Post by Meridian Inkwell in Playtesting Feedback

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Hey! Thank you so much for this thought-out, detailed feedback. I really love that you’re enjoying character/SC creation, which is one of my favorite parts of the game, too.

I’m definitely taking your thoughts on the section order into consideration. The current order is by no means final and I have myself encountered the same difficulties while playtesting. Before the layout is made, I’m just trying to write all the rules and tables and have it be complete content-wise. My next priority will be arranging things in an order that makes sense.

I think you’re right about it “making sense” for NPC/SC stuff to be after the prologue, though. I think I’ll have it be more “if needed, create at least 2 SCs” post-prologue instead of what it is now. I’ll change the order for the next release, which is coming soon! I’m just finishing up the last set of major arcana summer tables. 🥳

Thank you again for playing and taking the time to give your feedback!! It’s much-appreciated and really helps my motivation! 🔥

londonmatthews93 days ago (1 edit)

(Play report section moved to Korin Van Golding Play Report thread)

MORE FEEDBACK (with the disclaimer that I know you're finishing filling out content an much of this level of editorial pass will come later :) )

> I think I’ll have it be more “if needed, create at least 2 SCs” post-prologue instead of what it is now.

100% this, even though there's so much freeform about the game, which is great, I would love a "you may create as many or as few SCs as you're comfortable with, but a solid 2-3 at the start of the game is recommended."

And, in other places where the rules are very open to player decision, the words in the book are most important to the newest players and those least familiar. The more familiar you are with the game the less you need to refer to passages anyway, so I encourage frequent "the recommended number of XYZ to start is... the recommended number of SC Specialities is..." etc.

One other small item is I had some confusion around how/when relationship statuses change. To the best of my figuring, if a relationship status requires, say, 2/2, then 1/3 or 3/1 wouldn't trigger it. they both have to be satisfied. Then when it comes to antagonistic, if it requires 2/-2, then none of 2/-1, 3/-1, 1/-2, etc would trigger, because the favor is counting in the other direction. I'm 90% sure I have it right, but that section might do with some examples later on.

I'll keep you posted as I keep playing :)

Meridian Inkwell93 days ago

I read your play report out loud on stream and everyone loves where this is going. Definitely keep us posted! I have no idea how you're going to get your half-sister out of this mess, but I hope you manage.

Yeah, I definitely can relate to that feeling of WHAT HAPPENS NEXT! It's where writing little bullet points of what happens can be really helpful.

I had that text in the "Ballad flow" section, but I've added it to the SC section as well, and moved the SC section to be after the Prologue. I think this helps the rules flow better, so thank you so much again for the feedback!

You're 100% correct in your interpretation of the relationship progression rules! Both Fate and Favor have to match to trigger the change. I have added this more explicitly in the explanation for that section so that it's more clear, as it's a very important part of the game.

londonmatthews93 days ago

LOL I saw the 0.2 release and was like, I should go log into twitch and see if this work was done on a stream because it was lickity-split and lo and behold, there's the work session from today!

Swung by the local metaphysical shop today and bought my first ever tarot deck :P

Meridian Inkwell92 days ago

I think I’ve done the vast majority of work on Ballads on stream, haha. 🤓 Hope you got a cool deck!

londonmatthews92 days ago

I'm so-so on it. Some of the cards I really like, some just have distracting proportion and face detail issues :/

I had one that I wanted but I pivoted at the last moment, and because I was dutiful and supported a local store rather than amazon, I'd feel bad returning it.

And not in a financial place to suddenly become a tarot deck collector! I can tell from the subreddits that people go WILD if left unchecked lol.

Meridian Inkwell92 days ago

Too true… There’s so many cool ones on Kickstarter, too. 🫠

itch.io

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