It’s been a heck of a summer! Before I get into the meat of this blog, I need to plug a few things first. You probably saw on the front page that the Kickstarter prelaunch page is live! You probably saw it in the newsletter too (that you’ve definitely signed up for). You maybe even saw it on social media. Or in the Discord. But if you haven’t followed it yet, you should! It’s a good place to get all the news that’s fit to print.

Second thing, PAX West is next week and we’ll be there! I even made a silly meme for it!

If you’ll be in the Unpub areas, we’ll be playtesting from 2-5PM Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, as well as running full plays of the game in the free play area as needed all weekend. It’s going to be a hell of a ride, I don’t know if I’m ready, but you should show up if you’ll be there!

Speaking of Cons…

We’ve had a unique issue over here the past couple months: playtesting the full game at TokenCon and KublaCon this year has been super rewarding, but super time consuming. A full game takes 2-3 hours, which is the entire length (sometimes longer) of a reserved spot in a playtesting space. Furthermore, there’s a lot of stuff getting peoples’ attention at cons. I certainly think that Monster Wasteland is special and cool enough to merit that much of my time, but for people who don’t know the game, that’s a big commitment. Also, I’ll gladly monopolize your evening at an LGS on a Friday night, but I personally don’t want to hog your time when there are so many other designers to meet and games to play, especially with ticket prices, travel, and lodging.

So – how do I make Monster Wasteland into a great con experience that preserves the integrity of the game, allows for thorough/honest/relevant feedback, and only takes an hour?

Well, I get to choppin’.

Jump Right In

First, let’s get players right into the action. There’s a lot of pregame actions in Monster Wasteland that make for a fun, customizable experience. But that’s fun for the players to find down the line – when we’re at a con, we want to identify the specific things we’re testing for and jump right into them. I want to choose the simplest map setup, the most straightforward outcome to the opening Tale, and the monster that best showcases how monsters spawn, move, and attack. This means we use what I call the “Neighborly” map setup – one with no gaps between sections that starts all Heroes adjacent to one another – and spawn the Hatethrob, which spawns, moves, and attacks normally, plus has an end of turn ability to keep an eye on.

For the Tale outcome, I choose “Push Your Luck” – it builds a Settlement, which introduces that mechanic, allows me to test a specific Settlement for balance, and starts players at 2 Bane so they’re more likely to be interacting with that mechanic.

I’ve also been starting the game on Round 2, generally spawning the Sentinel as the second Monster. This adds a little pressure to the players, eliminating the opportunity for them to get “sea legs” and encouraging more risky plays, which is a helpful way to test a higher difficulty without actually changing the difficulty settings. It also lets players spawn Gigantic Monsters, which is useful for testing elements of the later game (and has the side effect of showing them what’s to come in a full game).

I’m in Control (of the Monsters)

Another way to get players to focus on the actual gameplay elements I want to test (and speed up gameplay in the process) is to control the Monsters for them. I’ll explain what a Monster’s territory and Line of Sight are in my teach, briefly outline the four Monster conditions, and let players know that I’ll take Monsters’ turns but explain what they’re going to do as the Monsters’ conditions arise. This eliminates answering a lot of the questions players have the first time they control a Monster, and allows me to see how quickly they pick up on Monster behavior from a brief description and one or two examples.

After showing them Monster actions in their first round, I’ll ask them in their second round “based on what you’ve seen, what is this Monster going to do this turn?” Generally, players will nail it and be able to predict Monster movement and patterns. This lifts cognitive load from them and allows them to focus on their actions, not prepare for their Monsters’ actions. This also lets me see what part of Monster behavior gets ignored when they’re not being constantly tracked by the players controlling them, and how I can better telegraph this behavior at a glance instead of by studying the card and rules.

Complicated Isn’t Confusing (But It’s Still Complicated)

I say it a lot (too much, maybe): Monster Wasteland is a medium-heavy game, and there are a bunch of moving parts. While all the card types and mechanics are designed to be intertwined pieces of a beautiful post-apocalyptic ballet, complimenting one another and working in tandem across the game, keeping track of everything takes time. So I need to see what time can be cut without losing the heart of the game.

The true answer is “none,” but that’s not good enough here, so the Research deck and Encounter cards get sidelined when it’s time for quick con play. And this is fine! The Research deck has been refined to the extreme, and it’s a more advanced path to victory than the game’s other objective categories, so it can take a breather while the players focus on the immediate actions of Settlement building, crafting, and Monster slaying. The Encounters as well take a bit of time to decide on, and they can add more complexity. It removes a few Tales, but there are generally a couple I want to test out anyway, and if players are only seeing 2-4 Tales per game in this variant, that’s fine.

To Summarize

Setting up a late-early-game scenario that’s frontloaded with the things I want to test, removing the Research decks and Encounters to direct attention where I want it to go, and putting me in total control of the monsters so players can focus on their own turns and actions really helps streamline that con experience. It makes for a tight session where players get to experience a lot of the game and give good, relevant feedback on what I’m looking for.

Of course, everyone who plays and wants the full experience can have it. If we reach the hour mark and a table wants to keep going, that’s fine. I’m flattered that’s how they want to spend their time at a con, and I’m happy to show the complete depth of the game to anyone interested.

Till next time, all the best from the Wasteland.