Perhaps most exciting of all, we gave our testers an opportunity to Guide the test sessions for the first time. 

We are happy to say that round 3 of our alpha playtests is coming along nicely.

Based on the findings from the previous two rounds we have streamlined our combat system. We decreased the amount of actions players can take per turn. While this seems limiting at first glance, we have actually noticed from the playtesters’ feedback that this improves the pacing of combat encounters.

We have also simplified our social system to be more fluid and less bulky. Previously we had a set of 10 fixed and specific social actions. Through testing we found that this limited our players too much . Instead, we created less rigid guidelines for social gameplay to ensure that the game rules wouldn’t get in the way of roleplay.

And, perhaps most exciting of all, we gave our testers an opportunity to Guide the test sessions for the first time (previously this was done by Cesco himself). Like many other tabletop roleplaying games “The Coalition” works with two different roles, player and Guide (often referred to as Game Master or GM in other game systems). The Guide creates a narrative using the universe and game rules of “The Coalition” within which the players embody the main characters.

By passing this role along to the testers we could monitor a number of factors that we wouldn’t be able to otherwise.Where previously we could fill in the gaps in the game system on the spot, letting others Guide the session meant that we had to prepare every tiny detail in the test sessions. Next to this being a nice challenge, it is a good preparation for creating the Beta Test Handout!
Find out next week what one of these sessions looks like when Aron tells you about his experience as a Guide.