Guidelines for Blades Scenario Designers while Beta Testing Scenarios

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>The purpose of testing is to expose problems throughout the game,
>not (necessarily) for the testers to have a good, fun gaming experience.
>Good testers work hard, exploring and playing out all the corners
>of a game, including those which can be bypassed by regular
>players. Bugs are expected, and the process can be painful. To
>lower the pain for this volunteer effort, testers require that
>the authors have _completely_ finished the scenario to the best
>of their ability _before_ giving it to the testers. If you just want
>someone to say 'attaboy' to your half-finished scenario, or if
>you are expecting testers to make up for your own laziness, go
>elsewhere. The following are minimal standards for scenarios
>submitted for playtesting.
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>1) Any scenario with a rating other than Low must come with a
>party generator <insert link to Tarl's downloadabale one> which
>builds the intended party.
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>2) The scenario must be unpassworded or the password disclosed to
>the tester.
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>3) The scenario must have been passed repeatedly through a spelling
>checker and problems fixed until no more errors are reported.
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>4) The author must have played completely through the scenario with a
>generated party, using the same version of the scenario actually
>given to the testers. If that playthrough reveals problems, they
>should be fixed and the result re-played through from scratch by
>the author. That is, the version the testers receive must be
>unchanged from one the author has successfully completed in alpha play
>from the beginning.
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>5) All readme and other documentaion must be included in its
>expected final form.
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>You can expect beta testing to reveal bugs which you will have to
>fix. It may also reveal more fundimental problems of balance,
>storyline, treasure etc. that may require a substantial rewrite.
>The fixed/rewritten scenario should be beta'd a second time.
>Do not use the same testers for both first and second rounds; no
>tester can do a good job the second time through, because he
>knows to much to do the dumb things that expose bugs.
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Ivan Godard