Quote from: The Traveller;602909Would you envision playtesting as also incorporating setting test-screening?

I post setting material for feedback all the time. So do many people. The Gothic Earth thread is a good example, from just the last week.

So yes, that can happen. I'm not saying everyone has to, but it's not a bad idea per se.

Well, ideas can't be protected very well in the realm of RPGs anyway.  WotC would have figured a way to do that if they could have in reference to Pathfinder.  You can copyright the representations of ideas: art, writing, performance...   You can patent ideas of process and mechanics, but not very well these days.  In fact, the only company to really patent a game mechanic in recent history is WotC with the Magic the Gathering "tapping" mechanic.

And really, if it's about gladiators in a Greek/Roman inspired fantasy realm... You're already walking a road that's been traveled just as long and by as many people as the real Roman roads historically.

Ideas are a hyper-inflated currency at the end of the day.

Quote from: BubbaBrown;603054Ideas are a hyper-inflated currency at the end of the day.

Tell that to the two Superman characters.

Both designed by the same people. The first a villain in a suit, something like Mr. Freeze (without the ice). The second, an alien who came to Earth and became superhuman, then dressed in a suit and cape and fought crime.

The first, nearly wholly unknown. The second, not only an iconic cultural figure worldwide, but single-handedly responsible for launching an entirely new genre of media — superheroes — and spawning tens of thousands of imitator characters that have spread into novels and cinema, currently dominating the latter.

"All ideas are of equal value." I disagree.

Great ideas are rare and precious.

Quote from: Daddy Warpig;603038I post setting material for feedback all the time. So do many people. The Gothic Earth thread is a good example, from just the last week.

So yes, that can happen. I'm not saying everyone has to, but it's not a bad idea per se.

I wouldn't call that playtesting though, its just posting material for feedback.

Quote from: BubbaBrown;603054Well, ideas can't be protected very well in the realm of RPGs anyway.  WotC would have figured a way to do that if they could have in reference to Pathfinder.

I think that had something to do with an open gaming license which deliberately created exceptions to copyright. Lets take a random idea which may or may not be good:

You are part of a violent alien race whose local region of space has somehow slipped into a pocket dimension. You have to find out ways to co-operate with other species as the dimension fades into oblivion so you all can escape, like the Neverending Story meets a pandimensional Battlestar Galactica.

Now that while potentially a good idea is not protected really. That doesn't bother me though because its worthless, more or less useless except as a blue touchpaper to inspire other ideas. If I put in six months to develop that fully and marry it to a good system, then I would have something that a) could be protected and b) is worth something.

Quote from: The Traveller;603067I wouldn't call that playtesting though, its just posting material for feedback.

And you can't get feedback through playtesting? Of course you can. You're getting feedback anyway, why limit it to mechanics? Why artificially constrain yourself?

Setting has mechanical implications, and vice versa. And if playtesting leads you to change, say, spell mechanics or classes or whatever... that changes the setting.

And if part of the setting is boring or just plain bad, you change it. And that can have implications for game mechanics.

Get feedback on everything anywhere you can. Even in a playtest.

Quote from: The Traveller;602909Would you envision playtesting as also incorporating setting test-screening?

Yes.  I'm trying to find playtesters, who will be bound by NDA, but otherwise have access to everything.  My boss, more experienced than me at this sort of thing, is tired of grabbing any-random-RPG-guy off the street for playtesting.  We've gotten some absolutely bizarre answers on playtest reports:

"I don't like that I can fail any roll."
"This system is hard to remember when you're drunk."

and so on.  We're looking for people who are past the 'This is new and I don't like it because I don't know what's going on' mentality.  People who understand that games are games, and not machines that you put money in and fun comes out.

Paying playtesters is a good idea if you have the money. That way you can treat it like a job and set expectations for the level of feedback you want. Also, you can demand that they focus each session on particular aspects of the game and demand timely responses.

With volunteers, you get what you pay for.

Also, don't get crazy with NDAs. They are a joke without teeth. Your company has nowhere near the money to defend a NDA case in court. And even if you did, it would not be rocket science for a pro bono attorney to shatter the NDA in court because judges only care about provable actual damages in NDA cases.

BTW - here's a cheap solution to playtesters. Get the best group of players you can and assign a reliable GM and a good note taker. Get everyone to commit to one 4 hour session a week for the next 2 months. Then you buy dinner for them and they get hardcover copies of the game when finished, plus T-shirts, supplements, whatever else. It's not a major commitment and they get goodies. As long as your GM does a good job focusing each playtest session, the note taker should get you lots of good feedback.