First Playtest

Written retrospectively.

Wythe and I sat down to try out this game.

For this first ruleset, I had this flow in mind:

1. Remove 5 cards (one from each suit) from the game, facedown
2. Set aside 5 cards (one from each suit) face down to describe the venue.
3. Organize the remaining cards into 8 piles of 5 cards each
4. We draft those over 4 rounds, setting up a final set of 5 facedown cards for each of us that we’ll use in the duel
5. Final round we the duel using only those 5 cards.

There were some mechanical and syntax issues, which is to be expected.

The card types were, I think: Weapon, Technique, and Stance. A “Weapon” was what it sounds like, a “Technique” was a maneuver, and a “Stance” was a way of standing that persisted. You could only have one stance up at once. I think techniques could be re-used. Weapons conferred benefits but could be affected by the venue (you can’t use a nodachi in a confined space, for example).

There were several actions that you could do in response to a player attacking: dodge, parry, dive, block, and riposte.

While there was some confusion about rules and interactions, and it definitely felt very coarse as an experience, it was fun and it felt like we were doing a high-intensity duel where the stakes were high.

So I at least had the feeling like this was worth continuing to iterate on.