"Would You Pay to Playtest?" Topic

If a designer offered his playtest rules for a low price – say, $3 USD – would you be willing to buy them in order to help playtest them?

probably not. there are too many free rule sets out there and I'm cheap.

No. Why should I pay to do him a favor?

No.

Nope

In Spanish and English – No.

Not paying to play.

Not sure untested rules in Beta would be worth the time and money for me.

I am happy with fantasy skirmish and mass battle rules I have.

Science Fuction ditto.

Historical rules cover most eras at the appropriate level.

I'm good.

Its a trend in the computer gaming industry but I don't think it will transfer to our hobby. It's hard enough to get quality playtesters for free much less get them to pay for the privilege.

No

Nyet…spasibo…

Offer me the rules for free, maybe. But pay for the obligation to analyze them? Are you kidding?

NO

No, nein, nyet……..

nope

Based on the loopholes in some of the rules out there, this is already common practice!

+1 altfritz.

Considering the history of some rules I have paid good money for, and which came out a week later with extensive amendments…

Nichst, nein, Idar-Oberstein…

perhaps – if (in a synopsis)they were significantly different to existing sets.

No. But I'd playtest for pay.

I'd playtest for a discount on the finished product when its released. But pay a game a company to test their product and help them fix or make it better? No.

No. You are doing the author a favor by providing input.

no

No.

And given the grief I've had playtesting some rules, these days you'd need to pay me to do it.

Not intentionally…

John T

No.

No, why do their work for them, if it's not the finished product why pay.

I've started putting beta versions as "pay what you want".

That way people can grab it for free or they can throw in a tip if they like the look of the game as it's shaping up.

Seems to be work very well for everyone involved.

On a personal note, I have tested plenty of things for free.
I've bought games that were in development if it was cheaper than what the final product is.

Probably not, but there may be exceptions.

No. Back in the day, SPI paid me to play test. Not much mind you, but some.

Although if the rules really had my interest I might. But it would have to be a mighty intense itch.

Why?

no

No

No

No. Not a chance. Never. Absolutely not.

Playtesting, although fun and cool to be involved in is a favor to the writer and is a good bit of work, too. In a perfect world he should be paying YOU to do it!! Every time I have been involved in the process I have always walked away with at least a free copy of the finished rules, if not a bunch of other swag as well. So no.

with some of the poorly written rules I have bought over the years. I feel I already have, Every game out there is in 2nd 3rd 4th edition. The only People who seem to care was Battlefront when they offered mini rulebooks and Updates like Stepping up to Version 3 pdf.

No, but the designer could pay me to test his rules.

no

When I produce a new set of rules at Killer B Games I would never dream of asking people to pay me in order to playtest them. Play testers are doing me a massive favour. I'm seriously grateful to them.

Bless all you play testers out there!

No. Been involved in playtesting before and nothing like having an author berate you because you disagree with him on something in his rules.

No. They should pay me.

Yeah Sure! $3 USD is nothing. I'd do it for free simply to help him out. But depends on what you mean by playtest. If it was a once through read with some critical notes on form, style, presentation and organization that's easy to do, and once it's done it's done. If by "playtesting" you mean actually put on about 10 battle with my group to try the rules on various run iterations, that's more problematic. That would be a lot of work, and I'd have to be impressed with the rules. I'm also not bothered by author dissatisfaction- after all, he asked.

Son on the whole I'd do it, at least as far as the evaluation.

However-- Playtesting is hard, and it's hardest on the author, who is enamored of his production. However playtesting should be done as the late great Wally Simonn did it. That is test to destruction. Not playteting the rules to see if you can get them to work, but playtesting them to break the game, cause them to fail, and destroy them. Find he holes, the loopholes, the gaffes, and where difficult and negative players can ruin the game.

That's a real challenge!

No