Valley of the Five Fires Microgame Update

Over the weekend, I finally received my beta print chits/counters for the Valley of the Five Fires microgame. Superior POD is seriously backed up right now, so the chits I'd hoped to have for the NTRPG Con (on June 6th or 7th) just arrived Saturday (June 21st). Even the expected date was more like the 10th or 11th. Knowing the chits would take a while to get here, I delayed finishing up the edits to beta version of the rules, but given the chits are here now, I suppose I can finish this up by end of week. Give me another week or so, and I'll put out the official call for playtesters. (BTW, feel free to express interest here, but please understand I will probably only cull testers from the "official" calls when they happen.)

Valley of the Five Fires Microgame Update: Encounter Table

Welbo and I spent a good hour last night thinking and re-thinking the encounter table. We've been re-thinking it off-an-on for a few months now. The encounter table is critical. It drives the rhythm of the game. What works in theory (based on percentages and law-of-averages) doesn't always work in practice. There's a subtle shift that comes into play when you look at the dice combinations that will yield certain results. Theoretically, that shouldn't matter... but it does (or at least it seemed like it did). I think what was really happening was that even a few percent difference in one result coming up over an another made a huge difference on the game flow. So, after an hour, I think we landed on a table that felt like it yielded the results we wanted it to. Now we just have to get through the big hurdle of how encounters with Special NPCs play out and we should be in the home stretch toward the beta round of playtesting.

New Google+ Community: Classic Microgames

I've just started a new Google+ community dedicated to classic microgames (think small boxes and zip bags) popular from the late 70s through late 80s, as well as to the support and development of new games in the same vein. Membership is open. Please join if this interests you!

V5F Microgame: Test Session Report

Last night wasn't so much of a "playtest" of the Valley of the Five Fires Microgame, as it was a chance to put the encounter/player stats through the ringer. It consisted mostly of rolling d6s, doing some minor math, and trying a bunch of variants.

After the first playtest, were afraid of some of the encounters being too deadly, and others being too much of a pushover. But after a discussion of potential player strategies, we came to the following conclusions:

1) Math is hard.
Seriously... when you're rolling multiple d6s (e.g., one person is rolling 2d6, and the other is rolling 3d6), and then each side gets bonuses to the roll (e.g., 2d6+3 vs 3d6+2), and then you have to subtract the lower roll from the higher, it slows the hell things down! Not what we want in this kind of game. It's different when all of the penalties/bonuses are to a single target number on an attack roll. But when there are modifiers to two opposing rolls, and then you have find the difference, it was WAY too cumbersome.

2) Encounters should be deadly.
The worst that happens is that you "start over" from your home space with a "new" Player Party. Early on in the game, the risk for the Experience Points earned is worth the chance of losing anything you've got. Late in the game, you've hopefully earned enough XP that the encounters aren't so deadly.

3) The pushover encounters are really there as a nuisance.
They force the end of your turn, and the Experience Points earned are almost insignificant. Early on the game, they provide the chance of "safely" earning Experience Points. Late in the game, they remain a nuisance as you race to complete the quest (and win the game).

Here's the conclusion to which we came...
"It was fine the way it was. It needed some tweaks, but not an overhaul."

I think we Welbo and tested the game on New Year's Day, we played it too safe. We were both trying to avoid encounters and acquire the quest items as quickly as possible, and we paid for it... with our lives! (We were playing the "quick" game option where you didn't "start over" when you died, you were just out of the game. We're thinking about eliminating this play option altogether; hopefully it will change the player strategies, so they're not so concerned with dying that they're always trying to play it safe.)

The next full playtest should be interesting. We're looking at trying it through Roll20. If that goes well, we'll probably start reaching out for other virtual playtesters the last week of this month.

Valley of the Five Fires Microgame Playtest Report

Welbo and I met yesterday to run the first official playtest of the Valley of the Five Fires Microgame, and I am more than pleased by the results. Regardless of the detail, play was moderately quick and easy to pick up. More importantly, play really captures the spirit of the module, which was the intention. There is a lot of rich detail to the setting that really comes through in the monster, place, and special encounters.

Really, at this point, we only see two minor issues which need some refinement:

1) the spaces on the map -
are there enough, and are the placed to be fair to all 4 players?

2) the balance of monster attack dice/wound points -
are they balanced enough to provide a challenge but not be unfairly deadly should the player encounter one?

Honestly, if these are the biggest issues at this point, we're in good shape! (I shouldn't get cocky, though. There are a lot of Special NPC encounters we have yet to play through fully.)