[While We Were Fighting]Playtesting With Strangers

[Peter Nordstrand]

I've done a number of playtests with strangers, people at conventions that ended up playing my game without really knowing anything about it. I've discovered a few things that seem to happen every time:

Players are enthusiastically framing scenes. In this game, players take turns framing scenes. At first, new players look sceptical, and a little scared, probably feeling pressure that they have to come up with some really inventive and creative stuff, but as soon as they realize how easy it is there is no holding back. Players just cannot wait for their turn to frame a scene.

Players willfully torment their own characters. To win conflicts of interest, players often have to make sacrifices that involve harming their characters mentally, physically, or socially. Oh the things people put their characters through. And the genious of it is that it is the player himself that makes the decision and comes up with the horrifying details. It  wouldn't have worked otherwise. This is not just about revelling in gruesomeness (although I cannot deny a certain pleasure). The really important thing about the sacrifices is that they reveal the mental and moral qualities of a character. The original concept of sacrifices is John Harper's, by the way.

After we've played, I usually ask the players what the moral of the story is. While We Were Fighting brings about claustrophobic morality plays, and it is usually quite easy to see what moral a particular play experience has produced. This isn't a long discussion. It is a small part of the postmortem of play, and only takes about two minutes, but it brings me great pleasure. Players typically go "oh yes" when we've figured it out.

Would you like to playtest my game? I do lack input from people that haven't met me or played While We Were Fighting with me. If you just want to briefly check it out download the following two chapters, as they explain all the basics in a straightforward manner:

Introduction
Player Characters

The complete (kind of) playtest rules can be downloaded here.

[Ron Edwards]

Agreed! Both of those trends in play, including a couple of others (fascination with kin and sex, unsurprisingly to me), emerge as soon as certain procedural assumptions about previous play are relaxed.

The interesting thing is that both trends you describe were apparent throughout role-playing history, among some players, some groups, for some games. Those of us familiar with Champions in the 1980s observed groups shake themselves out into what we thought of as camps, but I now realize were essentially unacknowledged centers for CA-focused and Techniques-focused game design. So a lot of our current designs are speaking to urges and sources of creativity that have always been common but not to be spoken of in textual rules.

Regarding scenes in particular, I wrote the scene framing rules in Trollbabe to express what I saw people already doing: anyone can suggest a scene, or imply its creation through a stated action, but one person had primary authority over when scenes started and stopped. No one I know would have admitted that we were doing that routinely in the 1980s, but we were.

Regarding the playtest, I've happily downloaded, but I also suggest putting that information into the Connections forum. At long last, people are actually using it for that purpose as intended.

Best, Ron

[Altaem]

I'd be interested in playtesting.  Is this the place where I ask questions about how the system works?

The first things that spring to mind;
How many players does the game need?  Is there a minimum?
Do player characters gain resources by stealing them from each other, or are NPCs generated to fill the role of protagonist?
How many conflicts (rolls) would a typical scene contain?  Do players have practically complete freedom to frame a scene?

[Peter Nordstrand]

Hi Altaem,

Thank you for showing interest. While We Were Fighting is suited for 2-4 players + a game master. I suggest we take the remaining questions to a separate thread. You can start it if you wish, or I will.

Ron,

Thanks for the input. I'll post in the Connections Forum as you suggested.