Hey folks, I have been searching for advice on how to playtest an RPG adventure one would be interested in publishing. How do you go about doing that?

I mean, is running it a few times with a group or three the way to go? Is there any specific advice out there?

Quote from: joewolz;830918Hey folks, I have been searching for advice on how to playtest an RPG adventure one would be interested in publishing. How do you go about doing that?

I mean, is running it a few times with a group or three the way to go? Is there any specific advice out there?

This is very individual, and modules are tricky because it is very different from play testing a core system in a lot of ways. Here is what I usually aim to do:

1) Run it yourself as many times as you can with as many different groups as you can.

2) Ask for player feedback after (ask things like "what did you hate the most and why? What did you want more of? What didn't make sense?" etc).

3) Get GMs to read the module and give you feedback.

4) Get other GMs to read the module and run it then give you feedback.

I would add that you should approach feedback with as open a mind as possible. As a rule when I soliciting feedback from players in my own group, my rule of thumb in responses to ask questions and not give statements (I.e. Don't defend the thing being criticized just try to gather more data from the player). You don't want to design by committee, so you have to evaluate the feedback in light of your goals and the trade offs each choice entails, but it can be hard to be open to criticism. When I get criticism that I am on the fence with or is in conflict with other feedback I try to gauge how prevalent that particular reaction might be. Sometimes you are balancing different blocks of players and their preferences.

i just reworked a 10,000 word dungeon in our rule book due to player feedback, where they found a few things that didn't make sense and needed rethinking. In the end, it improved it considerable.

Beware - I got obsessed about playtesting when writing Crown of Qthuken.

I wrote the 1st draft in a night:

- then playtested with my own group
- tested by another referee, another group

The actual play seemed too samey, the module too tilted towards an ending so rewrote the entire thing, let it breathe for a while then:

- tested with a different group
- then tested by 2 other referees and their groups

Play showed rewriting had opened up a sea of possibilities. I was a happy bunny.

all for 16 pages of content - but well worth it !

You need people capable of feedback. That's not easy to find.

The easy method is you run the adventure a few times with different groups.

The hard method is someone else runs it for their group and gets back to you.

The really painful method is you get to be in the room when somebody else mangles your adventure totally wrong and the players blame the adventure.

More importantly, "it was cool to play for free" is not the same as "so cool that I'd pay for it" - so make sure you tailor the post-play surveys for everyone less about "how did you like it?", but ask details about specific bits "what did you like, what did not work for you?"

I recently got NIGHTMARISH feedback on a current project and it peeved me so I brought it round some other GMs and players who listened sympathetically to my tale of woe about how those damn playtesters did not COMPREHEND MY VISION!!! and then all, but one, of other group agreed I was wrong and the testers are right.

Of course, they are all poopie heads.

Even worse, the one friend who agreed with me (for he knows the glory of my glorious vision!) even said that my project would probably be more successful if I went with the majority opinion.

Damn traitors!

Quote from: joewolz;830918Hey folks, I have been searching for advice on how to playtest an RPG adventure one would be interested in publishing. How do you go about doing that?

First: Run it yourself. Ideally a couple of times with different groups. (Even better if you can get different types of groups: Like a group with newbies and a group of 20 year veterans.)

Key things you're looking for: Where did they get stuck? Are the encounters too difficulty / too easy?

Try not to bail the players out or prompt them unless you're facing a complete, total, and irreparable train wreck. On the other hand, make at least a mental note of material that you're developing during play. A lot of that can be profitably reintegrated into the adventure. (Although beware of trying to rewrite the module to recreate a specific play experience.)

After the playtest is complete ask the players for their thoughts: What did they like? What didn't they like? Try not to prompt them. (Don't ask things like, "Did you like the way that the jungle rot worked?" or "Did you feel the swamp exploration mechanics evoked a sense of despair?" or whatever.) You want a clean opinion from them. Once they've given you their unprompted thoughts, of course, you can start asking specific questions to get more information that you need/want.

Second: Try to get someone else to run the material. Identify the areas where you want concrete, non-opinion-based testing and ask specific questions to get it. For example:

- Ask them to track how many hit points were lost in each encounter.
- Ask them to track which areas were visited.
- Ask them to track which clues were discovered.

And so forth. You'll still get their opinions, too, and that's useful; but playtesting is most useful when you can identify the key structures in the scenario you're testing and make sure that they actually get tested.

Third: Despair because most of the people who volunteer to playtest for you won't; most of the rest will send you feedback without actually running the material; and the remainder will have massively rewritten the material before running it.

Quote from: Justin Alexander;831050Third: Despair because most of the people who volunteer to playtest for you won't; most of the rest will send you feedback without actually running the material; and the remainder will have massively rewritten the material before running it.

This. The human factor is strong and these things can throw a wrench in the process. I usually anticipate something like for every 5 people who agree to playtest or read the material, 1 will respond. Then of that you have to account for retooling people did to the material (which is another reason to ask questions), skimming or just not reading all the material, etc.

A lot of times this really does depend on the project in my experience. When I was working on the Sertorius material it was the typical 5 to 1 failure rate. When I started my current project, I found there was a small but passionate fanbase for the genre so I tended to retain more playtest feedback. The feedback was also deeper with a lot more insight and thought behind it.

I re-read the OP and you were looking for specific advice (sorry) so here's mine -try the game out with people of differing gaming tastes if possible.

Having a 4e fan comment on my dungeon and Runequest players on my mini-setting really helped.