beta testing

We have hammered our latest module for General Quarters III into near beta testing shape. It has come a long way from an idea in someone's head to where it is now, and I am very pleased with the core around which the game has been built. Now it goes out to blind playtesters to try out. This is where the real test of the system happens, when people with absolutely no familiarity with the game try to play it. Are the rules well-written? Is the game playable? Is it balanced?

There is no substitute for this step, and games that do not go through it, or do it inadequately, show it. Glaring errors of syntax, grammar, holes in the rules, etc, point to this step being stinted. It is just poor editing and publishing. Not to say that anything is perfect, but a lot of situations could and should be foreseen by trying to break a rules system in advance of general distribution.