Open playtesting kicked off in mid-February for ARC – The Underworld. Prior to that, the game underwent extensive limited playtesting. That early playtesting greatly helped construct the game and its mechanics. Some impressions and comments: Some thoughts on ARC from a playtester: First off, the game is fun. It can be a challenge from both […]
ARC – The Underworld Playtest Report #1 Read Post »
Designer Blogs, Playtest ReportsIntroduction by Hannibal’s Revenge: A Card Conquest System Game Co-Designer, Fred Schachter: To begin, readers have hopefully, by now, checked out the tantalizing glimpse of this game’s graphics created by the talent-extremis Mark Mahaffey. His fine initial work, with assistance of Co-Developer Jason Carr, of Hannibal Revenge game components can be viewed via this link or above: January
A Play Session of Hannibal’s Revenge Read Post »
Playtest ReportsCuius Regio is an operational level wargame depicting the military activities of the Thirty Years War. This is a summary of activity in the first two turns of a Campaign game from one of our teaching games with our playtest group. While this is not a detailed explanation of the rules, but it does provide
Cuius Regio: Campaign Game Summary / Example of Play Read Post »
Designer Blogs, Examples of Play, Playtest ReportsBorikén: The Taíno Resistance includes three separate games, each covering a distinct period of the history of the Taíno people of Borikén (modern day Puerto Rico). Each game uses the same map and the same basic system, but with different additional rules and objectives to model the particularities of its era. In my previous articles
Borikén Game Three: Post-1529 Read Post »
Developer Notes, Playtest ReportsSo what’s going on with Fields of Fire Deluxe? In October 2022, a draft of the new rulebook went online. This is due for another update once all the components are done to add new images along with a handful of new clarifications. The rulebook now contains all the base rules, with full explanations and
Fields of Fire Deluxe – Progress Report Read Post »
Developer Notes, Playtest Reports
Many strange situations crop up when playtesting even when that game is the sixth (or seventh? – TBD) game in the series. In this case, the playtesters ended up in a situation that required some working through the nuances of the rules. It didn’t break anything or require adding new rules, but it presented an
An Interesting Thing Happened on the Way to Jask Read Post »
Designer Blogs, Developer Notes, Examples of Play, Playtest ReportsBorikén: The Taíno Resistance includes three separate games, each covering a distinct period of the history of the Taíno people of Borikén (modern day Puerto Rico). Each game uses the same map and the same basic system, but with different additional rules and objectives to model the particularities of its era. In my previous article
Solo Playthrough of Borikén Game Two: 1493-1528 Read Post »
Developer Notes, Playtest ReportsBorikén: The Taíno Resistance includes three separate games, each covering a distinct period of the history of the Taíno people of Borikén (modern day Puerto Rico). Each game uses the same map and the same basic system, but with different additional rules and objectives to model the particularities of its era. The first game, taking
Solo Playthrough of Borikén Game One: Pre-1493 Read Post »
Developer Notes, Playtest ReportsGene: When last we left our intrepid cardboard President, Rick had just finished the first half of Activation Phase 1. Note that the Activation Phases are organized so that the first half (the left column) of each Activation Phase features more “game opponents” actions with some player reaction opportunities. The second half of each Activation
“Cat-Herder-in-Chief”: Playing the Mr. President 2017 Hard Scenario (Part 2) Read Post »
After Action Report, Playtest ReportsBy way of introduction, Rick is simply one of the best playtesters I’ve ever known. His enthusiasm for and contributions to the development of Mr. President have been numerous (usually because he was using and abusing the game system in ways that I had not anticipated – which is one thing great testers do). Many,
“Cat-Herder-in-Chief”: Playing the Mr. President 2017 Hard Scenario (Part 1) Read Post »
After Action Report, Playtest Reports