Star Saga Open Playtesting Announced
18th Feb 2017
Rob Burman
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M: Infiltration complete, target located.
8th: Good. Other has been contacted and a contract negotiated. Prepare for extraction and await further instructions.
M: Query – collateral damage?
8th: Full discretion – only the target matters.
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Welcome to Star Saga
Mantic Games is proud to present the open beta for its newest game: Star Saga! As a new product, of course we need any and all feedback from our fabulous playtesters from around the world. Star Saga is a sci-fi dungeon crawl designed for 2-5 players. You can find the core rules as well as the currently available missions here.
If you’re interested in helping us in our playtesting, be sure to download and print some surveys. Fill them out during/after your games and then go to our online survey and tell us about your games.
Basics
One player will be the nexus player. The nexus player tells the story, controls the enemy models and directs the flow of the game. The remaining players control the heroes, a band of mercenaries working to fulfill their mission objectives against staunch opposition and the vagaries of fate. Each mission is designed to be balanced as a stand-alone game or they can be played sequentially, allowing the full story to be told as the mercenaries discover what is really going on in the laboratories below Eiras.
In Playtesting we are looking to see how balanced the missions are in a stand-alone format. As a result, we’re looking for groups of players to run through missions and give us feedback concerning how easy or difficult each mission is from both the mercenaries’ point of view as well as the nexus player’s point of view.
What we need to know:
- What was your learning curve like?
- Who won the game, the nexus player or the mercenaries?
- How long did the game take (how many turns)?
- How difficult was the mission for each type of player?
- Were there any game-breaking, underhanded tactics that need to be addressed?
- Was the play time to reach the game objective excessive? Disappointing? Just right?
- Did the opposition for the mercenaries seem too light? Too Heavy?
- Do all the mercenaries seem balanced with each other? Are they all fun to play?
- Do the enemy minions and bosses seem balanced against the mercenaries?
It might be hard to remember all of this after the game is finished. We suggest you print out some of the printable surveys from here and use them to make notes as you go through the missions. Then copy than information into the online survey when you are finished.
How can I participate?
Play some games and tell us about them! Try switching roles and trying various tactics.
We’re collecting feedback via this dedicated survey, as well as on the Mantic Forums.