Playtesting BIND

I can’t remember most of what playtesting taught me over the last ten years, but I remember these things:

XP on the Sheet

Players didn’t like having to look up the cost to buy Traits with experience points. This seems a bit ridiculous, given that you only look up costs (at most) once per session and there are only a few traits to buy, and every experience ladder has an easy pattern as you increase the levels (e.g. ‘5/ 10/ 15’).

Nevertheless, I put the costs on the sheets, in full.

Dot Grids Everywhere

Some players would run out of space in some of the boxes on their character sheets. I was certain that 10 centimetres would give them enough space for a few words, but a lot of people write with 1 inch block letters which somehow feel gravity pulling them to the bottom of the page in a downward slope.

While I wanted to put lines on the character sheet as a reminder of how large letters should be, I was advised to use dot grids, since a grid made of dots could suggest smaller writing, but people could also use them to write letters two rows high, or just ignore them. This has helped accommodate everyone, and I highly recommend dotted grids on all character sheets.

What Players Really Want

People kept asking for the rulebook at the same time, but nobody wanted to print off their own copy. This seems understandable, as the complete rules were around two hundred pages, which can cost around €6 with a nice cover. However, it’s still a pain when everyone wants to look things up at the same time, and nobody knows if the weapon prices are under ‘Equipment’, or ‘Combat: Weapons’.

Making a separate book for players sorted most of the faff. It has rules for making characters, making spells, background cultures, spending XP, and gaining XP.

Lists of prices no longer live in any book - players can only read them in hand-outs, and every market is different.

• Many people don’t mind shit characters, but they do hate being blocked.
• Separate price list.
• Dice!

Not Everyone Sees a D12

I like different dice. I like how they feel, how they look, and I like being able to produce different random numbers with them; so I’ve felt tempted to add dice to BIND. It seems easier to represent Damage with 1D8, rather than 1D6+1, since they have the same average result. However, gaming with different people has been a stark reminder that normal people don’t know which dice are which; they mix up the D6 and D8, then roll a D12 instead of a D20. And even when they don’t make mistakes, they may have to examine a few dice, by hand, searching for the highest number. So I’m sticking with the D6, as nobody feels confused about the rolls - it’s always ‘2D6’ for an action.