About Playtesting

I am just beginning the large process of play testing the rules, with some mock-up cards. I think it was a good idea not to think too much of the text and number(s) on the cards itself, because I am sure they will change over 4 or 5 revisions. I want to test the rules mainly.

I want to see if the rules hold up, if there are some loopholes I need to fix, and if the game is actually fun to play. I also want to get an idea about the time per game involved. Since it is a best out of five games, five games could mean it is taking too much time. I am hoping for 10-15 minutes per combat max, thus a maximum of 60 minutes per game.

Last Sunday, when Vicente was over at my house to test, we just cut up some note block paper into tiny pieces, and used those to put some random numbers on and slip them inside a sleeved card (for those that wonder, its LOTR cards we work with here). It worked out ok, but it was a bit cumbersome to calculate players attack and defense totals each round, due to our handwriting being less readable than Egyptian hieroglyphs.

So I made a small table in Word, copied it a few times, and filled it in with numbers I made in an excel sheet (see picture). The number just started from scratch, and play test will probably reveal that they suck; they will be too costly, or too easy to play. Hopefully I will be able to take a lot of notes from the next time we play test (this Saturday or Sunday).

I was reading about a card game (forgot name + link) where players did not use turns to play cards, but used something called the flow. Each card you played determined if you kept the flow (e.g. continued playing cards) or lost it (flow goes to next player who gets to play cards). I think this is a great way of playing the game, and I am thinking about implementing it in Wuxia Pian.

Next to that, I am also thinking of implementing a way to players NOT needing to have dice or beads with them to play the game. Cards only.

This works ok for Chi (endurance), because this mechanism is like Starwars ccg (Decipher, for those who remember), but I am a bit struggling to find a way with cards to represent wounds on warriors. Any ideas?