Advice on getting results from playtesters?

[pells]

Hi there,

Two things :
- I'm talking about a printed copy at the cost of the final product ; not the beta version.

I'm not sure if any will be interested, but I'll make the offer and see.

- You have to create this interest. You're not saying your project isn't interesting I hope ? Now, work on making this attractive and sell it. If you can't sell your beta, you won't be able to sell the final product.

And, by the way, start play-testing yourself and post (here, on your blog, your forum, I don't care) about it. It's still first and foremost your job. Come on : make us want to play this !!!

[Finarvyn]

I've done playtests for several games with my group, and I certainly can see where you have frustration because it's a lot of work.

1. I agree that PDF is the way to go. The playtest version need not have spiffy graphics and you can individualize each one to have the name of the playtester on it. It's more work, but I suspect fewer folks would want to post it online if their name is on the file.

2. I find with my group that I do almost all of the work in a playtest. Most of my group will play and offer some suggestions occasionally, but I'm the one who has to type up feedback and get it back to the game's creator. Certainly the offer of a free copy at the end makes my work more worthwhile. Personally, I take my commitment to playtest seriously, but most of my group doesn't feel the same way and I can see where lots of folks volunteer to do it just to look at your rules for free. I wish I could give more advice on how to find folks willing to work hard, but I think there aren't enough of us out there.

3. As others have said, you need to "sell" the idea of your game to the playtesters. Most of the games I've done are ones where I felt I had some vested interest in getting it done right. It may be a topic I like, or working with a designer I respect. Whatever the motivation, you need to be sure that folks know what you have and try to make it sound neat. If you can't "sell" a playtest group, it's going to be a lot harder to sell product to anyone else at $20 per book.

Just some thoughts off the top of my head. Good luck with this.

[eraofthefallen]

Thanks for resurrecting this topic.  You make some good points and its nice to hear from the playtesters themselves.  I hadn't considered individualizing each pdf, but can see how that would be a deterrent to "sharing".  I agree it is my job to get potential playtesters fired up about playing.  I've put together some good materials about what sets the game apart from others and what are the "selling points", also put together a mini set of rules people can look over for free to encourage those who might be interested at a deeper peek but not willing to wade through a 200+ page manual just yet.  The next step is to just run campaigns in gaming shops and cons and let people see why it is such a good system.

The game description is posted here: http://www.indie-rpgs.com/forum/index.php?topic=29092.0
I'd love to hear from a playtester like yourself if it sounds fun from the description or if it needs some extra polish.

[Callan S.]

Sometimes people take something that is a problem for them, then act like it's a problem for everyone in the whole world and so it must be a bug. Granted that can be argued against.

But past that, if someone tells you 5D20 is intensive handling, then atleast for that one person it is. If someone tells you it looks like a D&D rip off and not anything to do with story or extra realism, then that's what it looks like for that person. You seem to be making excuses instead of listening to your feedback?

Yes, it's only a sample size of one. But that doesn't mean arguing with the person - it means expanding your sample size. And if in the end a whole bunch of people say the same about 5D20 and it looking like a D&D rip off, well the point of playtesting is to see if the product is something you'd really rather wish it wasn't.