[Touché] Almost a Playtest Release :)

[Drew Stevens]

http://www.prism.gatech.edu/~gte049v/Touche/Touche.html

Touché is game I've been working on for a while now- I mentioned it a few weeks ago, in Roleplaying Theory.

Well, it's done.  Mostly.  With my hand written notes of Strategies, it's a full playtest release.  I'm working on getting those HTMLized as fast as possible, but decided to go ahead and start getting feedback on the overall look and feel of the game- such comments could easily influence the evolution of the unfinished Strategies, as well as the currently posted game.

I still intend to rewrite a few passages, and know that I'm in dear need of a good editor.  I'm looking more for 'does this look like fun to you' feedback- what looks like it works, what looks like it doesn't, and what's too confusing to tell. :)

Thanks for any help you give!

[Jasper]

Hi,

Looks interesting, especially since I'm always interested in socially-oriented games in general.  I'm going to try and have a read-through as I get the chance today.  A clean HTML version would help a lot though, and you might not want to hit the reader with numerous pages of jargon right off the bat.  It's just too much.

[Drew Stevens]

Hm.

Define what you mean by 'clean HTML' version.  I personally think of a page that is uncluttered by art and such as fairly clean (although on my to-do list is both interlinking the hell out of the pages, and adding appropriate art)

And I've moved the Noble Titles and Fencing Jargon to the Feint.  I think having the Game Jargon right at the front is more helpful than harmful, however- it gives a nice constant reference place to a variety of potentially confusing ideas.  While I do try and define everything when I use it, having a definite Source Of Jargon seems like a Good Idea.

Thanks for the comment :)

Also, I've finished Courtly Strategies entirely, so there's a much better view of that aspect of the game available.  Next up: Ruling Strategies

Sidenote: I'd REALLY like a new word for 'Source of Pleasure', if anyone can think of anything fitting.  The general context is 'Nobles have between 1 and 3 levels of Pleasure in a given (WORD)'- while Source of Pleasure does work there, it's really too close to the other use of Pleasure, and they mean rather different things.

[Mark D. Eddy]

Some other words for a source of Pleasure, as you use it:

Recreation
Hobby
Amusement
Diversion

I personally am fond of Recreation...

Also, having gone over your rules, I find some of the things about character creation, especially the creation of Land, confusing. What the heck are the Extras? There are typos in there, I think, and it isn't clear what you mean. Are Lands able to be increased in play, and that's why some Extras reduce maximums? That doesn't make much sense otherwise. I think you need to give a series of in depth examples of how character creation works, step by step.

[Jasper]

Hi Drew,

Sorry, I wasn't clear with my comment -- pressed for time I think.  What I meant was that it's very dense at the moment, and not inviting to read through.  Since this isn't anything like your final release I assume, that's probably not a big worry for you, but you might get more people looking at it.  (Whitespace helps reading a lot.   So would a narrow column not more than ~12 words wide.)

And not to belabour my point, but I wasn't saying that you shouldn't have a central place for jargon; I was saying it shouldn't be the very first thing the reader sees -- it's just off-putting and makes the game seem daunting to learn.

These are more publishing issues, so again, you may not care at this point.  I'll try to get back with some reall comments later ;)