On Episode 28 of The Gauntlet Podcast, we welcome Richard Rogers,  who joins the show as a regular co-host.

On Episode 28 of The Gauntlet Podcast, we welcome Richard Rogers,  who joins the show as a regular co-host.

On Episode 28 of The Gauntlet Podcast, we welcome Richard Rogers,  who joins the show as a regular co-host. The games we discuss include:

Michael Sands ‘s   Monster of the Week

Star Wars: Edge of the Empire

Monikers

Avery Mcdaldno’s   Monsterhearts

Play-by-Post gaming

Jared Sorensen’s   Lacuna Pt. 1

A Penny for My Thoughts

Evil Hat Productions  The Dresden Files: Fate Accelerated Edition

 Brendan Conway’s  Masks 

Our main topic covers the joys and best practices of playtesting in-development games. 

Here are the relevant links from this episode:

Masks KS

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1277034820/masks-a-new-generation

RPG Zine Community

https://plus.google.com/u/0/communities/101270752323854044371

Indie+ Discussion Community

https://plus.google.com/u/0/communities/100260706633299261636

7th Continent KS

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1926712971/the-7th-continent-explore-survive-you-are-the-hero?ref=nav_search

Nathan Paoletta and Will Hindmarch’s  Podcast

http://designgamespodcast.tumblr.com

Geek Life 

http://www.shopgeeklife.com/

Psionics RPG

http://www.endtransmissiongames.com/psionics.html

Trident Con

http://www.tridentcon.org

Virtuacon

https://plus.google.com/communities/109731066728042855503

http://gauntletpodcast.libsyn.com/episode-28-playtesting-games

32 thoughts on “On Episode 28 of The Gauntlet Podcast, we welcome Richard Rogers,  who joins the show as a regular co-host.”

  5. Also, something that has been bugging me about this episode is our discussion of Monster of the Week’s Investigate a Mystery Move. We forgot to mention that a change from the original edition (I think) is that the GM has to answer the questions truthfully, but not necessarily completely. That has greatly improved my experience with that move at the table, and it was an oversight not to mention it. So I’m mentioning it here 🙂

  6. Also, something that has been bugging me about this episode is our discussion of Monster of the Week’s Investigate a Mystery Move. We forgot to mention that a change from the original edition (I think) is that the GM has to answer the questions truthfully, but not necessarily completely. That has greatly improved my experience with that move at the table, and it was an oversight not to mention it. So I’m mentioning it here 🙂

  7. David Miessler-Kubanek Good catch. I do that every fucking time I tag that game (it’s because Evil Hat’s splash page for the game is a little misleading). 

  8. David Miessler-Kubanek Good catch. I do that every fucking time I tag that game (it’s because Evil Hat’s splash page for the game is a little misleading). 

  13. Regarding the question of whether to play playtests rules-as-written or not, my answer is strongly pro-RAW. I’ll agree that if you don’t intend to deliver feedback to the designers maybe it doesn’t matter as much. But still, I don’t see the point in even playing a game if I have to change the rules a lot in order to enjoy it.

    The one way in which I’d soften is if the RAW are written without clarity, I can see one either having to guess at what was meant, or clearly seeing what was meant and doing the right thing.

    But basically I don’t see why I’d play a game if I cant enjoy playing it by the rules. I see it as a system failure. I did that for 20-30 years before the Forge, I’m done now.

  14. Regarding the question of whether to play playtests rules-as-written or not, my answer is strongly pro-RAW. I’ll agree that if you don’t intend to deliver feedback to the designers maybe it doesn’t matter as much. But still, I don’t see the point in even playing a game if I have to change the rules a lot in order to enjoy it.

    The one way in which I’d soften is if the RAW are written without clarity, I can see one either having to guess at what was meant, or clearly seeing what was meant and doing the right thing.

    But basically I don’t see why I’d play a game if I cant enjoy playing it by the rules. I see it as a system failure. I did that for 20-30 years before the Forge, I’m done now.

  15. The promised link to OSR zines was missing from the show notes, so I will suggest this site: http://rendedpress.blogspot.com/p/old-school-zines.html.  

    Additionally, I will recommend the excellent and innovative zines by my friend Cédric Plante. They contain visually rich pages suitable for randomizing or inspiration. He has put three out so far:

    Gormand’s Larder: 

    https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B_ogKTnp49Lkby1vaUFLV0p5REE/view

    The Wizard’s Inheritance:

    https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B_ogKTnp49LkbF8zZ1ZZcnE4UFU/view

    Doodle Temple:

    https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B_ogKTnp49LkeDF2MDV3Nk5xdGM/view

  16. The promised link to OSR zines was missing from the show notes, so I will suggest this site: http://rendedpress.blogspot.com/p/old-school-zines.html.  

    Additionally, I will recommend the excellent and innovative zines by my friend Cédric Plante. They contain visually rich pages suitable for randomizing or inspiration. He has put three out so far:

    Gormand’s Larder: 

    https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B_ogKTnp49Lkby1vaUFLV0p5REE/view

    The Wizard’s Inheritance:

    https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B_ogKTnp49LkbF8zZ1ZZcnE4UFU/view

    Doodle Temple:

    https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B_ogKTnp49LkeDF2MDV3Nk5xdGM/view

  19. Welcome aboard Richard Rogers and may God have mercy on your soul, for we will shave none during the Gaming Wars.

    Concerning MoTW and its fiddle investigation move, the way I’ve always read it is that the party is always aware of a creature at beginning of a session, and are hunting details of it. Both times I’ve played it felt as though it was run as a bit more X-Files and less Scooby Doo/Supernatural. We still had a great time but the move clearly is focused on dealing with the monster, and not finding the mystery.

    As for being a beta tester, the fun of the job is seeing how badly you can break a game imho. If I’m testing a game, it’s my job to stress the hell out of the system and see if I can either A) cause it to collapse completely or B) cause it to give me GM control. This may come from my programming background, but you should always play Rules As Written, and always give both a case of how it broke, as well as suggested fixes. Even if your data is discarded you at least can point to your response as fact that the matter was brought up

  20. Welcome aboard Richard Rogers and may God have mercy on your soul, for we will shave none during the Gaming Wars.

    Concerning MoTW and its fiddle investigation move, the way I’ve always read it is that the party is always aware of a creature at beginning of a session, and are hunting details of it. Both times I’ve played it felt as though it was run as a bit more X-Files and less Scooby Doo/Supernatural. We still had a great time but the move clearly is focused on dealing with the monster, and not finding the mystery.

    As for being a beta tester, the fun of the job is seeing how badly you can break a game imho. If I’m testing a game, it’s my job to stress the hell out of the system and see if I can either A) cause it to collapse completely or B) cause it to give me GM control. This may come from my programming background, but you should always play Rules As Written, and always give both a case of how it broke, as well as suggested fixes. Even if your data is discarded you at least can point to your response as fact that the matter was brought up

  21. Ray Otus I knew I was forgetting something! There were so many links from this episode (also, thanks for sharing yours). Here you go:

    Oubliette: http://oubliettemagazine.blogspot.com/2012/06/exciting-times-in-osr.html

    The Undercroft:

    http://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/131918/The-Undercroft-1?src=hottest_filtered

    Crawl! Fanzine

    http://crawlfanzine.blogspot.com

    The Gongfarmer’s Almanac (free to download at this link):

    https://drive.google.com/folderview?id=0B-Gxe4VmNUZFfkpmVDR5X2ZUcHdnaWpOM2o3X2pTNk9tZ2FVSmRDMGtTMEtYWEE2cUJ0cGs&usp=sharing

  22. Ray Otus I knew I was forgetting something! There were so many links from this episode (also, thanks for sharing yours). Here you go:

    Oubliette: http://oubliettemagazine.blogspot.com/2012/06/exciting-times-in-osr.html

    The Undercroft:

    http://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/131918/The-Undercroft-1?src=hottest_filtered

    Crawl! Fanzine

    http://crawlfanzine.blogspot.com

    The Gongfarmer’s Almanac (free to download at this link):

    https://drive.google.com/folderview?id=0B-Gxe4VmNUZFfkpmVDR5X2ZUcHdnaWpOM2o3X2pTNk9tZ2FVSmRDMGtTMEtYWEE2cUJ0cGs&usp=sharing

  29. Isa Wills I am led to believe long-term PbP is difficult to do on G+, given the nature of the post & commenting system. Shorter-term things seem to work great, though. Take a look at the CYOA thing Fowler did on the Gauntlet Hangouts page (just click on the Play by Post section; it’s currently the only one there), and let me know if you’d like to do something similar. Alternatively, you could run the PbP on a different forum, but we could link it and promote on our G+ pages. 

  30. Isa Wills I am led to believe long-term PbP is difficult to do on G+, given the nature of the post & commenting system. Shorter-term things seem to work great, though. Take a look at the CYOA thing Fowler did on the Gauntlet Hangouts page (just click on the Play by Post section; it’s currently the only one there), and let me know if you’d like to do something similar. Alternatively, you could run the PbP on a different forum, but we could link it and promote on our G+ pages. 

  31. You know, maybe I should pick up Vincent Baker’s four-pack game thingie and start running The Doomed Pilgrim for people. PbP is a pretty neat way to stay gaming, though sheesh yeah any PbP I’ve been in has had a horrific attrition rate.

    Also, it cracks me up whenever someone on the podcast says “yeah, we can just cut that out”.

    EDIT: This post from Daniel Solis describes my take on running RAW in playtest: http://danielsolisblog.blogspot.com/2014/03/3-steps-to-intepreting-playtest-feedback.html

    Basically–playtesters are very good at finding problem areas, but not necessarily good at providing the solution for that particular game.

  32. You know, maybe I should pick up Vincent Baker’s four-pack game thingie and start running The Doomed Pilgrim for people. PbP is a pretty neat way to stay gaming, though sheesh yeah any PbP I’ve been in has had a horrific attrition rate.

    Also, it cracks me up whenever someone on the podcast says “yeah, we can just cut that out”.

    EDIT: This post from Daniel Solis describes my take on running RAW in playtest: http://danielsolisblog.blogspot.com/2014/03/3-steps-to-intepreting-playtest-feedback.html

    Basically–playtesters are very good at finding problem areas, but not necessarily good at providing the solution for that particular game.

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