Askunessippi Playtest

The Thames river which meets the Avon River in Stratford Ontario is called Askunessippi (Anishinaabe language: Eshkani-ziibi, "the antlered river") by the Odawa and Ojibwa inhabitants, who together with the Neutrals have lived in the area since before Europeans arrived. We were in Stratford at the HotLead Convention last weekend and got a chance to run some new players through the Flint and Feather rules.
We set up three games side by side on a 5' x 12' table space. The players were very interested in playing, most having a genuine interest in the period we are depicting with the rules. Many others stopped by the table or watched the game with peeked interest. With my trusty comrade Kurt we set about to teach the rules and give them a real test as to play ability and speed. Each player was given eight warriors and the two sides were lined up opposite each other and told to dispatch their enemies.
I believe the games were a success. The players were able to quickly pick up the rules and soon they were running melees with the cards in a successful manner on their own. The games also took less than two hours to complete, even while learning the rules and waiting on the two game masters to answer questions at times. It is good to finally have these rules to a playable pitch.
Some concerns were raised with the players in two areas. The first was the concern over the turn sequence. It seemed to be a bit tricky for the players to understand the move, reaction, move then switch phasing player and the second player moves, there is a reaction by player one and then the second player finishes the turn. Remembering where they were in the turn seemed to be a stumbling block. It was when I recalled that we have been using a "phasing" player marker in our test games and then provided the players with a multi sided die as a turn marker, that the problem went away. So in following up with Bob after the game we asked for a phasing player token of some kind to be created, and now we will have another item to add to our kickstarter.
The second issue seemed to be with the Nerve test rules, which are used at the conclusion of a melee. It seemed the players kept having to check with the game master to read the chart which encompasses this process. It seems like we need to come up with something more intuitive for this test. So I have an idea already worked out to try about using Nerve markers during the fight. More on this when I test them out.
The next step will be to playtest the new shaman rules and then on to a full campaign. We should have this stuff all wrapped up in time for Historicon which is our goal at this point.
Now some news on the upcoming Kickstarter. Bob Murch from Pulp Figures and the sculptor for this project flew into Ontario for the show in Stratford. While it was great to see him it did take his time away from painting up miniatures. He should have this done in the coming week. Meanwhile I will be working on the video for the Kickstarter. All this means that we should be ready to go with the Kickstarter soon, certainly before April turns to May. Stay tuned!