TV Executive Playtest

Yesterday I went to a game day at a friend's house. I had alot of fun, played Alhambra and Betrayal at House on the Hill for the first time. In fact, I played Betrayal three times. I liked them both, especially the latter. Sadly, I never got to be the traitor. Anyways, at some point half the group was nice enough to help me get in a playtest of Television Executive. Things started off roughly, as the numbers spiraled way out of control. I had a multiplication mechanic that had to be discarded because unlike my tests on my computer, people were not able to make that many calculations with such large numbers. There were also some snags during bidding. The important thing is that the theme seemed to generate genuine interest and laughter was to be heard when things like the all-female reality show for seniors was put on the air. After the test we discussed some possible ways to fix stuff. I changed to a much faster bidding mechanic, as there is a large number of auctions during the game. I also have an idea for a new scoring mechanism that will meet the goals I had in using the multiplication mechanic without taxing the players' mental math skills. Yes, the game had lots of problems. But it has proved to me that it deserves further development and I have a good idea about how to change things and proceed from here. For me, it was a very good day.

Oh, and happy birthday to our host yesterday, Don!