Gods of Aureata, Playtest 1

The beta test of Gods of Aureata went well. I had to run it as Gods of Miami, due to time restraints (I did not have time to detail the world for the players).

The first session took about 4 hours including Character and Cult creation and the first adventure.

Input from the players:

Mr. A

• He said the progress checking was tiresome. Truthfully, I did overdue the first couple of checks of their adventure. Having 20 progress to fill, EACH, and some lousy rolls, means scaling the building took a while. 
• The Fix Outline the rules that most actions will require 0 or 10 progress to complete. Larger Progress should be left to actions that are really on the knife's edge with some clocks coming in on the players.
• He also said the chance of success always felt like he was on the edge. 
• Note: They were running around TN 13 minimum for most checks, a 50% or better chance for success. 
• The Fix Nothing. As it stands, they only failed 2 or 3 times total for the afternoon. That is acceptable for the number of rolls they made.
• He felt like the rules were more complicated when compared to Dwindle. 
• I disagree I believe he is just used to Dwindle after 18 months of play. And rules have never been his strong suit.
• As a personal preference, A said he prefers games that are not so realistic. To quick start the game, I just dumped it in Modern Day Miami (the inspiration for Aureata). A says he feels he can worry less about consequences in a more fantasy setting.

Mr. B

• He said It didn't feel like there was an overarching story line. I don't believe that this is so much a problem of the system as much as a problem with my GMing style. The reasons I don't feel that it is a game specific problem. It was a one-shot game. The game as a campaign have the group building their cult and interacting with reoccurring factions more often.
• The Fix I have the same problem with my other campaigns. In Blades in the Dark, they interacted with a few different factions, and in Dwindle they worked with a few factions. However, in both of these games, there is no constant threat from a nemesis. Instead it focuses on the whims of the players. Maybe that needs to change.

All of this input is valuable, and will help me when I give Gods of Aureata an editorial pass in the next few weeks.