** What do you look for, explicitly, when playtesting?**
first run thru, I just want a VIBES CHECK. is this thing even fun? that is the whole point, and nothing to lose sight of at any point. but damn, if an adventure isn’t fun at first go around, run by the person that wrote it, something big is off.
then i’ll rewrite the whole thing for public facing. here is when I start doing the mental playtests.. like, what would players/GMs do here? specific things I look for is still general.
is there a clear sense of what this adventure is? do the players feel like they know what they are doing? how do they FEEL when going through it. then you check to see if this all aligns with your goals.
what are the bits that worked best, and what worked least well? edit edit edit! lean into the good stuff, ditch the bad stuff!
then I make changes and send off for a different GM. i ask the same questions, then if things are off, I change both other player AND the GM facing material to suit.
then I will run it again myself in what is very close to the FINAL FORMAT. and here I will run it with a different group. and maybe do lil micro runs with close friends/family to nail down specific encounters.
then, when its at final format, i’ll at least TRY to get someone entirely removed from the creation process to playtest it. just for minor changes, information design kinda feedback.
** How do you know if what you have made up to that moment needs big changes, small changes or it needs remaking? **
HARDER THAN YOU THINK. adventures land VERY DIFFERENTLY with different groups. the CURRENT THING I am working on, we have had 5 different groups run it so far, and damn if everything went vastly differently each time.
so, my specific answer here is: make changes till things go smoother AND it maintains its core feeling. you will have to guess as to the extent of the change (sometimes a seemingly small tweak accomplishes BIG THINGS, and sometimes you just keep a concept around that should have been in the trash right away).
trick is that if you iterate things a lot, you can make these judgments. the less playtesting, the harder it is to make changes.
** Do you have a specific process for recording and applying the results of the playtest? **
depends on the stage. early on I play it by ear. for other GMs I will make a list of questions and concerns. then when I get back to GMing, I will take that work and see if I “solved” it for my own playthrus.