Giving Feedback

[knicknevin]

Hi, as a newbie who's volunteered to playtest a game with my weekly RPG group, is there any kind of standardised feedback you use? From my experience of training assessment and feedback in staff meetings, I know that just saying "What do you think?" won't get a lot of useful responses, so I was thinking of using a Feedback Form like the one I've suggested below, but is there one already in use? If not, does this one cover everything?

Playtest Feedback

Game:
Start & Finish Time:
Number of players:
What was this game about?
   Does the player's take match the pitch?

How well do you feel you explored this premise?
   Did the session match up to the pitch or did it go off in its own direction?

What do characters do in this game?
   What does the player think their character is meant to be doing?

How well do you feel your character did this?
   Given the above, did their character do that or something else?

What do players do in this game?
   What is the player's understanding of their role?

How well do you feel you did this?
   Given the above, did the player do that or something else?

What aspect(s) of this game did you enjoy the most?
What aspect(s) of this game did you enjoy the least?
   Feedback about the rules, the premise, the execution or just the specific session they played in, i.e. which players made them laugh, think, frustrated, etc

GMs Comments: Space to provide details about the session, i.e. it was played in a very noisy crowded room, or about the players, i.e. this player has never played an RPG before


So, any feedback on the feedback?

[Rob Carriere]

Two suggestions:

1. Make the "Game:" line more specific. You will want to know exactly what version was used for the playtest. (for example:
Game: "The valley wizard", version: PDF marked "september 18, 2005")

[That's assuming the author is marking up his play test versions with some kind of version indicator, of course.]

2. Add a question of the form: "Would you play this game again? Why (not)?"

SR
--

[Lance D. Allen]

I like this. I don't know that I'd try to make this 'official' or any such, but I wouldn't mind if it was stickied at the top of the forum.

A similar form for read-through feedback as opposed to playtest feedback would also be useful, especially for Indie Game Design, as the product isn't always playtest-ready when people want feedback, and they frequently don't know how to ask for what they want. Believe me, I know this personally; Many times I've put up ideas or copies of pre-alpha game text for perusal, and haven't really known what to ask for beyond "what do you think?"

[knicknevin]

2. Add a question of the form: "Would you play this game again? Why (not)?"

SR
--

D'oh! How did I forget that? Good point Rob and pretty much the most vital one!

[Kirk Mitchell]

This is great. Just don't forget a detailed description of actually went on in play in the leu of this information, both in and out of the game. Its great to see how players take off with an idea in ways that you never expected. Otherwise, what you've got is great.

Oh, and (could you give us a first name that we could call you by? Is it Nevin?) October is just fine. Whenever you get around to it.

Looking forwards to what comes out of this,
Kirk