I am running the playtest with a homebrew game. As background I have been DMing since the 80's. This is set in what I call "Golarian Lite" which is I use some geography and the Gods, but the politics or even names.
This is set in Brevoy just north of the Gronzi Forest. A Baron (who has become that by his bravery and wisdom) was just deeded a county north of Gronzi Forest and his scouts discovered a profitable mine. He has decided to erect a new town to support the mine and to populate and protect the county. Our party enters via recruitment posters and mentor recommendations. Cannot go too far into story due to players reading this forum. To make sure we got a good variety of features, we drew characters, one for Ancestry, one for Background, one for Class, and one for a beginning bonus as we started at lvl 2 to better go over what happens when you level up. It also included things that might have been gifted or inherited.
I have survey forms I have them fill out, one was on character creation and an ongoing one for games.
Character Creation:
on a scale of 1-10
11 Characters
Understanding of rules was: 3 5's 2 6's 2 7's 3 8's 1 9's
Ease of character creation was: 2 5's 4 7's 2 8's 1 9's 2 10's
Character Sheet layout was: 1 3's 4 5's 2 6's 2 7's 2 9's
Available options for characters: 1 4's 3 5's 3 8's 2 9's 2 10's
Comments were:
On the character sheet the total bulk should be directly under the bulk list, having it move to the left is confusing.
Continual Flame seems extremely expensive, did you mean silver rather than gold?
Barding for horses seems overly bulky hampering the horse's movement by too much.
Monks should have medicine as a signature skill. They get very few signature skills and there is quite the tradition with both types of monks in history for medicine skills.
For Monks, please list stances of the same level together for ease in creation and play.
The Combat characters all asked for more slots for weapons and equipment. Also that AC and Initiative be more prominent.
A major comment was on bulk rules being explained more clearly.
Game Feedback:
A fairly short session as we finished character creation.
We encountered a wandering band of Goblins that had taken residence near the mine. They party took an opportunity to use diplomacy with them (good since we have 2 Goblins in the party) and eventually helped them be invited to the new village. As they headed back to pick up the Goblin troop, Their old tribe had come to kill them. Party dispatched them, sparing one to send a message back.
Understanding of rules: were all 9's and 10's
Game Mechanics Overall: 1 7's 2 8's 2 9's 6 10's
Play experience: 1 7's 2 9's 8 10's
I used the Paizo tracking from the survey. But we did not need to use resonance, run out of anything or use Hero points. Next post will have more on that as we get the game going more.
GM Feedback:
Hero Points Awarded: 3 for out of game activities.
Gm Comments:
I really like the way that XP and the challenge for creatures is done. As you can see I run a big game and being able to adjust for number is really helpful.
In general we were very excited to run/play the playtest, and were pleased overall.
Thank you for following this thread!