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Message: <blockquote data-quote="the Jester" data-source="post: 5546730" data-attributes="member: 1210">PLAYTEST REPORTSo this last weekend we got together to game.  I ran my 4e game Friday night and then again Saturday morning until about 2 o'clock, at which point we switched over to this system. Everyone made characters (except our host, who already had one) and we were ready to go by about 2:30; with some delays for lunch-related stuff we got started about 3 pm. Between 3 and 7, we had:4 combat encountersA good amount of roleplaying A good amount of explorationA very minor skill-based encounterQuick "this is how it works" on combat, skill checks, action points, recharges, etc- everything that came up- but this really only took a total of maybe 15 minutes.A HUGE amount of discussion about various aspects of the systemFast and furious.  Very fun. Worked well and seemed to promote the type of game I was after. The pcs were:1 Halfling Fighter (focused on knife fighting type stuff)1 Human Rogue (focused on throwing weapons, bought a war dog)1 Elf Wizard (with Polymorph instead of Enchantment as a school; starting spells- alter self, scorching burst, false life, dispel magic).1 Dwarf Fighter (a holdover from v. 0.22, which was signifcantly different, which we only realized when the first round of combat came up and he looked lost when I asked about stance and style; this was the host's pc)First of all, it took less than a minute for the dwarf fighter to choose his styles and stances. Quick decisions, excellent!The game is related to my 4e campaign in which the pcs recently dealt with the Garden of Graves section of the Tomb of Horrors 4e module.  The playtest group (hereafter the "beta" group while the 4e party is the "alpha" group- same players, different characters) was on a mission to take rubbings of the doggerel from the start of the dungeon to a gnomish graphologist for analysis.  To do this they had to travel several days through a fey wood. Along the way, the first combat pitted our heroes against 6 goblins. The pcs got surprise and then initiative; between the snarling dog, the hail of daggers and the screaming dwarf, their morale broke and they fled without even attacking once.Day 1 ended; the party rested without event.  On day 2, they continued their journey through the woods, eventually falling afoul of a giant jumping spider.  Though it attacked, it never hit, and the dwarf cut it in two with efficiency.They party kept going, but heard a weird distant sound like a cross between the roar of a bear and the hoot of an owl (gee, what could that be?).  Foolishly deciding to track it down, they first came upon a boar that was mostly devoured in the midst of a bunch of fur and feathers (and weird tracks), then followed the tracks to the nest of an owlbear.  They rushed in to attack, barely hurt it, nearly lost the halfling and fled for their lives. Fortunately for them, said owlbear wasn't very hungry, was hardly wounded and, best of all, one of the few hits they landed had reduced its speed. So the pcs all got away (thanks to the halfling's second wind). An hour's journey later, they halted for the night to rest and recover.The next day, the poor halfling was all beat up (his second wind had restored him to 1 hp, so now he had 2 hp).  The party moved on; I expected him to second wind as soon as he had an action point to enable it, but he didn't.  I think he overlooked the possibility, although I mentioned it later.The party kept moving, finding a gorge they had to either clamber down and up the other side (wasting hours of time) or cross a moldy, rotting, slippery fallen tree bridge. They all made it across with no trouble. Finally, they reached the little gulley where the gnome was supposed to live.  It was a rocky gulley that ended in a spring-fed pool, but there was no sign of any inhabitants.  The party looked around and I called for a 3d10 Int check to spot the door (hidden by gnomecraft in plain sight). ONLY THE HALFLING, who was the stupidest pc, made it!  Irony, I love you.The pcs met the gnome, showed him the rubbings and spent the night (halfling inside, the others outside- only the dwarf could have fitted comfortably, and he warned everyone, "It's best not to have much truck with gnomes"). In the morning the gnomish graphologist gave them a scroll with three things scriven upon it: a set of teleport coordinates (hello pt 2 of ToH!), an image of the Devourer's face and the name "Acererak".  The party set off for home; their job, of course, it to alert the "alpha" group of who was behind the Garden of Graves stuff. As evening fell, the party was attacked by a cloud of ten stirges.  This battle quickly turned desperate (as all stirge fights should), but the pcs managed to get away alive. Unfortunately, Fenris- the rogue's dog- was sucked dry.And that's where we ended.The group really enjoyed it. They got something like 39 xp each, lost a dog and a number of daggers and therefore came out poorly as far as money, but when/if they get home they'll get paid, which will help a lot.  Feedback on Specific Bits of the System:The halfling's players commented that he didn't see much of a difference between stances and styles. I explained: a fighting style is what's in your hands while you're fighting, a stance applies regardless of your style. He pointed out that some are very similar; I said Right, that's how you get additional bonuses. Aha! He discovered the value of the combo of a stance and style that each let him shift 5' before or after chucking a knife- that's a 10' shift before or after the attack or 5' before and then another 5' after, not bad! We spent probably 15 minutes or so talking about the "frivolous expenditure of money for xp" system too, with various players asking whether this or that would count. Spending extra money to fancy up your weapons? No, you have those weapons on your character sheet, no xp. My favorite one was the rogue's idea- "What if I sneak into peoples' houses and leave money there?" Anonymous Robin Hooding in the night!</blockquote>

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