I'm going to be trying "Playtest by Chain-letter" to get some blind-playtest mojo going. Basically, this isn't a game that I can (or would) distribute to you electronically: I gotta make the freakin' cards, and that'll end up a fairly complex task, which I would not wish to impose upon other folks. So I'll be sending playtesters an actual physical artifact, in the actual physical mail.
Because of that, I don't want to do the internet-standard "Bread upon the waters" approach where I send out playtests willy-nilly and hope to get results from one in a hundred. I need to find people who can get the artifact, make something happen within a week or two, and then pass it on. When cards are headed your way, I'll also send an email saying "The cards are headed toward you. The next person who wants them is XXX at address YYY. Do not break the chain. A potent curse falls like rabid vulture-poodles upon those who break the chain, and that curse is named Tony." Then, when you send the cards onward you tell me that you've playtested and sent, and I'll get an email out to the next group ... and also start pumping you for information.
I will request two episodes played with (roughly) the same people. Episodes should last only about an hour, maybe a little more, so it's still easy to fit the playtest into an evening of gaming. I expect the first episode to be "Figure out the rules and play it the way you'd want to play it" but I may have some request for the second episode (like "If you had everyone state Dreams at the last session, have only one person do so now ... if you had only a few state Dreams, have everyone do so now") as I try to get a feel for how various different ways of using the rules create different results.
I'm obviously happy to hear about more than two episodes. Two is just the minimum ... but you still gotta get the cards going within the two-week time-frame.
I only need people who are totally serious about playtesting the game with their groups. So much so, indeed, that they're willing to have me distribute their real world address information to some gamer earlier in the chain, in order to get cards mailed to them. So much so that they're happy to commit to a two-week turn-around from when the cards get to them, or be subjected to metaphorical vulture-poodles.
I do not want people to post "Yes, I'm interested!" in this space. If you're interested, message me privately and I'll get back to you. I reserve the right to say "This guy isn't my type of playtester" for any reason at all, including "Too much postage" and "I just don't feel like it" or just no reason given at all. I suppose that eventually I might get so many people that I'd say "Uh ... I just don't think I can profit from any more playtests," but that seems a long way off right now.
What I would like to see posted here is people's questions ... of which I expect many. I sorta suspect (though maybe I'll be proven wrong) that there will be some opening questions like "What the hell is this game anyway?" and "Why am I only learning about this now?" and perhaps (for those very suited to the game) "You value your playtesters. You'll be giving us the game for free later, to reward us for doing this, right?"
For playtesting (or potential playtesting groups) do you think there is a one or two movies or episodes of a shojo series you could recommend for a group to watch together before play? Something to (a) help get the group excited about playing the game and (b) help build a mutual understanding of the kind of issues / situations that are keys to the game (e.g. unspoken love, love triangle, running away when an answer is demanded, etc).
When we conversed at GenCon, you shared a few examples with me but I thought it might be useful for others to have that information as well (and your answer may have changed upon reflection).
-Adam