Three Games at Once

After almost three weeks in Portugal on vacations from my real job, Kravestorm ended up becoming a much bigger part of the trip than I expected. There were a lot of playtest sessions, a bunch of new people trying the game for the first time, and for the first time ever, three games of Kravestorm were happening at the same time.

That probably doesn't sound like a massive milestone, but it felt pretty surreal to me. For a long time this was a game I was mostly building alone and testing with the same small group of friends. Suddenly there were different matches happening around the same table, people learning the cards, arguing about plays, laughing at bad rolls and trying to figure out how to beat each other without me being involved in every single game.

The group of playtesters has been growing quite a bit lately too. Some people had already played before, others had never seen Kravestorm, and everybody approached it a little differently. New players also bring new critics, which is important because the regular group already knows the game so well that sometimes things that are obvious to us are not obvious at all to somebody seeing them for the first time.

There were obviously questions, some criticism and a few things people didn't immediately understand, but the general reaction was really good. More importantly, people seemed to actually enjoy themselves. The first match still has a learning curve, but once people understand what is going on, the games quickly become competitive and very social. Seeing people ask for another match afterwards is probably more useful to me than any compliment about a specific card or mechanic.

I think that is becoming one of my favorite parts of this whole project. Kravestorm started as something I was making because I wanted to make a card game, but over time it also became an excuse to gather people around a table. The weekly sessions in Warsaw already became part of the routine, and having the same thing happen with a different group in Portugal made the game feel a little less like something that only exists inside my usual playtest circle.

Now we're back to the normal routine and the weekly sessions in Warsaw, but this gathering is probably going to stay as one of my favorite memories from the development of the Core Set. Six people around the table, three games happening at once, and for a little while I could just sit there and watch other people play this weird thing I've spent so much time making. That was pretty cool.

Reed Arsenhorn