Hey everybody.

Not sure this is the right forum to ask, but here goes.

When is the right time to playtest your invention??? Is there a hard no leniency rule, where the game should be playtested?

Chris

You can playtest it as soon as you a complete draft. Sometimes, if you have isolated sub-systems, you can playtest those subsystems before the rest of your draft is complete.

There are two types of playtests that I call alpha and beta (not quite the same thing as computer programs). Alpha tests are those you run yourself, just to make sure it works the way you want it to. For an alpha playtest, don't worry about having a coherent text written, as long as you, personally, know and understand how the game is suppose to work. Just make sure you have the bare bones necessities. Stay here, running the game in private, until it works the way you want it to.

Then you release your beta version. Beta playtesting is for other people who have no connection to you. Rewrite the text so that other people can understand it (about 80% complete or so) and let them run it all by yourself. Preferrably, you don't want to do any explaining other writing the text. Beta testing is extremely important, and unfortunately designers very often fail to give their games adequate beta testing.

There are 2 reasons for beta test: First, just to make sure people can understand your text. Part of this is making sure you have written adequate advice. Often, the most intuitive aspects of a design are the most difficult for the designer to talk about (and usually they are the most important aspects of the design). Second, you need to make sure that you, personally, aren't subconsiously filling in holes that exist in the design. We all do it, but it gets exposed real quick when others start playing it.

You may have to go back and forth a bit between alpha and beta until the game finally works right.

What Tim said. (Incidentally, if you're still reading this, Tim: contact me.) I use the same terminology and definitions Tim does in my own design, and they serve me well.

As a simple rule of thumb for your question: you can never start alpha testing too soon, so if you're asking yourself whether you should test, that probably means that you should. Beta testing should start whenever you have enough system together to allow other people to play the game. In my experience playtest is the single greatest bottleneck in my own design at least, so I'm used to grabbing at any and all opportunities, whatever the state of my design at the moment.

Thanks Tim and Eero.

So alpha playtesting is when you alone try the rules, or is it when a group of people and yourself take the rules for a spin?

Is there two versions of alpha testing? yourself AND yourself and your regular group?

I better get going with my alpha testing :)

Chris

There really isn't "playtesting" alone, you always test your game with other people. Testing your mechanics alone can be called "running a simulation", but the great majority of worthwhile rpg design doesn't really benefit much from it as far as I know, at least when the designer has a bit of experience under his belt. Speaking for myself, I substitute any simulations with probability math and thought experiments, and proceed directly to playtesting with others when those are not enough. Preferably others that can give a running commentary on what we're doing, as most likely the first version of the game crashes like Hindenburg, and you'll get it running quicker if others can point out what went wrong.