Writing Crew Central

[Orngog]

I disagree personally, I think we can send them an edited version of the suggestions document for them to trial, that should provide some illumination.

The goal just to get a rough idea of how certain ideas might work out/interact, the sooner we can get that info back the better for the writing process as a whole- and as we refine our work, that will feed back into the playtesting process.

 

[Thorgor]

Sorry but that's putting the cart before the horse.
While I agree we should playtest early, 'before any decision has been made" is too early imo.

 

[Orngog]

Whereas I would say that making decisions before testing them is the wrong way around...

At the end of the day, what happens if we do playtest too early?

 

[Thorgor]

Are you suggesting that every single option for every single change should be individually tested before any decision is made? I don't see that working.
We first need to make a version of the game that actually works on its own before any serious playtesting can happen. What you suggest is akin to trying to do brain-surgery in the middle of a battlefield. It would be a waste of time and efforts.

 

[Orngog]

But we're not talking about serious playtesting, they're keen to make a start and we have work we could give them... I see no reason to hold off.

And please, let's not strawman each other. As I say, no problem will arise from early, prospective troubleshooting.

 

[Thorgor]

Point taken.
It seems you are looking for a reason to hold off while I'm looking for a reason to do stuff. What you asked for (a cleanup of the suggestion document) requires work. I'm not keen on working (or having work done) if it doesn't produce anything of value. And I don't see much value in non-serious playtesting, especially at this point.

 

[Orngog]

As I see it, we could even just send them the document as is and let them test what they want. But I don't think it would take long to pick out the most contentious issues and copy them into a second sheet.

 

[Al_Weeks]

Well, best we can do imo is priorise no-brainer decisions so that they get a bunch of small changes to playtest first, but those decisions still need to be made and we still need time to write them properly.
That's not something that any one person can do, and it will take days/weeks.

I wasn't really expecting anything anytime soon.

Prioritising the no brainer decisions is a good idea.

Don't feel the need to rush. Its best we playtest with a decent established baseline rules set (and have an idea of what changes we might make should the changes be too little/too much in certain areas)

If people want to play test suggested rule from the suggestions document, that's fine by me (I'm intending to try a few of some of the more minor suggestions in our next local campaign).

 

[Commissariat]

What's up, Gang? (Pun intended)

I'm reporting in from the Development Discussion Thread to offer my services. I've noticed that there is some concern about organization of ideas and thoughts for ease of workflow. I highly recommend Trello. It is an invaluable free tool for workflow and being able to move these brainstorming suggestions around as we like with commenting, a color-labeling system, and the like. I've used it extensively in similar past projects and would be happy to set it up for us.

As I have recently graduated and the 'rona is making it hard to acquire a job at the moment, I have free time. I've done a lot of copy-editing and transcribing into an .odt file from the books, cutting things out and fixing wording, for my own work on a similar vein. So as long as I have a podcast in the background or someone in Discord, my hands kinda just go.

If we were to be able to sit down and coordinate one evening over Discord, we could discuss the workflow and kick some life into where we need it in the project.

From what I gather, I'll be needing to send our chief editor my email.

As for the timing of playtesting, we need a foundation to be able to hand over. At the moment, especially since updates have slowed down, we do not have a lot to offer as of yet? We'd want to establish the core rules of the game (conditions&junk, priority, action, move, shoot, combat, resolve hits, end phase) to be able to let players start skirmishing to playtest. We have suggestions for small changes from what I can see and some decisions, akin to house rules, but not any "we are confident and ready and need this playtested before we can close the book on A, B, and C" things yet.

If I am missing anything or barking above my bite, be sure to spray this Juve with recycled-water!

-Commi

 

[Orngog]

So the first rule section, "general principles", is just wrapping up now- atm the proposal committee is just trimming the fat, they're a hand-picked group that represents the diverse playerbase. Once this is done (they're on the last suggestion right now) it will be handed out for playtesting.

If you want to talk process, I'm your man!

 

[Orngog]

Just an update while I'm here folks, the general principles has made it out the the proposal stage and is now being collated.

Once this is done, I think the result will be coming here, for you to play with! Essentially it will be a list of instructions and guidelines, we've figured out what rules are necessary but the exact precision and language needed are yours to apply.

Obviously there will be a proofreading stage to ensure everything is contiguous and confluent, so don't go hurting yourself- but the goal is a ruleset which is simple (with consideration given to creating as little added complexity as possible) and familiar (using methods consistently where preferable, and reducing uncertainty).

I myself am taking a bit of a back seat right now, but I'll be back soon!

 

[Orngog]

@Commissariat if you would like to set us up a Trello group please do, up until now we've only had one Department running at any time but we're about to get a few more gears into position so this may prove very useful.

@Thorgor is head of the writing crew and I'm sure he'll have some thoughts about the process, but I just want to say thankyou for your efforts, it is really appreciated!