Convention playtesting of a new TTRPG - A survival guide
I was grateful to be able to run SUPERCOPS over 2 sessions, over 2 days with complete strangers and random members of the public.
Overall everybody had fun, which is the most important thing but Iād like to cover some of the things I did that saved my ass, and some of the things I did in hindsight.
1.Bring cheap dice and pencils
I purchased 30 D6 dice for Ā£4 on amazon and brought a ragtag bag of ereaser ended pencils Iāve accumulated from careers fairs and goodie bags.
I had enough to worry about with running the game, I really didnāt want to have to think about someone damaging my cool, expensive or sentimental dice or breaking/losing some expensive mechanical pencils aswell.
Luckily I recovered all my dice, and my players generally used their own, but even if all 30 were stolen by a nefarious dice dragon - I wouldnāt have cared too much.
2. Bring at least one large screen device you can hand out AND ensure your files are accessible offline
I brought along my trusty Ipad, preloaded with SUPERCOPS and all accompanying documents (or so i thought) aswell as my 14 inch laptop.
Bringing all of my pages and sheets in my digital, handheld library was a great idea, I had everything at my fingertips and if I forgot something I could pull it up on there.
For example: I didnāt print off enough stuff for character creation, which was no problem because Iāll just pull it up on my Ipad and hand that out. I had twice as many character sheets as i needed so this will solve the problem.
Nope.
Couldnāt get into my google drive, the WIFI was throwing a tantrum and due to the thick walls of the building - I couldnāt get mobile data either!
Luckily, I was able to just convert my laptop into tablet mode and the Ipad eventually did reconnect but I really could have avoided the 10 minutes of awkward troubleshooting by just pre-downloading everything to my tablet the night before.
This step isnāt necessary if youāre capable of organsing a pissup in a brewery and print the right amount of stuff, but itās a helpful backup.
3. Set expectations and take criticism with a smile
At the start of the session I explained that I was looking for criticism for my new TTRPG and that as long as comments were about the system, the layout, or the session - I would thank them and wouldnāt be defensive.
THIS WAS HARD TO HOLD MYSELF TO!
It is difficult to take criticism entirely objectively when youāve worked for so hard and so long on something, you feel the urge to defend your choices and explain how āIt made sense to me at the timeā and āIf you look at like this thenā¦ā
Donāt do that.
Players who are offering you feedback are doing you a VALUABLE service, note it and take it onboard in good spirits and thank them for their contribution.
4. Take notes throughout on player misunderstandings and questions
Some of the most important feedback I got was from just observing how players interacted with the game.
Whenever a player was struggling with how to put a roll together, I didnāt immediately jump in and help - I watched to see if the play aid was able to fulfill itās role.
SPOILER - IT WASNāT, and I had to provide some further explanation
This was a valuable for me to be able to reference at the end of the session, because I was able to get further insight into what the initial confusion was, and it was because the play aid had the wording wrong!
5. Take notes on what DIDNāT happen
Players did not make enough use of X mechanic - why not?
āYou guys were in a really tough situation, and you didnāt use your super cool ability that would have saved the day - why not?ā
In the case of my game, it was because that ability wasnāt prominently displayed on the character sheet so players didnāt really remember they had it.
Thats my fault from a design perspective.
āA small checkbox is all they need the top right of the page, thatās enough of a reminder isnāt it?ā
Nope.
Only one player used their special ability during the entire game.
6. Jump into feedback ASAP
I had a set of 7 questions that I worked through with the group that I always use, as well as notes from the session that I wanted to come back to and ask further questions about.
I worked through each question one at at time, asking the group in turn what their thoughts were and taking notes on my laptop.
This allowed the group to bounce off eachother and spur memories from the session that might have otherwise been lost to time.
Iād urge you to immediately jump into feedback as soon as the session ends, thank your players for playing and get to feedback.
My response rate on players filling out surveys etc whenever they get home is at 15% success rate, even if I badger them after the fact.
7. Reward your playtesters
What did you get out of this?
You got 15 person-hours worth of time at least if you ran a group of 5 for 3 hours, how much would it cost you to hire people to do that?
You got to TEST and PROVE your pride and joy, with total strangers of different experience levels i.e. the EXACT demographic who you hope to back your kickstarter and play your game.
You had fun (hopefully) and have learned more about your system in 3 hours than you would have learned in 40 hours just reading it by yourself.
What do they get out of it?
They got to have fun (hopefully) and try a new system.
They could have probably had fun playing ANY of the other proven TTRPGs on offer too though.
They get no financial or material benefits, they took a risk on you and donated their time for free, not knowing if this would be any fun at all because its a playtest of some system theyāve never heard of and you are some random person theyāve never heard of.
Give em something - if you have the means
I have prototype art made for SUPERCOPS, I printed out 15 A4 full size pages of it and gave em to people who helped me playtest as well as convention organizers. It wasnāt anything special, just regular inkjet printer paper and ink.
But EVERYBODY was really happy to be able to walk away with something to remember the experience by and it felt good to cap the experience off with a physical thank you.
Printing can be expensive so Iāve included some lower cost and free ideas below.
*If you have a bunch of dice you never use and donāt really care about, let each player do a lucky dip into your dice bag and give them a momento.
*Offer to playtest their game or scenario for them in the future.
*Send them a PDF copy of the game as it stands.
*Offer to include their nameās in the game in narrative or as a playtester credit