Januari 2006 test session

Last Saturday we had our monthly test session. This time we were only 3 (normally we are 6-8 players). As usual we started around 09.00 and ended the session 23.00 (with 30 minutes brake for lunch).

Besides all test games, we also had two published games that took some time to complete: Arkham Horror and World of Warcraft. Together they took half of the time we had.

The prototype we tested was:

High council of Evensford by Gemeniweb
This was the second test we had on Bills game. This game had a major update of the layout, built not so much on the rules. The new layout made the game quicker and the players downtime were reduced.

Devils Deeds by me
This is a fast card game. You play a little evil demon that is forced to live at earth. Your job is to do small evil deeds but be the second least evil demon in the game (then you can secure that you don’t have to move home for a while (you enjoy it here)).
Sometimes a game work nearly directly. I designed this game last year, had 1 game session, changed the rules and then... after that I have tested this game between 30-40 times (with a lot of different people) and I have not changed any more rules.
The plan was to publish this game during X-mas but the Z-man contest took all my free time last autumn. Now I have to reschedule...

Rats in the Sewers by me
This is the second test of this game. See December 2005 test session for a game description. Sometimes games needs to be tested several times. By accident one of the players manages to create a Kamikaze rat (did get a lot of points but died in the process). That tactic was game winning and my idea with the game was that besides getting points for the rats, also want to spare your rats (and kill off the opponents). Some redesign in the point system is necessary.

The princess and the Bard by me
This game has been in the loop for years. This is fantasy card games that are treated as a board game (hard to explain) and it have everything (or could have). The version I'm working on at the moment is version 7.0. I took version 6.4 to the test and then I introduced two rules from the next version, just to be able to test parts of the ideas. One of the rules was a hit. The other rule was not bad, but I will drop it anyway (have several ideas on how to do it).

This spring we have a session planned every month. I already have some players that are in the loop. They are:
- Bryk with his new game. I have got all components but no rules.
- Terra Prime by sedjtroll (sometime this spring when he feel ready).
- A vampire game by Nestalawe.
I hope that I have not forgotten any game.

// Johan