CanGames Primeval Scenario is a Wrap!
As promised, here is the post on the final playtest of the Primeval RPG scenario that I've written for CanGames 2011, "Peril Beneath the Streets".
The Friday night gaming group showed up at my place right on time, and we got down to the business of the second-to-last playtest of the scenario that I had planned for CanGames. I implemented a couple of fundamental changes that the players in both the Friday and Sunday groups had suggested, as well as tweaked a few of the encounters/scenes somewhat to bring them a bit more in line with elements of the Primeval tv series and the constructive criticism the players from both groups had suggested. The players played the game pretty well, and the combat sequence with the [censored for spoilers] went as expected, with some time shaved off the whole fight. I wasn't actually expecting them to fight the [censored for spoilers], so that came as a pleasant surprise, and they handled that rather nicely, and with a good modicum of speed of play. One of the things about running the playtest of combat with six actual players, rather than two or three players (see the Sunday section below for more on that) is the fact that the combat sequences flowed relatively quickly, and the players told me afterwards that they like the simplicity of the combat mechanics for the Primeval RPG, and how smoothly it actually plays. The players engaged in some pretty good, and at times funny, roleplaying between the characters, and accumulated a few Story Points this way that were useful for various tasks later on. The new player, David, said that he really enjoyed the playtests of the scenario, and that the game is really suitable to newcomers such as himself, who aren't all that familiar with either the Primeval tv series or the game mechanics of the DW: AiTaS system. Overall their session of the scenario went really well, and the players didn't do anything that was really unexpected. The characters split up into three groups at one point (for reasons that I can't go into, as they'll be serious spoilers), but that worked out nicely as the player characters handled what was thrown at them with their typical aplomb. There were a few dicey moments, as doubts about handling two situations in the scenario were debated at length, but not interfering with the flow of the game or the timing of the scenario.
The Sunday afternoon game session of the playtest went somewhat differently. Unfortunately, my friend from Smith Falls,
knightbane, couldn't make it up to Ottawa for the session again, but spross and Tammy had a new player join the group this week, Douglas McMillan (don't know if he's got an LJ account). And so the newbie got thrown into the frying pan literally. Doug told me that he hasn't seen all that much of the Primeval tv series, though he was familiar with the rules of the game from his experience with the DW:AiTaS RPG from last year at CanGames. Add to the fact that the three players had to play a couple of characters each, and...well, Doug literally got his baptism experience with playtesting rpg material in this one. I managed to make a few minor changes to the scenario on Saturday night, after the Friday gaming group's run with it, and I feel that these made the adventure better in some ways. spross, Tammy, and Doug actually engaged in some good roleplaying sequences during the course of the afternoon's playtest, which surprised me somewhat (it's difficult to roleplay two characters effectively when one is in that situation), although a couple of the characters got slighted/ignored somewhat due to stuff getting lost in the shuffle and all. Similar to what the Friday nighters did, the players split the party of characters up into three groups at one point, and one of the characters isolated himself while fighting a pair of [censored for spoilers] to rescue some people, nearly dying in the resulting skirmish (the Primeval RPG is somewhat more lethal than the DW game, as is to be expected). The player characters didn't acquire certain information about the situation, as one of the players forgot to inquire about certain aspects of what the characters knew, but that was due to inexperience. It didn't cost them in the long run, but made their task somewhat more difficult. The combat sequences went somewhat more slowly with the Sunday group, but this also was to be expected, as it's more difficult to handle combat when you are playing two characters. Changing the mindset in the middle of combat is tougher when you have two characters, especially if one is combat-oriented and the other isn't. Overall, the players handled the playtest pretty well, and the scenario worked much better for Tammy, who had some major complaints about it after she and spross had playtested it the first time. Doug told me after we finished and during the post-mortem that he had enjoyed the scenario and liked the game system and the mechanics in play with the game, but that he had felt schizophrenic at times with the two characters. The players agreed that the scenario worked fine as it now stands, and commented on a couple of additional ideas to incorporate into the adventure set-up, but otherwise all was good.
Overall, I'm extremely happy with "Peril Beneath the Streets" now, and I think that this adventure holds up pretty well, and offers some decent opportunities for roleplaying the characters as well as for those who are more combat-oriented. To be honest, I'm glad that the work on the playtest for stuff for CanGames is complete, as I've been itching to get back to the Desolation campaign and all. In the meantime, got some other writing projects to get to, and so it's a relief to be able to get away from the playtesting for at least another month, methinks.
The Friday night gaming group showed up at my place right on time, and we got down to the business of the second-to-last playtest of the scenario that I had planned for CanGames. I implemented a couple of fundamental changes that the players in both the Friday and Sunday groups had suggested, as well as tweaked a few of the encounters/scenes somewhat to bring them a bit more in line with elements of the Primeval tv series and the constructive criticism the players from both groups had suggested. The players played the game pretty well, and the combat sequence with the [censored for spoilers] went as expected, with some time shaved off the whole fight. I wasn't actually expecting them to fight the [censored for spoilers], so that came as a pleasant surprise, and they handled that rather nicely, and with a good modicum of speed of play. One of the things about running the playtest of combat with six actual players, rather than two or three players (see the Sunday section below for more on that) is the fact that the combat sequences flowed relatively quickly, and the players told me afterwards that they like the simplicity of the combat mechanics for the Primeval RPG, and how smoothly it actually plays. The players engaged in some pretty good, and at times funny, roleplaying between the characters, and accumulated a few Story Points this way that were useful for various tasks later on. The new player, David, said that he really enjoyed the playtests of the scenario, and that the game is really suitable to newcomers such as himself, who aren't all that familiar with either the Primeval tv series or the game mechanics of the DW: AiTaS system. Overall their session of the scenario went really well, and the players didn't do anything that was really unexpected. The characters split up into three groups at one point (for reasons that I can't go into, as they'll be serious spoilers), but that worked out nicely as the player characters handled what was thrown at them with their typical aplomb. There were a few dicey moments, as doubts about handling two situations in the scenario were debated at length, but not interfering with the flow of the game or the timing of the scenario.
The Sunday afternoon game session of the playtest went somewhat differently. Unfortunately, my friend from Smith Falls,
knightbane, couldn't make it up to Ottawa for the session again, but spross and Tammy had a new player join the group this week, Douglas McMillan (don't know if he's got an LJ account). And so the newbie got thrown into the frying pan literally. Doug told me that he hasn't seen all that much of the Primeval tv series, though he was familiar with the rules of the game from his experience with the DW:AiTaS RPG from last year at CanGames. Add to the fact that the three players had to play a couple of characters each, and...well, Doug literally got his baptism experience with playtesting rpg material in this one. I managed to make a few minor changes to the scenario on Saturday night, after the Friday gaming group's run with it, and I feel that these made the adventure better in some ways. spross, Tammy, and Doug actually engaged in some good roleplaying sequences during the course of the afternoon's playtest, which surprised me somewhat (it's difficult to roleplay two characters effectively when one is in that situation), although a couple of the characters got slighted/ignored somewhat due to stuff getting lost in the shuffle and all. Similar to what the Friday nighters did, the players split the party of characters up into three groups at one point, and one of the characters isolated himself while fighting a pair of [censored for spoilers] to rescue some people, nearly dying in the resulting skirmish (the Primeval RPG is somewhat more lethal than the DW game, as is to be expected). The player characters didn't acquire certain information about the situation, as one of the players forgot to inquire about certain aspects of what the characters knew, but that was due to inexperience. It didn't cost them in the long run, but made their task somewhat more difficult. The combat sequences went somewhat more slowly with the Sunday group, but this also was to be expected, as it's more difficult to handle combat when you are playing two characters. Changing the mindset in the middle of combat is tougher when you have two characters, especially if one is combat-oriented and the other isn't. Overall, the players handled the playtest pretty well, and the scenario worked much better for Tammy, who had some major complaints about it after she and spross had playtested it the first time. Doug told me after we finished and during the post-mortem that he had enjoyed the scenario and liked the game system and the mechanics in play with the game, but that he had felt schizophrenic at times with the two characters. The players agreed that the scenario worked fine as it now stands, and commented on a couple of additional ideas to incorporate into the adventure set-up, but otherwise all was good.Overall, I'm extremely happy with "Peril Beneath the Streets" now, and I think that this adventure holds up pretty well, and offers some decent opportunities for roleplaying the characters as well as for those who are more combat-oriented. To be honest, I'm glad that the work on the playtest for stuff for CanGames is complete, as I've been itching to get back to the Desolation campaign and all. In the meantime, got some other writing projects to get to, and so it's a relief to be able to get away from the playtesting for at least another month, methinks.