Speaking at GenCon: People Really DO Care!  Super easy to submit talks  Your description is your pitch  Your description should match your talk  Supply contact information  Make your slides available

D&D Next: Please Come Back  Reversing the “sameness” from fourth ed.  “Spiritual Successor” to third edition  Everything is streamlined for fast play  “Experience” of play is the focus

Event-Centric Gaming: Experience is Everything  Artemis and True Dungeon  “Full immersion” gaming  Very expensive, always packed.  Local Experience:

Eric Listen to Your Game: Design Through Playtesting

Designing Through Playtesting  What is playtesting?  How do I playtest?  How do I use my results?

Playtesting?  Trying things in a non-final state  Can be fully designed, or under construction  Can be guided or dropped off

Guided Playtesting  Play with your testers  Requires no documentation  Allows for instant feedback

Playtesting Cycle  Choose your goal  Create your scenario  Prepare for Feedback  Choose your players  Gather Feedback  Act on the Feedback  Iterate

Choose Your Goal  Be specific  Write it down  Focus on answering one question

 Test function of new dice system in combat  Test feel of different choices in combat  Test the group outcome of combat Did you make meaningful choices in combat?

Design your Scenario  Does not have to be the full gameplay loop  The smaller the better  All players must interact with your goal  Easily replayed

 One specific dungeon and combat  Pre-generated characters and enemies  Enemies have set tactics  Enemies selected for goal purposes

Prepare for Feedback  Prepare your questions (one listed in goals!)  List feature changes  Brainstorm problems  Brainstorm causes

 Questions:  Did your actions in combat feel significant?  Did you ever choose to change how you rolled?  Did you make meaningful choices in combat?  New dice system was added in features  Possible problem:  Combat goes too slowly.  Possible cause:  Players are used to a static dice system, choice may paralyze players.

Choose Your Players  Different Players play different ways  How familiar are they?  How will that match your goal  3 main player ideals, and 3 main motivations

Competitive Player “Is that fair?”

Story Player “That was so cool!”

Rules Lawyer Player “But wait, you said…”

Power Gamer “I bet I can beat him…”

Troll Player “It would be so funny if…”

Support Player “Hodor…”

 Will: Very Familiar with RPGs, new to Guilds. Narrative ideal, Power Gamer Motivation.  Nathan: Very familiar with RPGs, new to Guilds. Competitive ideal, Power Gamer.  Adriana: Familiar with RPGs, familiar with Guilds. Competitive ideal, Support Player.  Jordon: Familiar with RPGs, new to Guilds. Narrative ideal, Troll.

Gathering Feedback  Record your session  Talk to your players  Take notes!  What % rules coverage did they achieve?

Asking the Right Questions  Be Direct  Let them know you want criticism  Use examples from the session  Did they skip content?  Never accept “Its OK” or “All right, I guess”

Don’t Shrug it Off  Player opinion cannot be wrong  Small Clues point to big problems  Don’t Take criticism of your game personally  Pay attention to the players themselves

Player Tells  I don’t get it.  That’s not worth it.   I guess so, maybe?  Lets check the rules.

Get to the Real Feedback  Remember player type  Remember player motivation  Listen, then think like a player  Find solutions through play

 Players used only one or two abilities  There was no reason to change what was working  Players never changed their hit percentage  If an ability missed, a whole turn was wasted  Players took high damage  The enemies took too long to kill.

Act on the Feedback  Implement solutions  Explain your changes  Restart the scenario  Keep gathering feedback

 Scrapped the dice system entirely  Changed to auto-success attacks  Added randomness elsewhere

Iterate!  Act on your feedback  Tweak rules  Make changes  Begin again

Long Term Benefits  Find holes in your design  Fill those holes naturally  Reveals “optimal” strategies  Design based on play

So Please…  State a goal  Prepare for feedback  Choose your players  Gather feedback  Iterate

Listen to Your Game! Eric