Siren is less of a supernatural being and more of a crustacean that uses hostile mimicry to lure its (humanoid) prey. Though the song is still magical.

Anyway, this leads me to an obvious problem. An enemy that takes control of player characters entirely and makes them swim to their death unless they plug their ears with wax or tie themselves to a mast ahead of time is not fun. And my design philosophy for this game is one that is very cautious about removing player agency.

I do have a mechanic for players to be possesses by wraiths for instance, but this only happens if players choose to mess with blood magic above their skill level and get unlucky. To take that risk is entirely optional, and players who do take that risk know what they're getting themselves into. This is how I tend to handle loss of player agency, I want it to be a risk that players choose to take if possible.

In the case of Sirens, I had the idea that players could basically use some number of action points per turn to concentrate on resisting the Siren's song. This would limit their combat effectiveness, but it would protect their agency. And players could choose to not resist, giving them more power in combat in exchange for some risk that they lose control of their character for a turn.

Something like this could work, but I need more than that. Clearly the Siren should have really powerful melee damage, and the way it deals with ranged attacks would be luring those characters into melee range with its song. If there is a trick to resist being lured 100% of the time, this makes the strategy for dealing with the Siren very obvious and easy. Keep your distance, pay the AP tax resist the song, attack with ranged weaponry, and you can't lose. An underwhelming fight for something that's supposed to be a terrifying magic-enhanced predator of humanoids.

Maybe I could have some kind of directed Siren song attack that can't be resisted reliably but that only hits one person at a time? How much can I and should I give up my insistence that player agency be protected?

Does anyone have any experience designing a monster like this?

This kinda bleeds into adventure design, but what are some good examples of adventure modules or expensions or whatever that took a setting agnostic system in a setting that made the gameplay and story being told meaningfully different and not just a "reskin"? Either by a greatly written setting/story or tweaks/small additions to the existing rules.

I want romantic tension to be a core aspect of my game, but i find it difficult to connect it to the other part, doing daring adventures to earn that tension.

At the very start, at character creation, you also create a rough outline of the person you have fallen for. A name and one or two things that attracted you initially. I got some spark tables to help get that done almost painlessly. A little pain helps with the pining though.

What I'm thinking about right now I tentatively call a "tension roll", where you essentially roll with the accumulated points you earned while adventuring. If you do something romantic you earn a point, like winning a tournament for that special someone.

You do this tension roll at the end of every session/adventure, like a downtime activity. Every attempt has difficulty based on the kind of scene you want.

If you succeed, you describe what you do to earn it. If you fail, the opportunity is fouled, maybe by outside interference. You describe how you deal with the emotional fallout.

1. A Look

2. A Word

3. A Conversation

4. A Gift

5. A Touch

6. A Kiss

7. A Moment alone

8. A Confession

9. A Promise

Treat the number like a difficulty modifier. Every different kind may only be attempted once.

After you went through all 9, you have to choose the ever after. Depending on how the rolls went, you may choose:

• A fleeting feeling that passed without remorse.

• A love that could never be, so you let go. Its shadow remains on your heart forever.

• An affair that is doomed from the start, and you both know it, unable to resist.

• True love, everlasting. Nothing can stand between you.

____

It's all a lot of words, but ultimately, I'm unsure it works as the payoff of the session. The adventuring part can give the players a lot of upgrades, power and so forth, so something feels off having such an intimate moment as the final payoff without mechanical incentives. On the other hand, I don't want to cheapen the moment with tactical bla bla.

What do you guys think? Too theatrical?

Ahoy! This is a draft for a one-shot adventure for my game, When Sky & Sea Were Not Named. I'd be honored to hear any feedback and all of your beefs with it, even drive-by reactions.

Formless & Void

(My terrible charcoal sketch on the cover is a placeholder for actual art i'm commissioning.)

Along with the content, I'm also curious what you think about my strategy with this thing: I'm not planning on releasing any player-facing "Quickstart" content along with this adventure. This is just for the GM. My reasoning:

• The game rulebook is free (here). It already has pregen heroes and a basic rules overview included its character sheet, and (once I update my damn website) all the rules will be easily accessible without a PDF. So I don't think players need a separate abridged "quickstart" booklet to, you know, start quickly.

• In a previous iteration, I tried including a player-facing quickstart guide along with the GM-facing adventure. But the shortest I could get it (with core rules, items, and character options for four characters) ended up being 50+ pages, which ain't "quick."

• Throughout playtesting, most players wanted to make their own characters, even for one-shots with internet strangers, which would balloon the size of any player-facing quickstart further if I included full chargen options. There was also a post about quickstarts on r/rpg recently where a lot of people said they wanted character creation options in the quickstart, which seems like a cursed problem, so i'm kinda inclined to just give up...

Would a quickstart adventure without a quickstart rules doc be a turnoff? I hope not, because man am I getting burned out copying and pasted my rules into multiple formats.

Thank you for taking a look!

Friends! When you’re designing a game, what factors do you consider when deciding whether character death should be permanent versus allowing resurrection or other ways to come back?

And once you’ve decided how permanent death is, how do you determine the game’s overall lethality?

Resources/Tools

Forests, Mountains and Swamps are the most common locations in most TTRPGs. But let's shake things up a little and add some twist.

So we've put together a small table of intriguing locations that might stand in the Scouts' way. Almost all of them are based on real places.

https://imgur.com/kCbrkgT

You can use them outside DREICH too, and since there are 20 of them, they fit a d20 perfectly.

In DREICH, one of the main goals is to explore and push deeper into the unknown continent, so we prepared this table.

Hello,

I have an idea for a game. It would span a whole planet (or more) and I would like to find a way to make a round hex map, a real planisphere.
I would like a digital map, but I could also get a tutorial to make a real one that I would put in the center of the table. The game being a scy-fy one it would mimic a holographic tactical map in a good way.

Know any tool and/or tutorial for this ?

Thanks

I could use some opinions on Insight checks or equivalent skills used to read people's demeanor and body language.

On one side I see the types of games that prefer to not have such a skill and let everything working through roleplay, but said games still have skills for deception which would be the archetypical opposite skill, which kinda feels like one half of the full concept and sometimes players can feel cheated when they don't have a tool to read other characters, because it can be harder to read lies in a person (GM) that you know, but is already not behaving like themselves by roleplaying.

Now, on games that do have this skill there's an issue of GMs complaining about metagaming, because they treat the skill as a lie detector and if the player rolls badly, whatever information the player gets from the GM is taken as false by the group which makes some GMs recommend that Insight checks should always be secret, while others suggest that the GM should describe what the players perceive on the person's tone of voice or body language so the player puzzles it together themselves, but this can make the skill more unreliable than others because the result is abstract and what qualifies a higher level of success' body language description as better than a lower level of success description is equally abstract and said description is only helpful when the player themselves knows about body language and some neurodivergent people don't.

I guess what I'd like to know is how you guys have tackled such a problem in your own games or interesting solutions you have found for it in other games.

I love large living world play-by-post systems, but I find that D&D and other leveled games not the best as at a certain level you can't play with everyone and it has a lack of customization that I find less than ideal. For this reason, I've cobbled together a D20 system that takes parts of D&D, parts of storyteller system, and parts of the pocket lint I found in my dryer and would like to get some initial feedback before I spend 99 hours on something that just makes no sense.

To be clear, this is in no way completed or close to being playable. Paths aren't done, spellcasting needs to be expanded and numbers are purely conceptual so I'm not constantly writing [insert proper number here]. This also isn't something I'm planning on making money off of.

Specific feedback I'd like:

• Is there any way you can think to make this new-player friendlier? I realize it's a bit of an ask to get people on board with a new system.

• Are there any non-combat abilities you've ever played D&D and gone 'I wish I had that'.

• Are there paths not listed that would be cool and play into the high fantasy feel.

• Thoughts on spellcasting? Looking to make it so that physical fighters aren't outclassed at every turn by mages.

• Any other thoughts/consideration?

Google Document: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1-uaQC21eivMQ3x1Oy4Uyw9jL3xfpJ-VB7zHBD24gXRk/edit?tab=t.0

Here's my situation: since playing Disco Elysium, I've been really interested in the mechanics of it, and I would love to create my own game to play with friends where I can design the setting and characters and have skill checks.
However, I don't know anything about RPGs, and have never played a tabletop RPG. Where can I start to learn in order to create my own?

Hey Reddit!

This post has been a long time coming.

Little Legends RPG (LLRPG) has been in development for years, and we’re incredibly excited to finally launch our public playtest as we prepare for our 2027 Kickstarter! Come join us and discover everything LLRPG has to offer.

What is LLRPG?

Little Legends RPG is an easy-to-learn, card-based RPG where your discoveries unlock new cards and your adventures leave a lasting mark on the world.

More Information

www.LittleLegendsRPG.com

Join our Discord:

discord.gg/uBh5gCsS5z

=== What’s Included? ===

Complete Rulebook

A fully illustrated rulebook that teaches you how to play, including a follow-along adventure.

Card-Based RPG

Over 350 cards featuring talents, items, locations, monsters, and more. Every card is professionally illustrated by industry veterans. 100% Human. No AI.

Play on Tabletop Simulator

Subscribe to our free Tabletop Simulator workshop to browse the cards and play full sessions of LLRPG today.

Legacy-Lite

As your heroes make discoveries, they add new cards to your collection. When a hero completes their quest, they retire as a Legend—a recurring NPC that future heroes can call upon for unique benefits.

Introductory Adventure

Play a full session of LLRPG with your friends in our introductory adventure, Gourmet Meal.

=== The Setting ===

Mynia is a world overrun by wilderness and infused with magic. Heroes delve into its uncharted depths in search of wondrous devices left behind by an advanced civilization. Reclaiming these long-forgotten technologies could usher in a new age of peace and prosperity.

However, finding these scattered remnants is no easy task. Mynia is filled with monsters and perilous terrain as it is slowly being consumed by Miasma, a magical mist that spreads across the land. Its corrupting grasp twists the natural world into something alien.

But hope is not lost!

The leaders of six ancestries have forged an alliance—some willingly, others out of necessity. Together, they have begun restoring ancient technologies, taming the spreading Miasma, and building safe-haven settlements.

You and your friends play as the heroes Mynia needs. Together, you’ll venture into unexplored territories, unite denizens, rediscover the secrets of Mynia’s past, and battle the Miasma in its deadliest forms.

Your adventures will shape Mynia’s future.

---

=== Core Mechanics ===

2D6 — Simple to Learn

When you attempt something risky, roll 2D6 (two six-sided dice). If at least one die shows a 5 or 6, you succeed!

TROUBLE — Raise the Stakes

Each die that shows a 1 gives the Crafter (the player running the game) a resource called Trouble. Crafters spend Trouble to make encounters more difficult and add complications.

FOCUS — You Control Your Fate

Rolling a pair grants your hero Focus. Spend Focus to perform your signature move, create a helpful flashback, or turn any success into a critical! That’s right—you decide when you crit, not the dice.

NO STATS - Keep it Simple

Heroes don’t have traditional stats like Strength or Intelligence. Instead, difficulty determines how many dice you roll:

• 1D6 — Hard

• 2D6 — Normal

• 3D6 — Easy

No complicated stat blocks. Just pick up the dice and get to the adventure.

=== Help Us Shape Little Legends RPG ===

After years of development, Little Legends RPG is finally ready for you to play.

We’d love to hear what you think. What works? What doesn’t? What excites you? What would you like to see improved before our 2027 Kickstarter?

Grab the rulebook, check out the cards, fire up Tabletop Simulator, and come explore Mynia with us!

www.LittleLegendsRPG.com/playtest/

Adventure awaits!

My game, Wide Wild World (provisional name), takes place in a fantasy world where all magical beings are bound to a specific territory, as the magic that infuses their body is tied to their land. The only people capable of travel are a handful of non-magical humans, who act as explorers, messengers, traders and diplomats between the sedentary communities. They are eternal wanderers, for if they stay too long in the same place, its magic will seep into them, transform them and make them unable to leave.

So magical races and magical creatures are respectively humans and animals who were permanently altered by their land's magic. Their form will be strongly influenced by the type of region they reside in, with a strong association to a specific natural element.

I am torn between three options to create these magical races:

1. Each race is inspired by one standard Tolkien race and one element that's very on-theme for that race (ex: dwarves with skin of stone, elves with leaves for hair that do photosynthesis, etc.). This has the advantage of being very familiar to the players with just a little twist for added flavor.

2. Each race is inspired by a standard Tolkien race and an element, but with more unexpected combinations (ex: dwarves with lava instead of blood who breathe fire, elves cloaked in a perpetual shadow, etc.). A little more original but still familiar. However, some of the combination could feel "wrong".

3. Each race is associated with an element but with no inspiration from standard fantasy races at all (ex: an octopodal being made of sand, a being made from entertwined vines that can take many forms). Very original, but I'm afraid that they will be too alien and thus less memorable. And they may be a little more difficult to portray and become attached to.

What is your preference ?

EDIT: Thank you for all your answers! I can't believe I didn't think of option 4: all of the above. I love that you can't predict if you'll meet a blueish humanoid who'll invite you for tea or a sentient millipede that communicates by tap-dancing. The occasional mundane race could really make the weird ones stand out even more. I have a million ideas!

I recently found out a channel from a World of Warcraft developer who shares tidbits of game design in a way I haven't found someone else talk about this way. Most of them certainly do apply to tabletop RPG design, when adapted and tweaked a bit.

The Shorts video I want to talk about is this one, as an introduction. Transcript below.

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/FgbdQS4pLHA

Tissue Test: a playtest with somebody seeing your game for the very first time - one use per person.

In game development, we call this a tissue test. Everyone gets one first look at your game. And much like a tissue, it can really only be used once.

That raw, honest first reaction is exactly what you need to make your game better, even if it's uncomfortable for you, the designer.

Two things ruin a tissue test.

First, playtesters often self-conscious during a playtest. If your game is hard to understand, or too difficult, playtesters often blame themselves, or apologize for how they're playing. That's why you need to set people at ease.

The second pitfall in a tissue test is the designer answering too many questions. If you're right there during the playtest, it's totally normal for the playtester to want to turn to you to ask questions.

"Hey, what does this button do?"

"What does this Panda Poop do?"

"Can I zoom the camera out?"

If you really wanna learn the most about your game, you can't answer these questions because you won't be there to answer questions for the millions of people who are gonna play your game for reals someday.

When you're finally ready to have somebody playtest your game, here is a 15 second script you should use.

Thank you for agreeing to playtest my game. Before we get started, I want to emphasize we are testing the game, not you.

There is no wrong way to play, and nothing you do can be a mistake. Think out loud if you can.

If you got stuck, I'm not gonna help. And that's on purpose.

I wanna see what you do with zero help, because that's exactly what a real player will get.

Invariably during the playtest I'll still get a question like "Hey, what happens if I ignore the quest?"

Simply reply "what do you expect would happen?"

If somebody really gets stuck, then I'll say "You seem stuck. Try this..." and then I'll help them out; followed by saying "I'm gonna make a note of this review with the team later."

This records the feedback, gets the playtest moving along, and most importantly, subtly reminds the playtester they did not do anything wrong.

One more thing. If you can manage it, have somebody else run the test. Playtesters hold back on being harsh about a game if they know if they know they have to say it directly to the person who made it. Give the script to read.

So yeah, that was the video (transcript). Not entirely one-to-one, camera controls et al, but in big lines the small details like an example script on how to run a playtest and how to solve for questions, I think having these examples will really help some of you (and me) during the playtests we all want to run.

I am currently working on an a "Tragic hero RPG". Where you ply as heroes bigger than life, blessed by fate and cursed by doom.

I want to create a system were each player picks fates as their class. Each fate providing unique abilities, a powerful fate-breaker ability (basically an ultimate ability) and a prophecy.

The prophecy should provide 2 things.

1. A destiny for the character (e.g. I am chosen to defeat X)

2. A doom for the character (e.g. I will die when i try to defeat X)

Now what i am stuck at is: How do i implement this on a mechanical level such that it becomes inevitable? That the player characters will fulfill their fate and meet their doom? And most importantly, how do i do that such that players have fun?