[GB] Playtest 9-28-17

[Eliahad]

Hey Everyone,

We’re interested in running a playtest of Godball using generic powers and just moving the pieces around to see what happens. It’s also going to be at test of Roll20 to see if we can use this to help develop the game.

It’s going to take place next Thursday the 28th at 7:00 MST (8:00 Central/9:00 Eastern).
If you’re interested, send me a PM and I’ll send you the rules as they currently stand and a link to the Roll20 Room.

The Gods, bored with their usual intrigue, have designed a game for their own amusement. Each God appoints a champion tasked with claiming the Godball and returning it to their shrine. The first to return the Godball to the shrine dedicated to their God. Wins! But it is not as easy as that, as the Gods cannot bear to lose, let alone let another God win. Looking down from above, they use their powers to tilt the field in their favor, ensuring that their champion is the one who claims victory.

Each player takes on the role of Champion and God. Moving their champion about the board, and playing their Godly powers from a hand of cards.

Where the game is now: The game is in the infant stages, and this playtest is more a proof of concept than anything else. The powers the gods use are all the same for now. Eventually they will be tailored to the themes of each God.

What we need: Two things: To see if we can use Roll20 to do this. (There will be kinks that need to be worked out!)

Feedback! Even at this early stage, this test will help us get a feel for what is working, and what isn’t.

[Eliahad]

Anyone else? There is room left for 2 or 3 more!

[Cazmonster]

Good luck man. I am supporting you in spirit (and still working on 3D printing hexes for you).

[Eliahad]

Thank you, Caz. I'm excited to be testing things. This part is new for me. And I'm looking forward to the feedback and seeing what changes moving forward!

[Eliahad]

Giddy!

[Phoebe]

Can someone tell me - is this also compatible with Caz's game? I need to spend some time on that character and didn't know if both events are happening tonight??

[Eliahad]

I didn't think Caz game was happening tonight, but I don't actually know.

[Tahlvin]

Caz's game is NOT tonight; he's looking at times for next week/weekend, and (I believe) waiting for Phoebe to send him an email addy to get added to the calendar.

[Eliahad]

If anyone else is interested in jumping in on the Playtest, we start at 7 MST and I can shoot you a link to the rules pretty quickly! Just let me know!

Wheeeeeee!

[Eliahad]

[Cazmonster]

I think the playtest went well. I am excited to see the writeup.

[Phoebe]

I really enjoyed it. You can see how everything is going to go a lot easier and be more fun in the tabletop environment, but it's actually pretty darn fun right now in the roll 20 environment, even while getting up to speed on the rules.

At this point it seems like continued development and play testing and development and play testing will quickly ion out any remaining kinks you need ironed. everything went really well so far.

The whole idea is awesome and I can't wait until it's possible to buy a pack of cards and go!

[Stan]

It was really fun. I've missed hanging out. Here's feedback from last night while I can remember it.

While glancing at the rules while playing, I was confused by difference between barrier and terrain. Maybe make barriers impassable (but rare and/or temporary) and terrain just slows movement? (and make pillars barriers)

Would it be too short to have the pillars 2 hexes from the center and the temples 4 hexes? It would make it easier to score (but still really hard) so the game takes a medium amount of time. Maybe still have the board go out to 5 so you can come to your temple from the back if needed. If it doesn't say so already, there should be a rule that you can't enter an opponent's temple. Otherwise, you could park your champion there and they could never score. A smaller board would also make terrain easier to use effectively.

For a shorter variant, how about if, once the ball has passed the pillar ring, putting it back in the middle also gets a point? Shorter path but risky as someone else can steal the ball and dunk it at the last second.

If cards don't have the normal life cycle, then put something on the card saying that. For example, the shield card that's an interrupt could say to play during an opponent's turn or something. I was also confused about the cards do something X times, like block the next 2 hits. Do those last until used up or only until the end of the round?

I like the idea that, if you have no gp at the start of your turn, you don't get a turn and the round is over.

Possible variants for added fun:
team play (for 4 or 6 players). Teams made from alternating starting positions.(e.g. Poseidon and Hades on the same side in yesterday's layout) You get 2 pts getting the ball back to your own temple, 1 pt if it gets back to a team mate's temple.

secret ally (for 5+ players) - everyone gets a card face down of who their ally is. You get a pt if they score. Not the same as teams as A's ally might be B but B's ally might be C. Variant of a variant. roving allies - pass the ally card to the right at the end of the round. Those with good memory would eventually know who is allied with who for a given turn.

Just let me know the next time you wanna play.

[Eliahad]

Here just some of the notes that I took:

Players were: Me, Mike, Stan, Phoebe, with Cazmonster observing.
Playtest length: About 2.5 hours (The first hour was getting familiar with using Roll20 for this particular game and explaining rules.)
We played 3 Rounds. Player interaction started on the 2nd round. There were rules that were unclear and things that just hadn't been considered yet.
Generally, 3 God Cards were played per player in a round. Champions moved 4 or so hexes in a round (outside of powers.)

Things that I learned:

It was fun! I'm a little biased, of course, but at its most basic level, the ideas and concepts work to make a fun game. They are not close to perfect or polished, but the seeds of the ideas are a good starting point.

It would be so much faster on a tabletop. It's just the nature of the roll20 beast, I think. It's harder to see elements being moved around and the thread of play can be lost in chat. There were moments where things moved quickly, (very quickly) and those moments would be easier to recreate on an actual tabletop.

It was silly. Even with the generic cards there was a series of interactions where the Godball exchanged hands every turn as people were knocking each other down grabbing the ball, and then getting pushed around by someone else. It was followed by an ultimate yoink that was cancelled out by a perfectly timed counter card. It was an exchange that I would like to encourage more of. This kind of back and forth is what the game needs.

Pacing is going to be difficult. If it's difficult to score one point, I think that's okay as long as the game has those back and forth moments throughout the whole game. It could very well be that the objective of the game has to change. Pacing I think, can be effected by so many different things, cards used, terrain, size of the map, location of the objective points, movement rules. Figuring this out is going to be the most difficult part of the game, I think.

A hex is important! Very important. In a game where you have to grab an objective and slog back while everyone is throwing things at you. Each hex you can get is important. When we were discussing turn orders and how to end a Round...it didn't occur to me that we would be shorting champions the ability to move. Everyone needs to be able to move their champion the same number of hexes in a round (or have the option to choose not to.)

Round/Refreshing mechanics are going to need a lot of tweaking and balancing. It's possible you don't even need rounds. It could just be handled in a "You do something" and things get played...or "you do nothing" and you get things back.

Shields, counters and protections are going to be powerful in a game like this. I don't think they should be absent, but they are going to need to be considered carefully.

That said, ways of making space between heroes is also going to need strong considerations. Once we got bunched up, it was going to be hard for any one person to make space for themselves. (See, every hex is important.)

Champions: The champion token pools were a good attempt, but they feel clunky as hell to me. Their rules are going to need more definition and I am not 100 percent sold on them yet.

Players should always get to do SOMETHING on their turn. I'm still worried about the knockdown mechanic is too frustrating, but players didn't seem to mind.

The game might not need separation between terrain or barriers. On the other hand, if champions have a kind of terrain that is favored to them, that is a way they could create space.

It's going to be a pain proofreading all of the power cards, but it is possibly going to be one of the most important things in the entire process.

How do you test feel? I guess you just playtest, playtest, playtest until it feels right.

I have more notes than this, but they're even nittier and grittier than this.

[Eliahad]

[Mike]

[Mike]

[Mike]

[Eliahad]

[Mike]