Well, since I'm starting into a heavy playtest season, it looks like, I'd like to hear some of the stories from the trenches people may have.
Since playtesting is very much a "toss the baby in the river" kind of scenario, I can't be the only one with stories. What are some of the best playtests you've had? What made them memorable? And, of course, the nightmare stories. The sessions where absolutly nobody can grasp rules that every other playtest group understood without problem. The game-breakers. The strange strategies and loophole-finders.
For me, my best playtests where I'm involved are almost always where someone comes along and beats the snot out of me at my own game. Now, I usually lose anyway. I'm really no good at playing my own games. But I mean those games where someone gets such a grasp of the rules that they annihilate you completely, all without breaking the game. Now that's a good time.
Then there are the more iffy scenarios. Games that don't end. Games that end after a single turn. Games that implode, and traumatize all the playtesters. Games where the gameplay is entirely unlike what you envisioned, and so unlike your solo testing that it's nearly unrecognizable. I've designed a lot of games, and feel I've got a good grasp on red flags, but has anyone ever had a zinger slip through, to wreck an otherwise sound design? I have!
Let's hear about it, all you war-weary play-testing vets!
The first time I tested my dungeon crawl game game I had players literally falling asleep an hour or so into it, not exactly encouraging.
The second time I tested it with a different group and when we finished we were all amazed that six hours had passed by so quick.
Point being: don't judge a game on one group or an early playtest since most games are fixable, but no game is going to be for everyone.