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2/6/2008 Ben Lehman: [The Drifter's Escape] Two dead cops and a pregnant girl
So my brother wrote a bunch of stories, and I wrote a game inspired by them. The game is called "The Drifter's Escape." Since I'm home for a bit, and…
In Playtesting
Participants: Ben Lehman, Clinton R. Nixon, jacoblehman, Eero Tuovinen, Marshall Burns, Ron Edwards, Chris_Chinn.

1/30/2008 Marshall Burns: [SAN!] elusive CA; plus, deep sea fishin'
So, I had a chat with David Berg regarding our discussion in the Bubba Bad thread, and it turns out I had totally missed his point.  And his point, it…
In Playtesting
Participants: Marshall Burns, davidberg.

1/30/2008 btrc: [EABA] WarpWorld playtesting note
Not so much an opportunity, but a report on the campaign structure. The WarpWorld post-ruin fantasy background has a lot of potential, but the problem was that the most interesting…
In Playtesting
Participants: btrc, Valamir.

1/18/2008 GreatWolf: [A Flower for Mara] Playing with the n00bs…and loving it!
I have this theory that people are naturally creative, that those who aren’t “creative” are actually afraid of looking dumb and therefore edit themselves.  This isn’t an original theory, of…
In Playtesting
Participants: GreatWolf, hix, Artanis, Emily Care, Bret Gillan.

1/14/2008 Noon: [No name yet] Dance of death
This is kind of an extension of this playtest, except I've added two player rules which add a very distinct dynamic. My son set up the area again, getting some…
In Playtesting
Participants: Noon, Marshall Burns, davidberg, Ron Edwards, Vulpinoid.

1/13/2008 algi: Please play 'Mighty Ones'
[url=http://"http://algi.web.elte.hu/rpg/teszt/mighty_test.pdf"]This is my first "complete" RPG[/url], but it is not yet fully developed. The last playtest left the notion in me that the game is already very enjoyable and highly…
In Playtesting
Participants: algi, greyorm, Vulpinoid, masqueradeball, Kevin Smit.

1/11/2008 Marshall Burns: [Super Action Now!] Bubba Bad's bad day, + hobo clones & son of sasquatch
Playtest #2 of Super Action Now! last night.  Did I say the first one was a blast?  Well, I was wrong.  THIS was a blast.  I mean, DAMN we had…
In Playtesting
Participants: Marshall Burns, davidberg, Noon, jag.

1/10/2008 jasonm: [Business Solutions] Three Ladies
I got a chance to playtest Business Solutions last night with my regular Wednesday night group.  We were down by two due to childbirth and sickness respectively, so three guys…
In Playtesting
Participants: jasonm, GreatWolf.

1/9/2008 GreatWolf: [A Flower for Mara] Jump-starting the game
"She died that night.  She was the light of my days, the glory of my existence, cut down like a flower in the prime of her life.  And now I…
In Playtesting
Participants: GreatWolf, Artanis, jasonm, Noon.

1/7/2008 lumpley: [Mispent Youth] Five predictions about Rebekah, Molly and Larry
Rebekah, 14, played by Julia: "new kid." Molly, 16, played by Meg: "hardened cynic." Larry, 16, played by Vincent: "den mother." Mispent Youth, GMed by Rob. Before the predictions, some…
In Playtesting
Participants: lumpley, Meguey, RobNJ, Paka, jenskot.

1/6/2008 jporrett: [The Emperor's Heart] Mystical Calligraphy and Sacrifice
Here's another "Emperor's Heart" playtest report.  It's from late October and I'm just now getting around to writing it up.  This time around it was my friends Randy and James,…
In Playtesting
Participants: jporrett, Chris_Chinn, Ron Edwards.

1/6/2008 iain: Playtesting site goes live
A little while ago, over on story games, I started a discussion about ashcans and what people felt they had got from them. One of the things that came out…
In Playtesting
Participants: iain.

1/4/2008 Marshall Burns: [Super Action Now!] Monkey causes chaos, guy gets fired, cat doesn't care
[i]Super Action Now!  a Crazy-Ass Roleplaying Game[/i] had its first playtest last night.  The players were myself (also Referee, although I never had to bring any power to bear), my…
In Playtesting
Participants: Marshall Burns, davidberg, jag.

12/28/2007 lumpley: [IaWA] A genetic nanopotion, mind tricks and Han Solo as a lesbian
Me, Emily, Julia and Rob Bohl played space opera In a Wicked Age last night. It was fun. It was set on this aquatic alien planet with increasingly bad relations…
In Playtesting
Participants: lumpley, Anders, RobNJ, Emily Care, foucalt.

12/26/2007 Noon: [No name yet] Fight with a monster game.
Ron recently said My usual recommendation, though, is to start by posting in Actual Play. People make this ten times harder than it is. If someone were to post, "We…
In Playtesting
Participants: Noon, davidberg.

12/23/2007 sirogit: [It's Complicated] What I didn't mention was that I poisoned everyone
Ran a game of Its Complicated, with just me and my brother Chris. By the author's suggestion, we both ran two characters. The setup: D&D Dungeon Crawl Situation: We're in…
In Playtesting
Participants: sirogit, Elizabeth, Ron Edwards, Marshall Burns, Artanis, David Artman, Madheretic.

12/22/2007 Peter Nordstrand: [While We Were Fighting]A Board Roleplaying Game
Is While We Were Fighting (see here and here) a boardgame or a roleplaying game? Apparently this is something that makes a lot of people nervous. As if there was…
In Playtesting
Participants: Peter Nordstrand.

12/20/2007 Marshall Burns: The Rustbelt and a GNS question
I've been writing this game called The Rustbelt off and on for six years.  It's set in a place called the Rustbelt, in a non-specific part of America, sometime in…
In Playtesting
Participants: Marshall Burns, Ron Edwards, Wolfen, Eliarhiman6.

12/19/2007 Doplegager: [Psi-Run] Bodhisattvas of Mars
After far too long of waiting, my group had a chance to playtest Psi Run.  There are a number of Ashcan Front games I've been wanting to give a try,…
In Playtesting
Participants: Doplegager, Miskatonic, chris_moore.

12/18/2007 davidberg: need to reduce handling time of my combat system
Too many calculations, die rolls, and chart-lookups!  Help! Desired Inputs: Player's preference of where to move to (if applicable) + character's ability to maneuver as dictated by surroundings. Player's preference…
In Playtesting
Participants: davidberg, Narf the Mouse, Noon, jag, J Tolson, dindenver, contracycle, Paul T, Marshall Burns.

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Subsequent Topics
In Playtesting

2/8/2008 Marshall Burns: [Fantastical Adventure] The Purple Pearl of Pinoche!
We a played a bit of one of my new games, Fantastical Adventure, last night.  It's, um, well, I still haven't figured out how to explain it properly.  The setting…
In Playtesting
Participants: Marshall Burns, jag.

2/9/2008 Hituro: [Solipsist] Superman and John Constantine get on a plane...
(crossposted from Gregor Hutton's post on collective endeavour, I hope that is okay for the rules of this site) Anyway, tonight I was over at John Wilson's and we had…
In Playtesting
Participants: Hituro.

2/11/2008 Vulpinoid: [8th Sea] Character Generation and a Preliminary Playtest
[size=24pt][color=blue]The Eighth Sea: Preliminary Playtest[/color][/size] Those who have been watching other parts of the forum may be aware that I've been working on a game called the Eighth Sea, a…
In Playtesting
Participants: Vulpinoid.

2/12/2008 Gabrielle: [Land of a Thousand Kings] Of Castles, Pyramids and Fisherman Kings
Last Friday I play Land of a Thousand Kings with two friends of mine and one of my friend's ten-year-old sister. The ten-year-old, Julia, had been up too late several…
In Playtesting
Participants: Gabrielle, Ben Lehman.

2/12/2008 Hituro: [Solipsist] Mermaid Towers
In contrast to the last game of Solipsist I ran I've been trying out the game as a one on one over e-mail, and it seems to be working well.…
In Playtesting
Participants: Hituro.

2/12/2008 Troy_Costisick: [Low Power Fantasy] Playtest 3, Session 1
Heya, I held the first session of the third playtest for a new game and system engine last Saturday.  Before I start describing the session, I’ll link the power 19…
In Playtesting
Participants: Troy_Costisick.

2/22/2008 Peter Nordstrand: [While We Were Fighting] Scene Framing the Renaissance
So we played While We Were Fighting at OmniCon, and it went really well. (See footnote for a description of WWWF.) I learned a lot from this session, but I'll…
In Playtesting
Participants: Peter Nordstrand, Marshall Burns, Anders.

2/22/2008 williamhessian: CCG gameplay help (balancing experience advantage)
images and concepts of my game can be found here: http://www.indie-rpgs.com/forum/index.php?topic=25791.0 My main gameplay problem so far is balancing out the advantage to skilled players as to novices. My game…
In Playtesting
Participants: williamhessian, btrc.

2/22/2008 Marshall Burns: [The Rustbelt] GM flails, but at least the system rocks
The latest incarnation of my baby, The Rustbelt, finally got a test run.  It was kind of spur of the moment, so it took a while to get ready as…
In Playtesting
Participants: Marshall Burns, Eero Tuovinen, Peter Nordstrand, Knarfy, Ron Edwards, davidberg.

2/23/2008 mratomek: [Super Force Seven] Cruchy Combat
I have tweaked the combat system--yet again. And it seems to finally balance ease of use with rule-based drama. The idea of the game is to allow for head-to-head RPG…
In Playtesting
Participants: mratomek, Valamir, Marshall Burns.

2/23/2008 Rimke: [Face of Angels] My first time
Last Saturday I played Face of Angels with some friends at the gathering of frequent visitors of www.mandragon.be, the Flemish/Dutch site for RPG players. I really enjoyed our game, but…
In Playtesting
Participants: Rimke, Clinton R. Nixon.

2/25/2008 AGP: Black Cadillacs playtest
Two months ago I had the opportunity to participate in a playtest of "Black Cadillacs." This is a war RPG created by Darcy Burgess ("Black Cadillacs" is WWII Canadian Slang…
In Playtesting
Participants: AGP, Ron Edwards, Darcy Burgess.

3/2/2008 travisfarber: [Thou Art but a Warrior] The Fall of a Kingdom
Last night I had the opportunity to put together a game of Thou Art But A Warrior.  We were unexpectedly down one player, so we ran with three, although long…
In Playtesting
Participants: travisfarber, wunderllama, SaintandSinner, Adam Dray, Ben Lehman.

3/2/2008 Blankshield: [Reality Cops] Slowly Taking Shape
Last Friday the much-delayed and rescheduled playtest of Reality Cops got off the ground. I, Fox, James T. and Davyd sat down to look at the rough bones and see…
In Playtesting
Participants: Blankshield, Ron Edwards, Spooky Fanboy, joepub.

3/3/2008 Frank Tarcikowski: [Mud Planet / Sorcerer] The Rules Work!
So I finally got to run the refined version of my Ronnies entry Mud Planet, using Sorcerer rules. Conditions were kind of not ideal: It was the evening slot in…
In Playtesting
Participants: Frank Tarcikowski, Eero Tuovinen, Ron Edwards.

3/3/2008 Evil Eye Gameworks: World of Hammerhell Adventures
Hello all My name is Jeremy Harden, I created the Evil Eye Gameworks indie tabletop company for a game, called World of Hammerhell Adventures.  It's a departure from complex RPG…
In Playtesting
Participants: Evil Eye Gameworks.

3/7/2008 Marshall Burns: [SAN!] system changes, highlights: "Jimbo's Saga" "Fantastical Wizard of Frotz"
Okay, I haven't been posting about it, but we've been playing the HELL out of this game.  Seriously, I can barely pull my players away from it.  If I ask,…
In Playtesting
Participants: Marshall Burns, Ron Edwards.

3/10/2008 Simon C: [Compass Gods] New territory
So I recently playtested this really tentative game idea I had called "Compass Gods" (for now at least).  There's a thread about it at the Free RPG Bakery, but I'll…
In Playtesting
Participants: Simon C, Filip Luszczyk, MikeF.

3/13/2008 Darcy Burgess: [Black Cadillacs] - Cards of Fate
Hi, Something that's crept into my mind during my last batch of Black Caddies playtests is a disatisfaction with the way a certain segment of the mechanics requires a small…
In Playtesting
Participants: Darcy Burgess, Ron Edwards, Ned.

3/15/2008 Elizabeth: [Mist-Robed Gate] The best playtest I've ever experienced
So at last weekend's JiffyCon Boston, we had the first playtest of Shreyas Sampat's incredible wuxia game entitled The Mist-Robed Gate. It was supposed to be an intense, quiet, introspective…
In Playtesting
Participants: Elizabeth, Shreyas Sampat.

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