In the previous weeks we had created a yahoo group, inviting play-testers and uploaded the following materials. (in PDF format)
- Sanctum: The Fallout/Ends and Means Phamplet - A brochure that gives a vague overview of the character creation process and the world setting for this particular game. It explains via narration, the overall idea fueling the game and system and how they work together.
- Ends and Means: Playtest Revision - The current revision of Ends and Means.
- Ends and Means: Conflict Resolution Flow Chart - A graphic and text based flow-chart that guides you through the conflict resolution system; step by step.
- Treatment - Sanctum: The Fallout for Ends and Means - A document that gives a straight-forward explanation of how this particular play-test will run, what style and atmosphere the game will have, and what can be expected from playing Sanctum: The Fallout with the Ends and Means system.
We had twenty beta testers join before game, and several inform us that they intended to play, but they hadn’t joined the yahoo group yet. There were several players who did indeed show but were not a part of the yahoo group, and there were part of the yahoo group who were unable to make it to this first game. I’m hoping for a higher turn out next game. (games are on the 2nd and 4th Saturday)
Armed with nothing but our prized projects, dedication and hours and hours of pre-meditated preperation, Week One was finally upon us. We were either ready or we weren’t…and it was time to put our material through the ultimate test; Live players who would actually be playing the game.
Me and Adam arrived an hour ahead of everyone else to ensure that we could be set up and ready to go when our play-testers arrived. I was a little worried about turn out because our intended location was closed for the holidays and we were forced to change our time and location with barely a two week’s notice. Instead of gaming at 7PM-Midnight in Minneapolis, we had to run the game from 3PM-8PM in Chanhassen. (About 15 minutes or so further south than intended) While it did affect our numbers, it was not as distasterous as I feared, as we still managed a fairly decent turn-out at fifteen people. We have confirmation of at least four more, with a possible fifth, so we’ll have to see how that turns out.
Our play-testers started arriving at about 2:30PM; a half hour earlier than expected; everyone was seated and ready to go by 3:15. Me and Adam had discussed our game-plan before our play-testers arrived and came to the conclusion that we should start with me explaining my world and the setting before he got into the rules and system. I had estimated that we’d be doing alot of sitting down and even more talking this first night, so brought bribery of snacks and drinks to prevent too many interuptions. (It turns out to have been a good idea because it took much longer than I anticipated it to, but I’ll explain that later)
Phase One: Explain the world and Setting to the players.
I started off with introductions and then promptly started explaining the theory behind Sanctum as far as it concerned the Beta-Test. I hadn’t ever play-tested my own game, or even run a game before so it was completely new water for me; luckily, Adam was there to prod me in the right direction if I started to drift ahead of myself and he was a big help in giving suggestions on what order I should cover things in. It helped in keeping me from getting too far ahead or from glossing over something that really did need more explanation. I started out with the basic concept of ordinary people living ordinary lives, but then I started getting too much into making the actual character. Adam suggested we explain setting first, and so I took his cue and dropped character development for now.
One of the first things I wanted to explain was the Atlas and Census, but it was really not going to make that much sense until I explained more about the places already in the world and I didn’t want to confuse eeryone. (I had started to explain it a little bit and then backed off; when Adam pointed out that I could explain it later)
While the city itself was going to be mostly created by the players themselves as they role-played, there were going to be objects and places that would already be a part of the setting; existing from day 1, regardless of the player-base. I then proceeded to describe and define those places and give a general feel to what they added to the city, or what atmosphere they helped create. I then told them that these places were going to be described further in the Atlas, which I’d get back to after I explained a bit more.
The objects/places were:
- Coffman Student Union - One of the Largest buildings in the city, it looks like a normal building from the outside. There is a marble plaza with a working fountain by the entrance with a maypole where one might expect a flagpole. Inside of the building, a prison from the early 19th century replaces where the parking garage should be and in the basement, there was a overflowing garden with tangled trees, a dark black lake and glowing rocks.
(note: I had meant to inform them that the cafe was now a grocery store, but it completely slipped my mind; I’ll have to make sure I make that clear before we start play next week)
From The Testers: Alot of questions were asked about the individual rooms of coffman and if they were normal or not. I explained that only the features mentioned were absolutes and that anything else was really up to the players, as long as it was within the setting limitations. (Which were pretty generous, considering the theme of Sanctum) The testers got pretty excited at this point, and I heard alot of really good ideas being thrown around.
Concerns: Nothing in particular right now. The testers spent alot of time discussing all the possibilities and none of them seemed very outrageous and they seem to understand the concept pretty well.
- A Giant Clock Tower - A gigantic brick clock tower looms over the city, roman numeral hands keeping time. I purposefully did not add many details to this tower, other than it operated on a pulley system of weights and chains, that it was a stone structure. The Clockface was plain and the hands were of steel.
From the Testers: I hadn’t even finished describing the tower yet when hands started going up. They wanted to know more details and they wanted to know specifics that I hadn’t defined. When all the questions were through, the clocktower had some new modifications. It was agreed that there was lots of pigeons living in there, that there was a staircase going up to the top of the tower and that it did indeed run on manual gears and pullies, not electricty. The idea to have the clock face read 13 numbers instead of 12 was denied. The question came up on if someone could go in and kill all of the pigeons, and if they did so, would they just re-appear or were they gone, gone? COULD someone do that? Wouldn’t someone know? Then we had a player actually ask if we could keep track of locations and buildings, or maybe write them down somewhere. There was some general murmuring and someone asked if we planned on at least making a map.
At this point, I stopped with some of the descriptions to go back and discuss the Atlas some more, because that’s really hitting on why I created it in the first place.
The Atlas: Nothing more than a notebook binder used to keep track of all the buildings, places and objects within the city. While players do not have to write down the places they create, anything that is NOT written down can be altered by another player at whim. (If it wasn’t important enough to be recorded, then is it really that important?) Some locations will be created by the stage-hands, (me and Adam), while other places will be created by players. Each location/place has a single number/page assigned to it, regardless of how many sheets of paper are used to describe or define it. The name of the location/place is copied to the index of the binder, along with the number, and the owner’s name to make it easy to find. The owner is the person who wrote it down and no one can make changes to that structure/location without first notifying the owner. (Because the owner would be aware if something is happening or has happened to a place familiar or owned by themselves and it also gives the player a chance to act upon it, including if they wish to use conflict resolution to do so) If someone creates a place but has no interest in if something happens to it, they can place ownership as “None” This means anyone can alter the description freely through roleplay, and they just have to document the changes and sign off that they made the changes.
From the Testers: They really seemed to dig the idea, and we had alot of questions about what was allowed and what wasn’t. Adam had to jump in here, because part of the question related to his system and it really was answered best by understanding the rule that creates the limitations. (I’ll leave this part of the explanation to adam) The basic rule however reminded them that the biggest question was if it was “setting appropriate” to create on a whim. If something was overly convienent, (ie, a key to a locked gate that just happens to be under a rock near that gate), you really shouldn’t be creating it without a stage-hand. The same goes if it it were not an object or place that was appropriate to the setting.
observation: At this point, I think both Adam and I realized at about the same time that what Sanctum considers ’setting appropriate’ was pretty vast. I could be mistaken, but I’m not sure if Adam considered that a game like Sanctum might stretch the boundries set by Ends and Means further than originally planned. (I don’t see this as a bad thing personally. Ends and Means isn’t broken by Sanctum and it still offers explanation for what IS limited by the power of narration, even if the example given in his book is contradicted by Sanctum itself) I reserve the right to be completely wrong about my observation; after all, I’m no mind-reader.
concerns: I had reservations about the atlas and census when I first made them but became convinced it was nessisary. Adam expressed a strong reluctance to introducing them to our beta-test but I felt that the work it would create would be worth the effort and would help keep the game consistant, maybe even promote role-play and interaction. The testers seemed daunted at first but I noticed alot of interest as I went on with the explanation. They started asking questions immediately about what kind of things they could add and what limitations there were on creating them and the further we got into the night, I felt a relieved to see that some of the players just seemed to expect that we would have some sort of system to keep track of everything. I’m going to maintain for now that with the way we are playing, the Atlas and Census are indeed nessisary tools.
I moved on to The Census after the Atlas, since it was the same concept but with people instead of places. (I had no sooner finished talking about the altas when someone brought up NPC’s so I figured it was as good a time as any.)
The Census: Our setting has a pre-established and finite number of people in our city. (500) The play-testers are included in this number, as are NPC’s. The numbering system works the same as the atlas, with the numbers referring to each person, rather than how many pages it takes to define that person; each person is one number out of that 500. Because each and every person counts, it was explained that if any person were to die, whether NPC or PC, a stage-hand MUST be notified. One of the reasons is because even faceless NPC’s matter in Sanctum, and the long-term affect has to be documented as it affects the game as a whole. I didn’t get into all of the details because we had described it in the treatment, and we had already established that anyone could create an NPC and put them in the Census Book. (And just like the Atlas, if one person didn’t do it, someone else has the right to) Also like the Atlas, if a player wishes to alter an NPC listed the atlas, they must let the owner of the NPC know, so they can be aware of the change and possibly have a stake in it) Also like the Atlas, if an NPC is not owned by someone, (they must be on the character sheet to be owned), they only have to roleplay out the scene and then document the changes on that NPC’s sheet. Just like the atlas, if something is not documented, then it is no one’s fault but your own if other people do not roleplay those changes. (because how would they know?)
Concerns: I still worry about if I’m overdoing the details but the testers seemed to like the idea that they could reference something and have a way to keep everything straight as far as people and places are concerned. They also seemed to really like the fact that they could have control over their own enviroment and that they didn’t have to be baby-sat by a storyteller to do everything. I feel like I created a monster, but then again I really can see the benifit of having this way to allow development of not just PC’s but NPC’s, and players seem to approve of the fact that they can turn a faceless NPC into more of an actual person, who could impact the game or other players in some manner. I think I understand completely what Adam was worried about when he expressed his reservations, but I’m still on the mind-set that the atlas and census is going to be important to the game.
Going back to that clocktower and pigeons…I answered the question about the pigeons and the clock-tower, and the players seemed to approve of the answer. We could establish that if someone wanted to kill all the pigeons, they could do so, because while the clock-tower belonged to the stage-hands, we did not object to the alteration as long as it got documented so that someone had the chance to react to those dead pigeons.
-more setting structures-
- A Giant Plaque - set at the foot of the clocktower, reading the letter D and carved in stone, this plaque was described as being overgrown with plant-life but still clearly visable, the letter not obscured at all. The original height was about eight feet by twelve, but I adjusted it to be about twenty Feet by thirty feet with a smaller plaque set beneath that one that had the original sizing, sort of like a mini-version of the larger plaque.
From the Testers: They didn’t really have alot to say about the plaque, but seemed to have alot of interest in it. We established that the font of the D was Garamond. (why? because a tester wanted it specified, and so we obliged.)
- The Weather - It was explained that while the weather appeared to go in a seasonal sort of climate, it was not area effect in nature. If it rained one place, it rained over the entire city. If it snowed, it snowed all over.
Concerns: I haven’t really worked out the weather too much, and I’m not sure how big a factor it will play into the game. I’ll have to look for it as we keep testing.
- Animals and Wildlife - This explaination was simple and to the point. Wildlife existed…any and all of it, whatever the players felt like creating, and yes, they could be in the city.
From the Testers: I got alot of grins at this one and alot of laughter. They seemed to think the idea was great but there wasn’t really alot of commentary other than the general approval of ‘anything goes’.
Concerns: I’m not sure yet. I haven’t really dug this far into the game and it could burn me later. We established later in the night that yes, you could in theory train an animal (like a badger) to open a door, but no, they aren’t going to start talking. I’ll have to keep an eye on this…It could get messy, or it could be irrelevent.
- The Desert - Surrounding the city, is a desert. It doesn’t go anywhere, although it give the appearance of such. In the desert are sparse trees and shrugs, sand and the occasional oasis. It never leads anywhere but more desert, even if you traveled for days and days; but if you turn back, you can see the city after only a few minutes of trying to return.
From the Testers: I didn’t even get to this feature before players started asking what was outside of the city. I remembered I had forgotten to describe the desert and I had no sooner than gotten the words out of my mouth to describe it than they pounced on the idea. Did it not go anywhere and did it look like it was going nowhere and not any further than the city, or did it actually lead somewhere if you walked in it long enough? Could you get lost in the desert? What was out there? Was it dangerous?
Concerns: I actually forgot about this feature until a tester brought it up, literally asking what was outside of the city and joking about if it led anywhere of if it was just some desert or ocean. I don’t think I have any actual concerns just yet. Players seemed content with the explanation and seemed to like the overall idea of it. I was trying to keep from jumping ahead of myself with content and explanations but this group really just charged forward and kept leaping for me. I’m satisfied that alot of the questions they asked, I had already had explanations for and just hadn’t gotten to them yet. The desert has potential to cause alot of trouble in game, so I’m going to be watchful for complications, but I don’t think it’s going to come up right away. The focus seems to be on the city, not the desert.
- Stars, Moon, Sky - The sun and moon are a transparent, shadowy red. The stars look normal but they are not in any recognizable constelations or positions.
From the Testers: Again, one step ahead of me, I no sooner mentioned the moon then they leaped ahead to asking about the moon, sky and stars. It just goes to show that they really do want the small details just as much as the big ones. I really have Adam to thank for reminding me that some things are really better pre-defined ahead of time.
Concerns: None at this time
