How do I play this mess?

[GreatWolf]

One major addition to the quickstart rules (aside from the setting chapters, of course) is going to be a chapter on how to run Alyria.  It seems to me that I need to be explicit in several areas where Alyria differs from the standard RPG,  the PC vs. PC setup being one good example.

So I thought that I would enlist all of you, especially anyone who has tried playing Alyria.  What areas were too vague for your liking?  Any play style issues that could have been explained better?  Any assumptions of mine that you tripped over?

In other words, what would you hope to see in the chapter on "How to play this mess?"

Seth Ben-Ezra
Great Wolf

[Valamir]

Well, I can't put my finger on it specifically (because I can't recall how the various things are labeled) but things that seemed like potential problem areas to me were.

1) How the point expenditures translated into the corruption/virtue? little circle thingies at the top.

2) How the Traits must have some function as a morality lever and must serve to provide areas of potential action and conflict and that they are not mere personality descriptors.  With a good bit of explanatory text and examples of good, bad, mediocre traits.  This is one area where I would recommend breaking down the wall between rules and design notes and get a little into the theory behind the traits and what they are supposed to do in the game in order to make sure players understand how to pick them.

[Ron Edwards]

Hi there,

Frankly, Seth, I think the Quick-Start rules did a wonderful job of explaining how to set up and play - what to do is actually very simple and very powerful; as soon as it's clear (which it is, in that text), there ain't much more to say.

Broken-record time: quit worrying about making sure any last yahoo can "get it" and write to the audience who's aching for it already.

Best,
Ron

[Shreyas Sampat]

Ditto; the rules are clearly and concisely laid out, and easy to understand.  I'd have liked to see some examples of play, because I'm the sort of person who likes getting that kind of thing 'from the designer's pen', but I'm pretty confident I could play Alyria comfortably having read the Quick-Start rules only once, which is impressive.