Playtesting Burning Wheel and Wushu Jackie Chan Adventures for Gamicon 2013

Yesterday in Iowa City we playtested Burning Wheel and Wushu Jackie Chan Adventures for Gamicon 2013.

The playtesters were: Dan G.K., James S., Val, and David M-K.

Burning Wheel is a game set in a fictional Tolkien-esque setting with elves and dwarves and humans. It is Luke Crane's creation, found here. Dan G.K. GMed the adventure called The Sword, in which the three Players tried to figure out how their characters could get the sword for their own personal reasons. In the end we came to a great compromise and no one was injured.

The next game was Jackie Chan Adventures using the Wushu system. David M-K GMed this game. I had created pregens: Jackie, Jade, Uncle, Tohru, and Captain Black.

Wushu is an RPG about cool characters and kung-fu dramatic action scenes. It is a game where the principle of narrative truth trumps realism and in many ways traditional game results. The Wushu RPG system was developed by Dan Bayn. Check it out here.

The Players choose Jackie, Uncle and Tohru. We were on a limited time to test this game, but it was fruitful to test in the time we had because only one of the Players was really familiar with the animated series.

The suggestion to include information explaining more about the series and about the Traits was a great one to help other unfamiliar Players. I'm also planning to create a relationship map as well show people at a glance how characters know each other.

The adventure itself went alright and I have some notes on how to establish a few things for running it in the future. Thanks again to the awesome Players who participated!

Playtesting My Life with Master for Gamicon 2013

Yesterday I playtested the prewritten adventure, The Snakes of Dr. Oserlinde (by Steve Hickey), for Paul Czege's My Life with Master.

The playtesters were: Jimmy S., Brooke, and Jason. 

My Life with Master is a roleplaying game in which Players take on roles as Minions who are torn between doing horrible things for their Master and wanting to be free.

This adventure was written as a guide to help play My Life with Master in general as well as at conventions within a 3-hour game. And I have to say after finally running the game, I feel like the guide does a good job of bringing My Life with Master to the table.

The guide includes a few things that the main game does not, but which other games have released with their rules. It includes advice on how to talk to gamers new to the game who may have problems with the game's premise as an exercise in exploring dysfunctional relationships about power.

The guide also includes a nice simple relationship map showing the Player Characters and their pre-established Connections -- which are required to use as part of the Endgame mechanics. This map was a very nice tool to use for both the Players and me as the GM to move things along.

The guide also has good suggestions on how to start and continue play with the included pregenerated PCs.

Overall, I think that the playtest went over well. I botched some of the rolling for a bit, but the Players were gracious about that.

The one main challenge that I encountered in this game as I have in prior games was coming up with a way to get the Players more motivated on calling scenes, specifically with Connections to gain Overtures for their Minions.

My next challenge is to make a shorter version of this guide to use at Gamicon to help people get a sense of the game in about an hour.

Playtesting Games for Gamicon 2013

Corridor Games on Demand had a great playtest on Saturday, Feb. 9, 2013.

Jimmy ran us through his fantastic Dust Devils scenario (Strangers on a Train) involving bandits, burdens, and bangs! This was my first taste of Dust Devils and I can't wait to play through the rest of the game at Gamicon.

Jimmy, Val and Dan were kind enough to make some pregens for my first actual Dogs in the Vineyard adventure. Town: Scarlett. What's Wrong? Young lovers from different worlds have complicated a delicate balance for power and resources on the eve of a terrible winter storm. Good thing the Dogs arrived to handle the matter, one way or another.

-David-