Play-test anxiety, who, me?
Play-testing
Yes. I get anxious when sharing my stuff with real gamer-folk. RPG players are smart people. They have great imaginations and almost everyone of them has an original RPG that they have been working on for the last 12 years stashed away somewhere, so they know a thing or two about how a game should work. You cannot pull the wool over the eyes of a role-player. And you wouldn't want to.
You want their insight, their critical thinking, their determination to comprehend because that's what lets them give you the feedback you need to make a better game. You need criticism. Other perspectives are good. I know this.
Still, I get anxious sharing my stuff. It is, after all, an extension of me. More than that it is me trying to create a reality that functions and carries certain values and concepts and political and social positions. Yes, all of that is squeezed into an RPG. If people find fault with it, or see it as inconsistent then surely that indicates that I am faulty and inconsistent!
And there's the rub of it, I am faulty and inconsistent. So I guess it doesn't matter if that becomes apparent.
Oh, and in case you haven't guessed, the play-testing has begun and the feedback is flowing in.
All aboard
Exciting news, I am delighted to announce that three wonderful writers/designers have jioned the crew of the Pirate Ship Flintlock. Maggie Carroll, Joyce Chng and Myranda Sarro will bring their own particular styles and perspectives to the game and I am very excited to be working and learning alongside such wonderful people.
Game News
In Flintlock player-characters are built from a range of Archetypes (who have access to Flares, sort or specialty skills) that players can choose from. All are what might be described as rouges and ne'er-do-wells, which is a deliberate choice on our part.
At the moment those Archetypes include pirates, privateers and buccaneers, various robbers, thieves, con artists, killers and even Clockwork characters.
