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Playtest Journals

Interiors

The interior pages are carefully designed to make it easy to track the game as it plays out. Overall the letter-sized page is broken up into a top area for recording basic game information, a bottom area for recording changes made and to potentially be made, and a middle section for tracking the players and the game as it proceeds.

The center section is divided into five sections: Pre-Game, Early Game, Mid-Game, Late Game, and End Game. When during the game these divisions are made is up to you, but breaking it up helps you track the game’s progress:

Different areas of the page are used to track all of the playtest information. Details of the areas follow:

 

A: Test Information

The top area includes places for recording the game name, the version and test number (if you track them), the location of the test, and the date.

 

 

B: Time & Rounds

Divided into the five game sections (Pre-Game, Early Game, Mid-Game, Late Game, End Game), the Time & Rounds area allows you to track how long the rules explanation took, and the number of rounds (or turns, or whatever increment you'd like to track, as hash marks) and elapsed time in each section. The total time elapsed and the total number of rounds are recorded in the lower-right area of the page.

C: Players

This area is used to record the names of the players, along with a reference number for each, which refers to pages in the back of the journal where additional information can be recorded for each player, including full contact information and other notes.

Small circles can be checked to indicate whether a given player is new to the game, to see how that affects gameplay. Circles are also available to indicate the start player, which can be very helpful in later determining if there tends to be an advantage or disadvantage to starting the game.

In addition, if your game involves partnerships or teams, there's an area to record it as well: simply enter a letter for each teammate (e.g. an “A” next to two players and a “B” next to two players).

 

D: Play Tracking

This area is also divided into the five game sections (Pre-Game, Early Game, Mid-Game, Late Game, End Game), and is designed to allow you to track the play of the game as it proceeds. Blank areas for each player allow you to track any game-specific information, along with player comments and your observations about each player. An engagement graph optionally lets you draw a quick line to indicate how engaged the player seems at this moment in time, on a scale from one to five. This is designed to help you see over time whether players seem to, for example, lose interest in the mid-game or the late game, or perhaps if interest seems to grow as the game progresses, etc. There's also an area to record the each player's score, or other similar information.

E: Designer Observations

Areas at the bottom of each game section allow you to record observations about the play of the game that are generally non-player-specific. Under the Pre-Game area is a section for Test Goals & Considerations, where you can record anything you're hoping to particularly test during this session, along with any temporary tweaks you might have made for this one play. Each of the other sections includes areas for general Observations. See the larger pop-up view of the page areas for ideas for what might be included.

F: Changes

Two lined areas at the bottom of the page are provided to record game changes you've made coming into this playtest and changes you're thinking of making based on the outcome of the playtest. Changes Since Last Test might include brief versions of rules changes you've made, changes in layout and physical design, changes in components, and changes in things like values and quantities. The Conclusions, Changes to Make area provides space for thoughts about the test, including player suggestions, and changes you're considering making based on the results of this test that come up during play or in the discussion afterwards.

G: Page Numbers

There are three small areas at the bottom of each page related to page numbering. The oval in the center is the current page number, and is pre-printed. The section on the left allows you to enter the page number of the previous test of this game that's recorded in this journal, while the section on the right allows you to later enter the page number of the next test. These two areas easily allow a given journal to include playtest information from multiple different games while allowing you to quickly move from test to test when later reviewing. Note that a page at the beginning of the journal is dedicated to allowing you to record which games have test sessions in this journal, along with the page numbers of those tests.