I am a kid in a candy store at the moment. I have just arrived home after the first ever full session test of my game Detritus! I was nervous about it, especially since I had only a vague idea about what the adventure was going to turn into as I have been flat out building the game that the adventure fell a little behind. None the less, it is over and I am exceptionally happy about it!
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| Lost characters are very “creepy” dollish. |
I video taped bits and pieces of the play test so I can go back over what happened and what worked well. We started with a character generation session so I could test how that went and I have to say that it went for around an hour and a half to two hours but that included a full explanation about the game races and the setting as well. My daughter who was one of the play testers said she really liked the way that the character generation process was focussed on the way that the character was going to be role-played.
We entered the adventure portion of the day and after a short recess where I decided what we would do and the players could talk about what they thought so far we got away. In the short recess (around 5 to 10 minutes) one of the players “refined” their character by pretty much redesigning it completely. This was completely fine but also told me that the system was a good one that allowed for quick redevelopment. If you can reconfigure the character in such a short time frame that is a good thing in my book.
The four characters developed involved two Lost (spiritual beings that form physical bodies) who were a magician and a problem solver of sorts with a focus on balance. There was a Qualdread spy. The Qualdread are a race made up of many insects that come together to form a humanoid hive mind (at this point, interactive history pending) that are notoriously uncooperative and unreasonable. They feel exceptionally superior to all other races on Detritus and bear most a hatred, but this one is attempting to fit in so it can gather information on the Consumers (a violent spiritual race tearing the reality apart looking for something). Finally there was a Forgotten (a human forgotten by all they used to know on Earth) who used to be a Western star of a TV show that was quickly forgotten. He was terribly caught up in the character and became a recluse who fell through the cracks and in this reality has fashioned himself into a true gunslinger who builds his weapons out of the detritus.
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| One of the Consumer’s creations |
The group soon found themselves investigating a resident of the area and I have to say the game really took off. It was interesting, ran smoothly and got the players in. I am not going to go too much into it as I am developing the L.U.G.Con game from this adventure but needless to say all of the players wanted another session this week at some stage. Driving home my daughter was quite animated about the game (which is a little unusual). She has only ever played Star Wars and Pathfinder RPG’s so it was good to hear she found my game “captivating”. She liked the simplicity of the system and is keen to play it some more. That said the feedback was scarce as the players wanted to give it some more game time before they made a judgement!
So, game one down! Exciting times ahead. Keep tuned as the real test will come when the system is completely fleshed out and I get other groups to play-test the system without my guidance. Regardless I am very excited about the future of this game and can’t wait for the L.U.G.Con game!