Playtest Reports
This is Steven Petrick Posting.
Playtest reports are important to any game system. It is far too easy for a game designer to forget that the people who are going to be playing his game when he is not there do not necessarily know that rule that he knows that was so obvious he never actually wrote it into the rulebook. Having that turn up as a question before you publish it can make your game a hit. Not having it turn up means you can spend endless hours crafting messages to explain why it was not written down and results in player dis-satisfaction.
There is a flip-side in that you have to keep track of who your playtesters are. That means watching what they report about how they play the game.
Not to long ago we did a scenario, part of the balance of the scenario was that the defenders would use all of the resources that were available to them. One playtest group reported the scenario completely unbalanced. One of the reasons was that while the attacker would be caught in a Tholian web for some period of time, the defender did not bother to equip his Tholian fighters with the phaser pods that are available in the stockpile of all true carriers (which the Tholian Small Fighter Ground Base was. While a few phaser-3s does not seem like much, delivered at close range against an opponent caught in a web a half dozen of them are capable of downing a cruiser's flank shield. Added to the phaser-3s the fighters normally carry and supplemented with the phaser-3s of admin shuttles, the trapped cruiser could take serious damage.
The result is that you get two different kinds of reports, one talking about how they were not able to do any real damage to the attacking cruiser (did not use the phaser pods) and another discussing the cruiser accomplishing the mission, but sustaining some damage (did use the pods), and another discussing the cruiser almost being defeated (supported the fighters with the Admin shuttles). All of them had some comments about luck factors (consistent bad, or good, die rolls is something you need to be aware of if you game uses dice). But the use of firepower available was key to making what seemed an unbalanced scenario workable.
SFB is a very large game with lots of options and capabilities, and while bad luck can always undo a good plan (like having an opponent who consistently rolls ones when he fires his photon torpedoes at you), maximizing your capabilities is the best path to victory.
Playtest reports are important to any game system. It is far too easy for a game designer to forget that the people who are going to be playing his game when he is not there do not necessarily know that rule that he knows that was so obvious he never actually wrote it into the rulebook. Having that turn up as a question before you publish it can make your game a hit. Not having it turn up means you can spend endless hours crafting messages to explain why it was not written down and results in player dis-satisfaction.
There is a flip-side in that you have to keep track of who your playtesters are. That means watching what they report about how they play the game.
Not to long ago we did a scenario, part of the balance of the scenario was that the defenders would use all of the resources that were available to them. One playtest group reported the scenario completely unbalanced. One of the reasons was that while the attacker would be caught in a Tholian web for some period of time, the defender did not bother to equip his Tholian fighters with the phaser pods that are available in the stockpile of all true carriers (which the Tholian Small Fighter Ground Base was. While a few phaser-3s does not seem like much, delivered at close range against an opponent caught in a web a half dozen of them are capable of downing a cruiser's flank shield. Added to the phaser-3s the fighters normally carry and supplemented with the phaser-3s of admin shuttles, the trapped cruiser could take serious damage.
The result is that you get two different kinds of reports, one talking about how they were not able to do any real damage to the attacking cruiser (did not use the phaser pods) and another discussing the cruiser accomplishing the mission, but sustaining some damage (did use the pods), and another discussing the cruiser almost being defeated (supported the fighters with the Admin shuttles). All of them had some comments about luck factors (consistent bad, or good, die rolls is something you need to be aware of if you game uses dice). But the use of firepower available was key to making what seemed an unbalanced scenario workable.
SFB is a very large game with lots of options and capabilities, and while bad luck can always undo a good plan (like having an opponent who consistently rolls ones when he fires his photon torpedoes at you), maximizing your capabilities is the best path to victory.
posted by Federation Commander at 2:40 PM
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