[Cutthroat] First Playtest

[Troy_Costisick]

Heya,

Finally, I got to playtest Cutthroat.  It was hard work getting my dyed-in-the-wool Fantasy RPer buddies to play this with me, but with enough convincing I got it done.  Here's how it went.  The players are Me (Troy), Jeff, Mike, and Dave.

First Attempt:

Jeff rolls an 8 for his Stat
Mike rolls a 6 for his Stat
Dave rolls a 9 for his Stat
Troy rolls a 4 for his Stat.

We finish up our character sheets and proceed to the first rally.  I pass, and so do Mike and Jeff.  Then Dave asks if he can Challenge in the first Rally.  I say of course!  So he does.  He challenges me first, since I'm the lowest.  He breezes past my Girlfriend and whips my butt no problem.  Then moves on to Mike who rolled a 5 to Dave's 9.  Mike bit the dust.  Then he challenges Jeff who rolled a pitiful 3 to Dave's average 6.  Boom! Game over. I was like, "Uhhhhhhhhh...." So, first thing I learned: only one challenge per raid.

So we roll up new characters.  This time it goes:

Jeff 6
Mike 5
Dave 9
Troy 5

I lose the Tie-breaker and am the Rat again.  Actually, I wanted to be so really I sorta won the roll hehe.  Okay, at the first Rally I pass.  Mike tries to Dominate Jeff, but loses and his Stat is reduced to 4.  Jeff tries to Approach me, but fails to get past my Girlfriend.  Dave tries to challenge me, gets past my Girlfriend (again) and beats my total of 11 with his roll+Stat total of 18.  Everyone then passes and we move on to the first Raid. 

Dave goes first and satisfies his Girlfriend's Desire (steals a new DVD player from Best Buy).  Jeff goes next and robs a bank (how cliché) to satisfy his Girlfriend's Desire (Stealing from Banks).  Mike is next and he tries to rob and antique store for his girl, but Dave decides to oppose him as a Guard Dog.  Mike rolls a 4 (poor fellow) and Dave rolls a 10.  Didn't even bother to add stats.  Dave says that Mike gets wounded and has to run out of the store empty handed.  I go next and Dave wants to oppose me too, and that's when I see that if the high Stat person can oppose everyone, they'll go home wounded and be very vulnerable to his Domination. So lesson number 2: you may oppose only one other character per raid.  I swindle an old man out of his gold pocket watch to satisfy my GF (Shiny things).  Then we all pass and Dave calls off the raid.

Back to the Rally!  First things first- Bragging.  This was fun, but could have been even more fun with different people I think.  I'll explain more in my reflection.  Mike, even though he came away empty handed, won the bragging because he lied so well and made us laugh so hard.  Being wounded moved his Stat down to 2 but winning the Bragging moved it back up to 3.  My Stat moves up to 6 (as I am the Rat).  Mike then passes.  Jeff challenges Mike and amazingly LOSES!  So his Stat drops to 5.  I dominate Mike, then Dave dominates Mike.  Dave also makes a successful Approach on Jeff.  Jeff fails his Approach on me (again).  Everyone passes, and we move into the next Raid.

Mike sits out so he can heal.  I sit out cause I don't need to go.  Jeff goes to (what else?) rob another bank.  Dave opposes as a security guard and shoots him in the knee (Jeff lost the roll).  Jeff leaves w/o the money and is now Wounded.  Dave holds up a liquor store to get plain old cash ($1,000).  I oppose but lose.  Jeff passes.  Dave then goes to Radio Shack and steals a new cell phone for his girl.  The Raid is called, and we go to bragging.

Dave wins the bragging mainly because Jeff sucks at it.  Dave's Stat is now 10.  My Stat is up to 7.  Mike is healed so his Stat returns to 5.  Jeff challenges Mike and rolls a 12.  That plus his Stat easily overwhelm him.  Then it is Mikes turn.  He challenges Jeff (his Stat is higher after all).  He rolls an 8 and goes, "Yes!"  I could tell he was getting into to it.  Then Jeff rolls.  It's an 11.  I hear a very loud, "DAMN!"  We laugh and poke a little fun at Mike whose Stat is again reduced to 4.  I go and I easily Dominate Mike without even using his Secret against him.  Dave goes, challenges Jeff and easily wins.  Also, Dave send his girl to approach Mike and rolls a total of 7 to learn Mike's Secret.  We all pass and then it is time for another Raid.  At this point we start to get used to the rhythm of the game. 

Jeff and I sit out.  Dave goes and steals an iPod for his girlfriend.  Mike tries to rob the same antique store and Jeff decides to oppose him as a Police Officer.  This makes Mike a little nervous and he had good reason.  Jeff wins the contest and puts mike in Jail.  He was trying to block Dave from winning by taking Mike out of the next Rally.  Dave calls off the raid.

Back at the Rally, Mike wants to know if he can brag from Jail.  It doesn't explicitly say in the rules, so I reply that you have to be at a Rally to brag.  If you're in Jail, you're not at the Rally (lesson #3).  Dave wins the Bragging by default.  His Stat is now 11.  My Stat is now 8.  Jeff is healed so his Stat returns to 5.  Jeff is the lowest and goes first.  He gets past my Girl but fails to Dominate me (his total was 8 mine was 13).  His Stat is lowered to 4. I pass (because I was writing some notes and didn't want to be bothered right then). Dave decides to break Mike out of Jail.  Jeff and I see out opening and both play Police.  Dave beats both our rolls and busts Mike out!  Jeff's turn again.  He passes.  Mike goes and fails to Dominate me (his Stat is now 3).  My turn.  I look at who I've Dominated: Dave and Mike.  I go after Jeff and roll a 7.  He rolls a 9.  My total is 15, his is 12.  Boom!  I win the game!

Reflection:

I learned lots of things.  First off the game is fun.  Second, it's brutal.  When Ron talked about harsh penalties in the original Ronny version I wasn't so sure.  Now I am.  Even after I took most of them out, this game is unforgiving.  That's good tho.  It's what I wanted.  The three lessons I learned: Only 1 Challenge per Rally, only one Opposition per Raid, and No bragging from Jail were important.  But it also made me realize that this game requires a lot of restrictions to work.  It worries me some, but since this is the first game I've designed since Ember Twilight, I'm pretty happy with it. 

About my group.  They're timid virgins.  Jeff and Dave weren't good braggers and even worse Girlfriends.  Mike was a decent bragger and an okay GF.  If they had been exposed to more games like this, things would have been better.  But they are SO used to D&D and other Fantasy games, that this was a real stretch for them.  Also, I think it would be better with more people.  We had a total of four Rallies and three Raids.  That's not much.  I wanted the game to be able to be played in a single setting, but it still seemed too short for me.  It'll be something I have to work on.  Feedback is welcome!

Anyway, we had a good time.  I'm excited about it.  Heck, I'm excited about all my Ronny games.  Here's to playtesting!

Peace,

-Troy

[Ron Edwards]

Hi Troy,

This is a great report - but I am totally not seeing the Rat in action. Did secrets have anything to do with play at all? I'm seeing that Status is way more labile than I think it needs to be.

My suggestion is to make secrets far more crucial to winning Status rolls. If secrets are more important, then girlfriends become more important and so does the Rat.

Best,
Ron

[Troy_Costisick]

Heya,

Yeah, I didn't talk about Secrets all that much.  The fact that I, as the Rat, knew Dave's Secret allowed me to beat him in the Challenge.  Dave really didn't need to Approach anyone because his Status started out so much higher than everyone else's.  As for Status being labile, I like how often it changes, just not how much.  Losing two Status for being wounded makes it all too easy to sit back and try to pick off the PCs that way.  The -1 for failing a challenge is also something I'm considering tossing out, or maybe even making it a temperary penalty until the next Raid.  As it stands right now, if a player hits a bad luck streak in this game, they're toast.

The Rat worked the way I wanted it to for the most part.  It was FUN to be judge of the bragging.  Plus the fact that my Status grew at a constant rate served as the timer that I wanted in the game.  If you don't jump on the Rat early, he will eventually win.  Knowing someone's Secret gives you a +3 bonus right now.  Pretty high if you're just rolling 2d6.  But seeing how little Mike and Jeff used it tells me that it needs to be a bit higher.  Maybe +4 for Non-Rats and +2 for the Rat. 

Do you think the way that Status is initially generated needs to be changed?

It needs a couple more playtests that's for sure.  I really hope I get a chance to do that in the next week or two. 

Peace,

-Troy