GM Focused Playtesting

That's right. When you run a playtest it's not about those parasitic players. You're the one who should be under the microscope.

Not exclusively, and I talked about player feedback from playtests before, but I want to stress the importance of examining your own experience as the person running the game.

I'm looking out for two things:

Unfulfilled Wishes
Those mid-game GM moments when you think:

• "I wish I'd prepared X"

• "a random table of Y would be so useful right now"

• "I wish I could just roll a die whenever Z happens to see how it goes"

A lot of the random generators in Mythic came from this, and the broad guidelines for Exploration Actions, which were introduced as a replacement to a rigid set of actions (set up camp etc).

Glimmers of Gold
I like to note cool moments that happen in the game, even if I feel like they emerged from outside of the rulebook, and think "how can I make stuff like that happen more often?"

In an early version of Mythic, each player had their own set of quests, and it was fun when they lightly contradicted each other. The Oath ended up being a better way to give the knights a set of objectives that occasionally felt mutually exclusive and forced interesting choices.

The Link
The link here is that I'm often testing for content as much as I'm testing the rules. Yeah, numbers will need tweaking, mechanics can get tweaked or stripped back, but I'm just as interested in everything else that goes in the book, and how that gets used in preparation and play.

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Toolfeel

Sometimes it matters which tool we pick up.

It's 1981. The Roland TB-303 is a new bass synthesiser. It was designed to act as a substitute for a bass guitar player, much like a drum machine for a drummer. In 1984, after poor sales, it was taken out of production. The way you programmed sequences of notes was counterintuitive and arranging a proper multi-section song on this thing was a frustrating experience. More vitally, the sound was more angry toad than bass guitar, and many of knob settings could produce sounds so extreme that they wouldn't fit in any genre.

Some years after its discontinuation, people found a use for it doing this. The cybernetic meow sound was embraced. Short, hypnotic dance loops bypassed the need for long sequences of notes and even then the fiddly programming served a purpose, nudging towards simple single note sequences with a few accents or octave leaps or untamed basslines keyed in at random and taken for their imperfections. Those wild sweeping knob settings could now be tweaked gradually or impulsively, giving long form movement to those looped sequences.

I bought one of the more affordable clones of this machine last year, and when I sit down to use it I create very differently than I do with other tools.

Yes, you can plug in an external keyboard or sequencer to bypass the annoying programming. You can sculpt a wider range of sounds than you might think, especially using external effects. Hey, you can even bypass the inconvenient machinery entirely and use one of the dozens of software clones, bending the virtual device entirely to your will. Even with just the basic device, you can learn the ways of its sequencing to make complex tracks, and hone its settings to find hidden sweet spots of subtle melodic sounds.

But I generally don't. When I plug it in, I smash in a few random bars of notes, blindly apply accents, glides, and octaves, and let it loop while I twist the knobs going BAAOW WAPPA BAPPA BOWA BOOOOWAPA BA BA BA WA.

It's not a sound I would have chosen on a more flexible device, or in the creative infinity of a digital workstation, but when I have that machine in front of me I'm drawn to it like a moth to a flame.

I'm the same with RPGs. Sit me down with Traveller or 2400 and I'll run you a sci fi game, but the feel of each of those sets of tools pushes me in a slightly different direction. Of course I bring my own way of preparing and running a game, whatever the system, but the toolfeel is still there.  

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This post was originally sent as a reward to all Patreon supporters, and is released freely on this site the week after its original publication.

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Intergalactic Skills

Oh, you thought your job on the ship would give you skills?

As if. Only life can give you skills, and that's something you don't get much choice in.

When rolling an Intergalactic character, roll d12 and d6 and consult the list of systems (the d12) and worlds (d6 in that system). This will give you three most important worlds to you.

The first is where you were born, and what sort of... being you are.

The second is where you were made. The world where you fully established yourself.

The third is where you were broken. How it all went wrong.

Each of these grants you a Skill and some extra stuff. Roll d6+d12 for each Skill to get its rating, working very must like an Electric Ability Score or a Mythic Virtue.

So let's do an example, limiting ourselves to the first few worlds because they're the most fleshed out right now.

Born [1 / 3] - Heap

You grew up in the crannies of the salvage heaps. Sometimes working, sometimes hiding.
Skill: Salvage.
You can smell and identify most non-organic materials as if they were hot food.

Made [1 / 1] - Ziggurat Works

You roved the neon jungle, managing populations of the most dangerous life.
Skill: Creatures.
Nano Rifle (2d6 erode, long), machete (d6 pierce)

Broken [1 / 2] - Wolf Pit

You did bookkeeping for a cybersurgeon before stealing their mistreated pet.
Skill: Administration.
Cyber Critter (Electronics 12, Scuttering 7, 4gd, d6 burn electo-bite)

So our character has their three skills, and we roll d6+d12 for each and of course d6 Guard, giving us:

Salvage 8, Creatures 8, Administration 17, 2gd
Can smell and identify non-organic materials.
Nano Rifle (2d6 erode, long), machete (d6 pierce)
Cyber Critter (Electronics 12, Scuttering 7, 4gd, d6 burn electro-bite)

Using Skills

Although similar to Ability Scores/Virtues in other Bastionland games, there are a few subtle differences.

• Because everyone has their own unique skills, sometimes just having a skill is enough to do the job. Got Surgery 5? You can do surgery under normal circumstances, but you'll need to roll if you're doing it under some sort of pressure. These are still called Saves, not Skill Rolls, after all.

• Skills can give you +d6 to an attack when relevant. Got Explosives 10 and you're throwing a grenade? Take an extra d6.

• Skills generally don't get reduced and restored. Injuries and other long-term harm are handled slightly differently here.

And what if you don't have a useful skill at all? Roll using the closest skill at half it's normal value. If none of them fit at all then use the lowest.

Need to fly a shuttle through an asteroid field and your skills are Dancing 12, Intimidation 14, and Burning 5? I'd be making the argument that my Dancing skill lets me focus on spatial awareness and control... rolling with a score of 6. If that doesn't feel right, I'd be halving that Burning 5 down to 2 I guess. Look, is there really nobody else who can fly this thing?

Scary, I know, and my alarm bells also start ringing, imagining the game deteriorating into debates about how applicable the Horticulture skill is when fighting a cactus beast, but I'd like to give it a try and see if I can give enough guidance to make it work.

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This post was originally sent as a reward to all Patreon supporters, and is released freely on this site the week after its original publication.

If you want to support my blog, podcasts, and video content then head over to my Patreon.