Stregoneria RPG Feedback.
Stregheria:
Hello fellow Forgers, :)
I see from my game's website statistics that approximately 400 people have visited the download page and I'm presuming that a reasonable amount of those visitors have downloaded it (www.stregoneriarpg.com)
I'm looking for any sort of discourse on the rules, or any suggestions or feedback concerning the game. I'm also interested in making contact with any playtesters or potential reviewers.
I realise Ron that you have just shut down a 'reviwers wanted' thread but I won't be 'bumping' in this one and I genuinely do need to try and get some independant info out there about the game. Reviewers please note that because the game is available for free download from its site, if you would like to to review it, you can just go ahead and do it wherever and whenever you please, you don't have to consult me first. Please include the information in your review that the game is a beta release and is subject to change depending on customer feedback though. Thanks.
Callan S.:
Hi,
What were your goals for the game, in terms of actual mechanics? Like "This rule combines with this set of stats to give you a sense of personal moral decline" or something. So describe what you've designed - both the mechanic and what it's fictional counterpart is and how you intended the mechanics to influence the fictional counterpart. Then I could look at the rules and atleast give my subjective poison well* evaluation (* sorry, just toying with a concept from another thread) of whether that is occuring. Otherwise with these documents I tend not to know where the heck to start. Have you ever evaluated someone elses 50+ page game? Only Ron seems to have the varacious reading desire/capacity to do that. Anyway, hit me up with one or two mechanics/fictional counterpart things and I'll have a look.
K.Hoffren:
Hey,
I spent a little time browsing through the rule book last night and here are a few things I noticed while browsing through the pdf:
First of all, although realistic systems are not exactly my cup of tea, the rules for combat are very thorough and I applaud you for thinking up many different situations and scenarios that are rare, but possible for the characters to encounter. There are a lot of modifiers and special rules, so I would suggest creating some quick reference sheets to make the Scribes' jobs easier when they can't remember the exact modifiers or rules in the middle of a combat scene and need a way to refresh their memory.
It's great that you cross-reference different rules and aspects of the game throughout the book, but referring to the section numbers instead of page numbers can make finding the referred sections a little slow. Maybe you could put the section numbers to (for example) the top corner of the page to make searching sections easier?
Speaking of finding things, actual core rule system (i.e. how tests are performed) is not very easy to find. It appears to be hidden in the Skills –section and at first I just skimmed right over the section without even noticing the rules hidden there. I would suggest that you devote a section, however short, to the actual core rules of the game to make it as easy to find as possible, since some people (myself included) use the core rules as an "entry point" when they start to learn a new system.
If you want to discourage people from simply stacking one combat scene after another when playing your game, you might want to provide Scribes with alternative ideas for their sessions. I would suggest making a short section with possible scenarios for groups to play. Another way could be to add "story seeds" throughout the rule book, whenever appropriate. For example: you could add some story seeds into the Bestiary –section by providing some scenarios where the beasts could realistically be encountered (a powerful priest is hounded by Gabriel Hounds because he is trying to extend his life with magic). In my opinion, the World section should be riddled with tiny story seeds that the Scribe can use to flesh out the campaign.
Finally, some tiny notes:
I noticed that you suggest your reader to first read the Combat and Spells –sections before creating characters. Why not just put these sections before the character creation rules? Just a thought.
According to the character sheet, the players need to choose their dominant hand, but there seem to be no rules that take the dominant hand into account (I tried using text search to find references to the dominant hand of the character, but couldn't find any)
Stregheria:
Quote from: Callan S. on September 06, 2011, 03:10:53 PM
Hi,
What were your goals for the game, in terms of actual mechanics? Like "This rule combines with this set of stats to give you a sense of personal moral decline" or something. So describe what you've designed - both the mechanic and what it's fictional counterpart is and how you intended the mechanics to influence the fictional counterpart. Then I could look at the rules and atleast give my subjective poison well* evaluation (* sorry, just toying with a concept from another thread) of whether that is occuring. Otherwise with these documents I tend not to know where the heck to start. Have you ever evaluated someone elses 50+ page game? Only Ron seems to have the varacious reading desire/capacity to do that. Anyway, hit me up with one or two mechanics/fictional counterpart things and I'll have a look.
The mechanics were supposed to be flexible. The game is perfectly playable without any complicated rules for parrying, critical hits, impales wound infection etc. The mechanics were supposed to allow for a simple story-driven game where number crunching was secondary, or a fairly realistic simulation of combat on a medieval battlefield; that isn't to say that you could have a more narrativist game and use all the cruncyh rules as well.
Stregheria:
Quote from: K.Hoffren on September 07, 2011, 04:47:39 AM
Hey,
I spent a little time browsing through the rule book last night and here are a few things I noticed while browsing through the pdf:
First of all, although realistic systems are not exactly my cup of tea, the rules for combat are very thorough and I applaud you for thinking up many different situations and scenarios that are rare, but possible for the characters to encounter. There are a lot of modifiers and special rules, so I would suggest creating some quick reference sheets to make the Scribes' jobs easier when they can't remember the exact modifiers or rules in the middle of a combat scene and need a way to refresh their memory.
It's great that you cross-reference different rules and aspects of the game throughout the book, but referring to the section numbers instead of page numbers can make finding the referred sections a little slow. Maybe you could put the section numbers to (for example) the top corner of the page to make searching sections easier?
Speaking of finding things, actual core rule system (i.e. how tests are performed) is not very easy to find. It appears to be hidden in the Skills –section and at first I just skimmed right over the section without even noticing the rules hidden there. I would suggest that you devote a section, however short, to the actual core rules of the game to make it as easy to find as possible, since some people (myself included) use the core rules as an "entry point" when they start to learn a new system.
If you want to discourage people from simply stacking one combat scene after another when playing your game, you might want to provide Scribes with alternative ideas for their sessions. I would suggest making a short section with possible scenarios for groups to play. Another way could be to add "story seeds" throughout the rule book, whenever appropriate. For example: you could add some story seeds into the Bestiary –section by providing some scenarios where the beasts could realistically be encountered (a powerful priest is hounded by Gabriel Hounds because he is trying to extend his life with magic). In my opinion, the World section should be riddled with tiny story seeds that the Scribe can use to flesh out the campaign.
Finally, some tiny notes:
I noticed that you suggest your reader to first read the Combat and Spells –sections before creating characters. Why not just put these sections before the character creation rules? Just a thought.
According to the character sheet, the players need to choose their dominant hand, but there seem to be no rules that take the dominant hand into account (I tried using text search to find references to the dominant hand of the character, but couldn't find any)
Combat can be played very simply without any of the complicated rules if so desired. The idea is that all rules for parrying, critical hits, wound infection, impaling etc can easily be ignored without causing any problems to the running of the game. It is true that if the Scribe is using the full-on combat rules tables will have to be consulted. That is why in the back of the book is a seperate tables section that has all the charts and tables in the game re-listed, the idea being for these to be printed out and kept as handy reference material.
Page numbers would have been better for cross referencing and I'm considering looking into changing that. The reason I used numerical section references was that when I started, I hadn't finalised the page numbers yet. :D Section numbers in the top corner is a good idea, I'll just have to see if word can do it, and if so, how.
How to perform tests is in the skills section because skill tests are the most common in the game. On reflection however, stat tests maybe shouldn't come under that criteria and a seperate section may have been better. I'll look into that one.
I'd forgotten all about saying about reading the combat and spells section first. Perhaps the character creation section would be better later on in the book. Again, I'll lhave a think about that.
The dominant hand issue is interesting. I do have a section on fighting with two weapons that gives the penalties for using our off-hand, but it can be a factor in other situations as well, so I might insert a little section somewher clarifying that. Well spotted. :)
As for adventure seeds, well, I needed to draw the line somewhere and actually release the book otherwise I could have let it drag on whgile I added all sorts of other bits and pieces but now its essentially finished, I might include some ideas for Scribe's to use. I'm actually proofreading an adventure for my game at the moment that a freelancer has written for it as it happens which should be available soon.
Thank you very much for all those comments, it has certainly given me food for thought.
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