Another week in the life of GURPS

[dr_kromm]

Lots of news this week, so let's call it Boann. She has these tidings for you:

• Nikki sent out the production PDF of Pyramid #3/43, and PK (peekitty) turned around comments on it. Expect this soon.

• GURPS Locations: Hellsgate, by Matt Riggsby (wombattery), got its art and a production review! It now awaits prepress, although there's still a fairly long queue for that.

• GURPS Power-Ups 5, by y.t., also got its art and a production review!! It, too, is now waiting for prepress.

• We got some art news on GURPS Banestorm: Martial Arts, by David T. Moore; GURPS Dungeon Fantasy 15: Henchmen, by Peter Dell'Orto (peterdellorto) and y.t.; GURPS Hot Spots: Constantinople, 527-1204 A.D., by Matt Riggsby (wombattery); GURPS Locations: St. George's Cathedral, by Michele Armellini; GURPS Locations: Worminghall and GURPS Underground Adventures, both by Bill Stoddard (whswhs); and Transhuman Space: Wings of the Rising Sun, by David Chart. None of these are out of the woods yet! However, the trees now look more like shrubs.

• I reached the 87.2% mark by word count on the new edition of the Discworld RPG, by Phil Masters (phil_masters). That takes me to the very end of the NPCs.

• We kicked off the playtest of GURPS High-Tech: Adventure Guns, by Hans-Christian Vortisch.

• We also started the peer review of GURPS Thaumatology: Chinese Elemental Powers, by Bill Stoddard (whswhs).

Comments

[dr-kromm.livejournal.com]

Internally, we've been using the term "peer review" for about 10 years. It's code for "a review exclusively by freelance writers and editors who have demonstrated a grasp of SJ Games' style and editorial process." These are effectively the peers of the author of the work under the microscope, whence the term.

There is an intermediate step between "peer review" and "playtest" which involves a small, handpicked group of very experienced playtesters who aren't technically the writer's peers (they're unpublished) but who are so good with rules that they might well be the writer's betters in that department. This doesn't really have a cute name . . . internally, we've called it things like "closed playtest" and "focused playtest." We informally call the playtesters who do this the "A-Team," though they rarely shoot down helicopters.

To playtesters wondering how you get picked for the latter task: A decade or more of ordinary playtest credits on dozens of books is a start; nobody gets to jump in without experience. Consistently pulling out the spreadsheet and double-checking every NPC, template, etc. down to the last point gets our attention, too. And running actual playtest campaigns and delivering after-action reports is vital. Those who put this stuff behind trying to do the editor's job, and who use playtest time to critique writing instead of to check crunch and evaluate actual-play value, aren't likely to get tapped for this duty.

[archangelbeth]

Huh! How had I missed that? *ponder* Oh, having a 12-year-old kid might explain some of that...