Call for Playtesters

From: Derek Sorensen <delboy@bumblbee.demon.co.uk>

Date: Sun, 29 Oct 1995 00:00:00 +0000

Hi,

I'm working on a new game (working title "LANISTA") and I'm looking for
approximately 20 people to playtest and to help with the development.

WHAT IS LANISTA?
================

Lanista is a Play-By-Mail strategy/management game, based on the Gladiators
of Ancient Rome.  Each player is a Lanista, Manager/Trainer of a Gladiator
School.

The school buys slaves from the local slave market, bidding against the
other schools.  These slaves are trained in the gladiatorial arts and sent
into the arena to fight gladiators from other schools.

If a gladiator wins a fight, his school is paid prize money.  If he loses,
he may also lose his life ...

The game is rich in historical detail.  The thirteen commonest types of
Roman Gladiator are used, including Secutor, Laquerius, Myrmillo,
Retiarius, etc.  These different gladiators are all described in the
rulebook, along with their armour and equipment, their attributes, their
strengths and their weaknesses.

What makes Lanista different from other gladiator games?
========================================================

Lanista is a strategy/management game, not a fighting game. Almost all the
fighting in Lanista happens off stage - it is reported in the turn reports,
as a set of results.  This means that turn reports aren't cluttered with
long and boring lists of gladiator actions, but just cut to the heart - this
gladiator won; that gladiator lost; this gladiator died; and so on.

The skill in Lanista comes from building your squad - bidding for that
slave, whose build and general attributes make him ideally suited to work
as a Secutor in your gladiator team.  Training him up to fight Retiarii
and Myrmillo.  Choosing his opponents, and seeing him win fight after
fight, rising in popularity and status until he eventually wins the
coveted wooden sword - the Rudis - bestowing upon him the right to fight
no more.

Players interact subtly in a variety of different ways.  Bribing
gladiators in other schools; combining their efforts to outbid another
player, or to ensure that they can buy slaves cheaply; Spreading gossip
about other schools; Challenging other schools gladiators, who risk losing
fame and popularity if the challenge is refused - and lost popularity with
the crowd can sometimes mean the difference between life and death.
Players can send spies to watch other schools train;  Bribe gladiators to
throw important fights; even attempt to assassinate leading gladiators.

Lanista is a closed ended game.  Set in the year 22 B.C., in the reign of
Augustus, when there were 66 days given up to the Games.  Thus the game
runs for 67 turns.  On the final turn, the schools are measured by several
factors:  Their overall popularity with the people of Rome; The level of
skill of their gladiators; The amount of money in their treasury; and most
important of all, the number of gladiators who have earned the Rudis, and
are now free men.

OK, How do I join the playtest?
===============================

The game is in the middle to late design stages at the moment, and I'm
looking to put together a team of playtesters who will help put the
finishing touches to the design and then play the game for a period of at
least six months.

Following on from that date I will probably be looking for more playtesters
with no knowledge of the game to test the ease of use of the rules and the
game system itself from an outsiders viewpoint.

The game will ultimately be offered commercially.  Playtesters will of
course be acknowledged in the rulebook, but I am afraid I can offer no more
reward than the satisfaction of having helped develop a new game.

If this sounds like a project you'd like to get involved with, please drop
me a line at:

lanista@bumblbee.demon.co.uk

and I'll send out a copy of the rulebook as it stands at the moment.  Please
let me know if you'd like the rules as ascii text or Word-For-Windows
format.

To aid development, a mailing list will be set up.  I'll post details of how
to subscribe to the list when I have them.

Regards,