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Message: <blockquote data-quote="VoiceOfReason?" data-source="post: 1924279" data-attributes="member: 27145">They key to playtesting anything is thoroughness.  If your product is as successful as you might hope, the chances that your campaign will be 'broken' is staggering.  Hundreds if not thousands of PC's with hundreds if not thousands of concepts by hundreds if not thousands of players coming up with hundreds if not thousands of ideas that spring up at random will find something you missed.  Finding a munchkin (or three) is definitely good advice.  Getting said munchkin(s) to play the game more than once will increase the benefit many times over.  Once the munckin knows the game once through and knows what to expect, numbercrunching gets risen to a new eschelon.  Your game will be broken in this stage, probably in many places.  Keep in mind though that not all groups have munchkins and/or not all munchkins numbercrunch all of the time.  In other words, after the munchkin brigade has stomped your game into the ground, try to fix it without raising the overall difficulty of any given adventure.  Another aspect:  DM the material in different styles.  Be the TPKDM.  Be the nice guy that doesn't let the PC's die.  Be Monty Haul and add extra loot to the encounters.  Be the 'poverty mission' DM.  Try it all, others will.If you plan on publishing more modules/campaigns past your first, there's one surefire method to get people to buy more of your products.  Make it stick out in their mind.  People like stuff that's memorable.  Powerful stuff is memorable, but interesting stuff is moreso.  Unique designs, effects, upkeep costs, drawbacks, prerequisites, and abilities will pique someone's interest.  As often as not, I try to keep the uniqueness cosmetic only.  A race statistically identical to Air Genasi that has insectoid wings and live in a massive airless cavern beneath the earth?  A Murlynd's Spoon that looks like a straw?  A +2 wine bottle that acts like a club?  Don't overdo it though.  Eventually the players will get jaded of the constant newness and just call the wine bottle a club.Using this method though, you can keep the feeling of uniqueness in your story without adding all kinds of custom rules that may or may not break the game.</blockquote>

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