fwiw, the thing that hooked me first and made me purchase Exclusion Zone Botanist was seeing the plant reference drawings in the product preview images. That scientific look and flavor was huge, and I am generally put off by drawing games that don’t provide any visual hints of what the player’s drawings might look like. Anyway, I’m a huge EZB fan and am super stoked about Epsilon!
Thank you so much for this comment and kind words!
Yeah, I should have known going into Unpub that the plant diagrams and references were a core part of the game. Instead I printed the text only. Definitely made people struggle with something that just wouldn't be an issue in the final game. I'll know for next time.
I do love a spiral/coil bound gaming book. It's so much easier to use and I'm less afraid of hurting it. I have a couple hardcovers that I won't use because they won't lie flat, so I use the PDF instead even though I prefer using a physical book. Softcovers are a little easier, usually, and I sometimes clip them open if they won't lie flat. We actually bought a coil binder so we can turn any game PDF into a coil bound book, though we usually only do that with shorter game books.
I'm glad playtesting went well and you got useful feedback! The poll at the end is cruel, only letting us choose one thing. At this moment, I'm most interested about character creation. At another moment it'll be the hexcrawl. Or challenges.
Thank you so much! I agree that being able to lay flat or at least stay open to some extent is important. I'm making sure to have a big gutter, keep the page count reasonable, and use a lighter paper to help with this. But that idea of a spiral-bound little extra thing is really interesting.
And the poll is tough on purpose! Forced choice! 😈
Was the feedback much different between the speed dating and the open testing? That feels like it would be an interesting dynamic to include in playtesting. I would think that a speed playthrough would find strengths and weaknesses in the base mechanics but an open playthrough would focus more on details. Did you find this to be the case or did it not matter much?
TTRPG Speed Dating was player-focused and was really about allowing people (mostly board gamers) to quickly try a variety of different TTRPG styles and genres. Not a lot of time for post-play feedback and some urgency to keep cycling players through.
Open playtesting was designer-focused. It was about having someone try the key parts of the game and then gather as much feedback as possible. Spent a lot more time discussing strengths and opportunities and how things might be modified.
The short answer is that it is largely board games.
That said, even in the two years that I've attended Unpub in Baltimore, I've seen an increase in the amount of TTRPGs both being played and discussed.
While the playtesting tables were mostly board games, I'd have no worries about bringing a TTRPG to test. Just make it very clear what it is and how long you plan to take (see also https://www.skeletoncodemachine.com/p/happy-playtesters). TTRPGs that are designed to span hours would be harder to test.
fwiw, the thing that hooked me first and made me purchase Exclusion Zone Botanist was seeing the plant reference drawings in the product preview images. That scientific look and flavor was huge, and I am generally put off by drawing games that don’t provide any visual hints of what the player’s drawings might look like. Anyway, I’m a huge EZB fan and am super stoked about Epsilon!
Thank you so much for this comment and kind words!
Yeah, I should have known going into Unpub that the plant diagrams and references were a core part of the game. Instead I printed the text only. Definitely made people struggle with something that just wouldn't be an issue in the final game. I'll know for next time.
I do love a spiral/coil bound gaming book. It's so much easier to use and I'm less afraid of hurting it. I have a couple hardcovers that I won't use because they won't lie flat, so I use the PDF instead even though I prefer using a physical book. Softcovers are a little easier, usually, and I sometimes clip them open if they won't lie flat. We actually bought a coil binder so we can turn any game PDF into a coil bound book, though we usually only do that with shorter game books.
I'm glad playtesting went well and you got useful feedback! The poll at the end is cruel, only letting us choose one thing. At this moment, I'm most interested about character creation. At another moment it'll be the hexcrawl. Or challenges.
Thank you so much! I agree that being able to lay flat or at least stay open to some extent is important. I'm making sure to have a big gutter, keep the page count reasonable, and use a lighter paper to help with this. But that idea of a spiral-bound little extra thing is really interesting.
And the poll is tough on purpose! Forced choice! 😈
Was the feedback much different between the speed dating and the open testing? That feels like it would be an interesting dynamic to include in playtesting. I would think that a speed playthrough would find strengths and weaknesses in the base mechanics but an open playthrough would focus more on details. Did you find this to be the case or did it not matter much?
I think they had different goals.
TTRPG Speed Dating was player-focused and was really about allowing people (mostly board gamers) to quickly try a variety of different TTRPG styles and genres. Not a lot of time for post-play feedback and some urgency to keep cycling players through.
Open playtesting was designer-focused. It was about having someone try the key parts of the game and then gather as much feedback as possible. Spent a lot more time discussing strengths and opportunities and how things might be modified.
Both valid and both valuable.
Interesting. Would you say that Unpub is geared more toward board games? (I've never been!)
The short answer is that it is largely board games.
That said, even in the two years that I've attended Unpub in Baltimore, I've seen an increase in the amount of TTRPGs both being played and discussed.
While the playtesting tables were mostly board games, I'd have no worries about bringing a TTRPG to test. Just make it very clear what it is and how long you plan to take (see also https://www.skeletoncodemachine.com/p/happy-playtesters). TTRPGs that are designed to span hours would be harder to test.