[Vespertine] Playtest It With Me!

[Jonathan Walton]

Hey Folks,

So I'm developing this game called Vespertine, which is a pseudo-sequel to Jason Blair's game of childhood terror, Little Fears.  The game is about teenagers fooling around with the Seven Deadly Sins in order to gain power and social influence/acceptance, and then trying to avoid becoming monsters (both literally and figuratively) in the process.

You can read a bit about the game in the thread below, if you like:
http://www.indie-rpgs.com/viewtopic.php?t=12178

In any case, I'm going to be working up a playtest draft over the next few days and need to find some people to play through the game.  In my mind, the commitment would look something like this:

1) Make characters in advance over email or just get assigned one.
2) 1-3 sessions of IRC (chat) play through indie-netgaming (once a week), depending on how things go and whether people want to play more.
3) Write a couple paragraphs in response to play or just chat with me about how you think things went.
4) Be a mature and responsible player, doing your best to make sure that everyone is enjoying play and the process.  Work well with others.

If you can't do the IRC thing, but want to play the game with your own group or whatever, email me and we'll see if we can't work something out.  However, I'm only interested if you're actually going to play the game with other people, not just read over it and offer thoughts.

In return, I'll try to make sure all playtesters get a copy of the game in whatever form it ends up being published (hopefully in Phil Reed's Halloween Anthology, but perhaps in another fashion if that falls through).  Also, you get that good, fresh feeling that comes with helping someone else out.

Ideally, I'm hoping for a pretty diverse player group, both gender-wise and ethnically, since Vespertine takes place in Middle & High School, bringing together a range of people that wouldn't normally cross paths.  Also, it's less fun to play out sexual and cross-cultural tensions if the PCs are being played by a bunch of geeky, middle-class white guys (myself included there, but I'm hip geek, daddy-yo).  Then again, any playtesting is better than nothing, and we'll still have fun even if it's just us white American dudes, so don't let your honkiness hold you back.

If this sounds interesting, email me at <jwalton@NOSPAM!oberlin.edu> (minus the NOSPAM!) or reply to this thread.

[anonymouse]

Still in the process of getting my email back up and running after system kablooie, so I'll respond here.

Definitely interested, Jonathan; hopefully you still have a couple of spots open (IRC play tends to really bog down around the 4+ player mark, unless the involved participants are old hands in the medium). The requirements look good, and I can meet alla 'em.

So.. still seeking players?

[Jonathan Walton]

We've hit the mark of 4 "interested" players, but all that depends on schedules and what we can work out.  I'm flying out to Seattle on the 18th and then heading to Shanghai on the 24th.  So, it's up in the air if the playtest will happen before then.  It may be more likely to come together in the early days of September at this point, especially since many people are screaming from the stress of GenCon right now.

Then again, if I'm trying to get over 12 hours of jetlag, a good cure might be staying up late/early and delving into the depths of the teenage soul.  So, I'll try to send out regular updates, so interested people have as much warning as possible.  More soon.