Level Up (A5E) How will Level Up be playtested?

[clearstream]

A strong contributor to game quality is playtesting. It's also a resource that home groups can't easily replicate, so it's an important part of the value professional design teams can bring to the hobby. Ideally, mechanics are prototyped, white-room tested, and then put into play in a large number of diverse sessions. There should be a system for tracking changes and rating forks. The result is streamlined rules that are robust in a wide range of scenarios: players can trust them.

How do the Level Up team plan to approach this? Has it been a consideration?

 

[Morrus]

I thought we were super clear about that, but I guess we weren't? Sorry!

Playtest packets and surveys, like WotC and Paizo does. We're already putting the first playtest packet (heritages) together.

 

[ART!]

I'm planning some short-run stints as a 5E DM over the next year or so, so I should be able to run playtest packets with my group. We've been playing 5E weekly and almost exclusively for 3+ years, and so we can put them through the wringer!

 

[clearstream]

I thought we were super clear about that, but I guess we weren't? Sorry!

Playtest packets and surveys, like WotC and Paizo does. We're already putting the first playtest packet (heritages) together.

Don't WotC also run playtesting sessions of their own? Here and there they describe doing so.

When I work on rules myself I find I often cannot tell too much - even with analysis - until after I've been able to play some real game sessions with them. Blind sessions and surveys are helpful, of course, but unless they are observed (and of course, they well could be) the designer doesn't get as solid a read as with a hands-on session.

Will crafters of advanced mechanics be responsible for playtesting them?

 

[Morrus]

Will crafters of advanced mechanics be responsible for playtesting them?

Do you mean are we play testing our own stuff? Of course. Why wouldn't we? I figured that went without saying. I was referring to the public playtest packets.

 

[ART!]

I don't mean to pin you down more than you want to be, but just roughly-vaguely when would the first playtest packet be available?

 

[Morrus]

I don't mean to pin you down more than you want to be, but just roughly-vaguely when would the first playtest packet be available?

The first playtest packet is Heritages, and it's only just been assigned to a writer with a two-week deadline. So that's the lower bound.

 

[clearstream]

Do you mean are we play testing our own stuff? Of course. Why wouldn't we? I figured that went without saying. I was referring to the public playtest packets.

I think it is right that a qualifier for Level Up designer roles include having an active playtest group, but I didn't know for sure that was the case. So it is true that each Level Up designer does today have an active group and will test their rules in live play with that group?

My motive for being really specific about this is that I find the quality of a ruleset can be hard to see on the surface, and relies on knowing that there has been robust playtesting. One of the things really noticeable in 5e is how - most of the time (!) - mechanics are robust. There are tweaks that it's not clear the reasons until after you have played the mechanic for some time. Their hit rate - mechanics that work as written - has been high. Failings are often more in the presentation of the mechanic, than in the mechanic itself. Room for misconstrual that is.

 

[Morrus]

So it is true that each Level Up designer does today have an active group and will test their rules in live play with that group?

We haven’t hired them yet! So... yes? 100% of them have right now! We are currently sorting through a very big pile of applications.

We’ll be playtesting everything internally and releasing public playtest packets.

I would guess your editing skills are excellent at this point: will you be doing that?

Me personally? No, I won’t be one of the editors.

 

[clearstream]

Me personally? No, I won’t be one of the editors.

Great editing is a real craft, but takes a lot of time and I imagine you're already pulled into a lot of the work.

Anyway, it's really positive that you have a lot of applications. Sometimes, ability to write colour text - fluff - is highly valued in designers. For Level Up, I would hope ability to imagine, prototype, test and version mechanics would be the focus. Not that it's necessarily a dichotomy, and I love crunch so I'm biased.