Here are the playtest guidelines from Malcolm. At some point I'll get together an AP of what happened but I'd be very grateful for any comments on the game, the system, the scenario, etc.
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Hot War Playtest Guidelines

Thanks very much for volunteering to playtest Hot War, your participation really is much appreciated.

First off, any and all feedback on any aspects of the game are appreciated. Whether it's mechanics, setting or any other aspect of Hot War, every thought and comment is useful. There are, however, particular things I would like to get feedback on. This isn't an exhaustive list and should not be considered the only things to comment on, however.

Setting presentation: Does this get across the basic concepts of the game in an appropriate style, is it understandable, are there any gaps, is there inconsistency, is there anything else that should be there, is there anything that should be cut?

Game mechanics: Is there anything that you found unexpected in the mechanics, is there anything that was expect but wasn't there, did you find that the mechanics did a good job or supporting the setting, did you find that the mechanics didn't do a good job of supporting the setting, was there enough character development?

Presentation format: Does presenting a lot of the setting information in the manner of posters, memos, news reports, etc, do good job of presenting the setting and themes? Are there gaps in the presentation, is there too much information?

There are also a few things I would really love to see from you:
Actual play: AP, either sent to me by email or posted up somewhere like The Collective Endeavour, Story Games, The Forge, a blog or whatever, would be really valuable.

Bulleted feedback: If you don't feel like writing up a full AP, report, then a bulleted list of points that came up in your games would be really cool as well.

Collaborative game creation transcripts: A transcript of what you and your group came up with during the collaborative game creation process would be immensely valuable.

Character transcripts: Transcripts of the characters and NPCs that were created would also be really, really helpful.

Monsters: If you come up with any cool monsters or antagonists during the course of your games, please do let me know!

Oh, and a list of the names of the people who you playtested with would be great, so we can give them credit in the finished book.

Other than that, go for your life and thanks again!
Cheers
Malcolm

Checklist was good. Photographs worked well. Adding facts to the world worked well.

I thought the initial scenes went on a bit long. They didn't, for me, work as well for me as initiation scenes in Dogs. In Dogs, there seems something important about the initiation scenes. In Hot War, I wasn't seeing the urgency of those scenes. Why did we need to see this flashback? What's it telling us? What's it telling us about the character? In Dogs, those scenes define the character; in Hot War, I'm less sure what they do.

Presentation: I thought the text, from what I read, was excellently written. The introductory text on my faction, "The Opposition", was just enough to give a taste without spelling everything out.

I liked the mechanics. They probably supported the setting: the different factions and agendas created an atmosphere of competing ideas and ambitions. Malcolm mentions that the relationship mechanic is intended to support building relationships in a hostile world: I note that the die-giving mechanics facilitated me and Paolo building a relationship, so perhaps that's true.

We have lots of competing agendas and drifted quickly into player-vs-player. We seem to be expecting those competing agendas to fracture our relationships, shortly. That sounds fun, to me: but also sounds as though it goes against the idea of the game being about building relationships. We're setting ourselves up to destroy them.

Characters do, indeed, seem to be developing, and relationships are forming nicely.

The scenario: I'm unsure. At the moment, to be Newly Honest, it feels like an uneasy blend of GM-created-adventure and player-created-conflict. So, the first half of the game was almost D&D-like, with us exploring a GM-created incident; the second half was much more freeform, much more about competing agendas. I'm not sure where it's going, yet. That's not necessarily bad.

We kept forgetting to add and subtract extra dice from the next conflict. It feels, to me, as though that's an indication that mechanic isn't quite working: you know how, sometimes, you forget mechanics that aren't crucial? I'm getting the feeling our forgetfulness shows that mechanic isn't crucial.

I liked it, though! Sorry to be negative. It's fun. The setting's great. Loved the competing factions.

Graham

I don't know where the scenario is going yet either, except that I've got your agendas and photographs to incorporate. The way the rules are written means it's an uneasy balance of player and GM generated content. I think if we'd really pushed the pre-game stuff, we'd still be discussing where we wanted to go with the game, although I guess my role is to make sure that doesn't get bogged down. I guess this was my way of making sure things moved on, I'm not sure everyone would be comfortable with writing the scenario themselves. There is an issue about what the GM's role is and to what extent the players decide upfront exactly what the game is about.

When we played Cold City at Gen Con last year, I said up front, I'm going to steal Joshua's PC's magical powers and that's what we played. It worked to a certain extent. Malcolm, as GM, brought some other plots in but Robert Bohl wanted his PC to have some control over the main plot and that didn't work so well. So he found out what was going on and then just had to let it happen. Secrets are hard to deal with as a player when you have to keep them in context of the plot.

The first scene, with the pig, was about two things. The recommendation is to start the game in media res, no briefing first, just a situation. I thought I'd come up with something that gives a flavour of the rules, a bit of a conflict and a moral dilemma (report Yeuzhny or not).

I think rather than subtract from pools I'd do temporary changes to attributes. That's what the first version of the rules said and it's what we used in France. It's also a useful damage mechanic.

The experience scenes worked for me as a GM because they set the tone for the game. Even though your PC didn't discover anything new about himself, you did tell everyone else, in no uncertain terms, what he was like. The experience scenes we had in France were more transformatory but the focus in the rules seems to be more expository so I wasn't unhappy with what transpired. And the world facts were good.

So here's what happened. I left the character sheets at Simon's which was a bit silly of me so I don't have the full details. I'll fill in the gaps next week and post to the playtest feedback.

Experience scenes:
Graham's PC: raped a teenager in Sheffield
Trait gained: (+)
Fact about the world: Prohibition

Simon's PC:
Trait gained: (+)
Fact about the world: poll tax officials are licensed to kill those without stamps.

Paolo's PC:
Trait gained: (+)
Fact about the world: Martial law

Dave's PC: failed to save some children from a lab
Trait gained: sneaking about (-)
Fact about the world: Occult tech can be used to stably mutate children

WK's PC:
Trait gained: (+)
Fact about the world: Changeable weather

Intro scene:
The Graham approached the Bayonetter which chased him back to the lorry. The other PCs shot at it and chased it off (success by 1). It had killed a teenager. A light was noticed in a cellar. Paolo's PC fell down the steps but they took those present by surprise (success but high negative trait). Dr Yeuzhny was operating on a pig to keep it quiet. The pig's owners were present, a man and woman. After some argument, Dr Y was given a lift back to SSG HQ and a reoprt written. This mentioned Dr Y's role. Paolo attempted to destroy the report but was caught and admonished by his superior (failure by 3) who then destroyed the report himself, apparently on Dr Y's orders.

The next day the PCs were given new order, to go to Canvey Island and supervise the recovery of crude oil from where a container had spilt it's load on the beach. A small encampment of internees from Southend were being used for the work, about 50 of them. Graham singled out some of the younger prettier ones for abuse. After an approach by the self-styled Mayor of Canvey, Graham agreed despite Simon's protests that spare refining equipment could be used to make moonshine in exchange for a share (succes by 1). Simon also demanded tax-dodgers from the Mayor. 10 people were delivered, they'd obviously had their tax-stamps removed. Simon added them to the camp and seized the vegetables as tax revenue after a fight with Graham (success by 2).

Posted By: wulfBut we did upset the obvious party patron: Dr Yeuzhny so it's not surprising if we've gone off at a tangent of any plot devices that may have been set up from our openeing scenes. Perhaps the opening scenes will have more relevance next week. I know I got a bit lost and went back to the charcter notes, ie: "killing of

He's not your patron as such, you're just minions he can use. Upsetting him didn't cause you to go off at a tangent, I used that to choose from a range of options for which job you would get. There were nicer things you could be doing.

I could just lay the story arc in front of you, all of Project Gogmagog and we can decide collectively where we want to go with this. It's certainly an option.

Transcripts are detail reports of what we discussed in character creation. They're best done as MP3 files.

So, here's what happened this week, as much as I can remember it.

Simon and Graham came to an uneasy truce about the camp. Simon discovered that Graham was making hooch with the vegetables but although he disapproved didn't really care. His main target was now the Mayor, for removing the tax stamp from the new detainees. He got the location of the Mayor's house from one of these. So the Mayor and his cronies were invited over by Graham to sample the hooch and some further entertainments that Graham arranged (i.e. 4 good looking women in a hut). Whilst Graham was looking after the Mayor, Simon and Dave broke into his house and kidnapped his wife and daughter.

On returning to the camp, they confronted the Mayor and said that as long as he supplied food for the inmates, his family would be well cared for. Simon had also found out that the Mayor had a tame tax inspector who gave out stamps for favours (much as Simon did). This insensed him and he demanded that the Mayor send him over. In the mean time, two of the women needed serious medical attention and were admitted to the infirmary. Graham approached them at night and, in exchange for having them transfered to a military hospital, he obtained a statement that they had been raped by Simon. Graham also got Wai Kien's doctor to sign for the transfer. The next day, the women were put on the lorry that arrived to take away the crude oil. Simon found out but following the Doc's advice did not stand in the way of the transfer nor try to question them.

Next, as Simon was going to question the two other women. The taxman he'd asked the mayor for was dumped, bound and gagged at the gates. When Simon approached he blew up. Although Simon was covered in what was left of the man, he managed to avoid any serious injuries. This gave Graham just enough time to get to the other women and promise them freedom if they didn't blab to Simon. They agreeed and didn't tell Simon anything.

Later on, Simon received a phone call asking for the whereabouts of the lorry which should have arrived back at base. Graham and Simon argued about something. At this point Graham had finished his personal agenda, hedonism. He cleared out his office and, spouting marxist propaganda, turned his aide, Timmy, to the red side. His new agenda, formenting revolution.

Suddenly, the lorry was back. It careered down the road and crashed through the gates, Simon and the guard could do nothing to stop it. Behind it came the Mayor and twelve men with shotguns. Graham seized his chance and led a revolt of the prisoners. 12 prisoners died but Simon and his cronies were caught between a rock and a hard place and retreated to a his hut. Simon tried to sneak out but was caught and turned over to Graham by his own few remaining men. The mayor made peace with Graham and wanted to humiliate Simon who had earlier struck him with a rifle butt and kidnapped his family (who were still alive). He went to strike Simon but he managed to take the Mayor hostage, make it to a car and get off the island.

The camp didn't really work as a communist base and people drifted away.