Playtest Done

I finally got to playtest Asteria Rising. Feedback seemed overall positive from the two players. Mechanics are what all my notes were on. I'm going to use the character names the players picked for anonymity, Rutabaga & Q. Not all these notes will make sense as there have been changes to the game since the last update on this blog. I haven't posted for some time though and thought you all could use something to read.

I’ve deduced a couple things from the play test. First, character creation by rolling or using the set up standard array is quick. I am quite pleased to know that despite how involved character creation can be for a table-top mine is able to be done in 30-45 minutes for people who are not familiar with the game.

Second, I found that the playtesters would pick Combat Prowess, Skills, and Character Traits based solely off of the name. Most are descriptive enough in their names to where not knowing their exact role in game mechanics doesn’t cause issues for the players. I.e. athletics deals with physical feats not directly related to combat; intrigue deals with something related to deviousness or politics; hacking is clearly computer stuff; so on.

Third, Rutabaga enjoyed that with class bonuses to Combat Prowess or Skills she could go above the maximum level of 20. I had debated with myself a fair amount if that should be allowed or not. I decided that if someone like Rutabaga wanted a 24 in Mechanics and 25 in Hacking rather than spread those points out for versatility I should let them. It also clearly hindered Rutabaga in areas were she could not use those highly specialized skills, as her character was outside of their element. Rutabaga didn’t feel punished, but anxious to find creative ways to use those abilities.

Fourth, they had some regrets in where they allocated their numbers, but only when they got bad rolls. When they succeeded on really difficult rolls, Rutabaga succeeding on a 1/20 chance roll, they didn’t regret where they placed numbers at all. Rutabaga and Q were also very pleased when they succeeded those difficult rolls as it felt like a true accomplishment.

Fifth, the players seemed really pleased with how firearms allowed combat to be spread over a larger area, yet also how melee weapons did a lot more damage. It’s balance measure I implemented. The more range a weapon has the less damage it does. However, a sniper rifle will do more damage over time than an arming-sword because there can be up to 700 yards of space where the sniper rifle can attack, while the arming-sword needs to reach an opponent first.

Sixth, the players seemed neutral to how armor worked. They liked that Armor Class (A.C.) absorbed damage, when it was them taking damage. They didn’t seem to get the point of armor types giving resistances [half damage] and weakness [double damage] to certain weapon types.

Seventh, they liked that they had a pool of abilities to pick from regardless of the class they picked. One person opted for an extra attack and another a stun effect.

Eighth, I’ve determined that the Engineer is the most difficult class for beginners. The class features are very powerful; however, the player did not keep track of the utilities. They rarely used their weapon feature [allowed them to switch damage types] nor drone [allowed them to scout and do skill rolls even during combat]. It is a powerful class but also the most involved.

Ninth, it took players a couple rolls to get used to the dice system. The rolls use a twenty-sided dice, yet it success is not determined the same way as in Dungeons & Dragons, which they were more accustomed to. One player figured it out after three rolls; the other took twelve to adjust.

The playtest was successful. The players really did enjoy themselves and want to play again. That desire is the most useful information, as table-tops are expected to have replayability. True, there are one-shots [one time sessions], but people do play campaigns [a series of play sessions] or multiple one-shots.

Asteria Rising: Update 11

Usability testing is important for a game like Asteria Rising. There are numerous interconnecting parts at play. Testing on the current Alpha [v0.17] began a few weeks ago. There has been a play test of combat and a test of character creation.

The character creation was tested by posting both a survey and the character creation portions of my the game. I will be posting those here just to show everyone a big behind the scenes look. Honestly, I have not gotten much feedback. The big reason is most likely the size of the document; because definitions for Skills and Combat Prowess needed to be included, the document is 71 pages and very involved.

Those who did test character creation found the process easier than other table-top role-playing-games. Luckily, one only needs 3-5 users to test before data variations on usability decrease exponentially. Well, I guess it would technically be logarithmically. I do not have that textbook on hand to cite this information; however, just know for general usability testing one only needs a handful of people form the target demographic. Large bodies of testers is only useful when compiling data for scientific research.

Tester found the way I laid out tasks for character creation rather helpful; my main reason for the prototype test did well. Testers enjoyed how the Character Traits aspect functioned, so it was good of me reverse engineer that from Greg Stafford's King Arthur Pendragon game. The change in the character sheet layout was appreciated as well, now role-play and combat elements are more evenly consolidated.

The most notable suggestions I received where: make the Skills portion of character creation like the Character Traits one; expand the Combat Prowess to have more specific items; make the rolls for character creation less swingy.

Moving on to Alpha v0.18 will result in me changing the class system greatly, yet the layout of the character sheets and most of character creation will be unchanged. The alterations to player classes will be to what actions they perform and how they level.

Feel free to test character creation and take the 5 question survey. I probably should have posted it here, but I forgot. . . My negligence aside, even with the changes I'm making any commentary is still appreciated.

Enjoy your day.

(Files have been removed)

Hello

Giving this small post to let people know progress on Asteria Rising. This post is not an update on game mechanics, but those have been worked on. A test of the combat system was done 27 February 2018. The test revealed an issue with the combat, which has been fixed.

The game has also expanded character creation to have visual examples. Each subsection in character creation gives the basic information one needs on how to make a character, followed by detailed tasks with examples.

My plan has been to employ software documentation techniques, like those seen in instruction manuals for computer software. The character creation has been tested by one person, and the tasks worked very well. The only issue the person had was not knowing how valuable the skills they were rolling for were; thus, they were not sure what skills should be prioritized.

I am in a game designer group on Facebook. I plan to release the character creation information to them with a form to fill out. This will give me much needed data on the character creation section. I want character creation to be easy on users because it will be the first thing players encounter with the game. If the character creation is difficult, people will not want to give the game a chance.

My desire, is for the next true update on Asteria Rising to state the data I collect on my character creation section. That is all I have for the blog for now; I'm rather busy with school and continual revisions of Asteria Rising.

Thanks for reading.