Working with Feedback

Playtesting is a lot like playing an RPG. Each time you see your carefully laid out plans in action, there are feelings of pride, excitement, and anxiety. But just like the most carefully constructed strategies - there's always a wrench that comes flying from some portal to a plane of existence you didn't account for.

A strenuous amount of effort is required to level up in the RPG of playtesting. The reward cycle is long - from creation, to execution, to the extra analysis that is required to really dig up and polish the gems you're actually looking for. Along the way, you'll encounter a variety of challenges that you aren't always prepared to handle. This comes in the form of players, and the extremely wide variety of opinions that they hold. In order to deal with this variety, it is paramount to remember: not all feedback should be taken as a call for change, and just as importantly, no feedback should be fully ignored.

I will reiterate what I'm sure a lot of you have heard a million times before: do not take every piece of feedback you receive, good or bad, and treat it as gospel. You must keep your own design goals in mind; for mechanics, for flavor, and for feel. Do not let any single piece of feedback steer you away from a "bad" idea or solidify any idea as "good". Each piece of feedback must be taken:

• In context of the playtest (the adventure, the group dynamics, the general mood).
• In context of the player (what other types of games do they like, and why)
• In context of your design (how does the idea in question apply to your design goals)

Beware - do not let yourself easily dismiss a player's thoughts and feelings. Listen to them, talk it out with them, and gather as much information as you can. Make them feel validated in their opinion in order to receive it in it's raw, pure form. While small, each playtest is the the only sample data you have. These are the players that chose to sit down with you at your table and play this probably broken contraption you've constructed for the sole purpose of giving you feedback. Do not let that go to waste.

Even if you take absolutely no action based on the feedback of a player, at the very least you need to understand where the feedback came from. Find out what the player was thinking and feeling at the time. Find out what else was going on. Find out from the other players what they thought about the same situation; it's important to get different perspectives. All of this allows you to analyze the feedback against the contexts mentioned above. With it, you are better equipped to handle your game in environments where maybe it doesn't fully shine. Better yet, you may just be able to let go and realize what does actually need to change in your game for you to achieve your initial goals.

Learning when and where to act is the key to successfully incorporating feedback into your games. With each playtest comes experience. With each experience point you will grow in power. Do not let that power get out of hand - use it to adapt to the world you live in in order to mold the world you are creating.