How do you playtest your homebrew?

[Oramac]

Pretty much what the title says. Creating homebrew is cool and all, but without playtesting it's largely theoretical. So how do you playtest your 'brews? More specifically:

- How do you find a table to playtest?
- Who plays the 'brew? (you or someone else)
- How do you and the DM handle balance issues?
- How do you ask for/receive feedback?
- How often do you update the 'brew?

[GalacticAxekick]

- How do you find a table? I never have to find a table. I've been playing with the same group for 5 years.
- Who plays the brew? Everyone. When I DM, I never use the official stat blocks for monsters, and I never use the official magic items, so every player is facing and relying on homebrew. I frequently introduce homebrew spells for my players, and homebrew alternatives to class features. I occasionally introduce homebrew classes or subclasses in the character creation phase (because the player wants to play a character that the official rules don't support). And when I'm a player, I often ask to play as homebrew classes or subclasses myself.
- How do you handle balance issues? I have never run into balance issues.
- How often do you update the brew? I'm constantly updating the brew I haven't playtested yet. I rarely update brew once it's playtested, because everything I've playtested has worked perfectly

[MoleMage]

Pretty much what the title says. Creating homebrew is cool and all, but without playtesting it's largely theoretical. So how do you playtest your 'brews? More specifically:

- How do you find a table to playtest?
- Who plays the 'brew? (you or someone else)
- How do you and the DM handle balance issues?
- How do you ask for/receive feedback?
- How often do you update the 'brew?

My usual method for Classes (my go-to brew of choice) is to wait until I have a complete party's worth and then set up a game with my normal group or recruit one through the local game store with the premise of "okay everyone is running a homebrew class I wrote so we can test it." Often I make pregens of the "expected" build or a sometimes I let them make there own.

Other people play the brew. I have played my own on occasion but my experience is that people are a lot more wary when someone brings their own homebrew to a session so I only do it with a couple of DMs that I know anymore. Besides, I want readability feedback too and giving it to someone else to make sense of is the best way to get that.

My general stance is "play it exactly as written, no edits during a session". I want my homebrew to be functional no matter what table it ends up on, so it is important to me that something other than my fiat is in charge during a playtest. Since I'm usually running, I can make a judgment call if something needs to go outside that rule. I've gotten to a point where generally speaking my homebrew is balanced enough that it won't ruin a game, so I've never had to deal with edits during, though sometimes I've had to clarify intent or fill in missing details during a session, but those are always written down and locked in the first time they come up.

I just ask, honestly. People usually have a pretty good idea what they did or didn't like. If there were any problems with balance found during test I note them myself, but mostly my feedback helps me make classes more engaging, rather than more balanced.

I usually edit a lot until I reach a point where I consider it ready to playtest, then shelve it until I can find time to test it. After a test, I either write the small updates or make notes that I need to overhaul some glaring issue (my Alchemy system didn't have *any* non-resource power originally, making it feel worse than casters because cantrips are usually at least relevant to a fight, unlike unmodified light crossbow attacks with a secondary stat).

[Oramac]

- How do you find a table? I never have to find a table. I've been playing with the same group for 5 years.


My usual method for Classes (my go-to brew of choice) is to wait until I have a complete party's worth and then set up a game with my normal group or recruit one through the local game store with the premise of "okay everyone is running a homebrew class I wrote so we can test it." Often I make pregens of the "expected" build or a sometimes I let them make there own.

Y'all are really lucky, I guess. I'm currently running one game and playing in 4 others (which is awesome), but so far other than the game I run none of the DMs have agreed to help playtest homebrew. One of the games is at a FLGS, so that's understandable, but still.


Other people play the brew. I have played my own on occasion but my experience is that people are a lot more wary when someone brings their own homebrew to a session so I only do it with a couple of DMs that I know anymore. Besides, I want readability feedback too and giving it to someone else to make sense of is the best way to get that.

Totally agree. In a perfect world I wouldn't even be in the game that is testing my homebrew. I want to hear not only what the player and DM think, but also the rest of the party. Does John Doe's character feel over/underpowered compared to me? Do his features feel comparable to my published class features of the same level? Etc, etc, etc.


My general stance is "play it exactly as written, no edits during a session". I want my homebrew to be functional no matter what table it ends up on, so it is important to me that something other than my fiat is in charge during a playtest. Since I'm usually running, I can make a judgment call if something needs to go outside that rule. I've gotten to a point where generally speaking my homebrew is balanced enough that it won't ruin a game, so I've never had to deal with edits during, though sometimes I've had to clarify intent or fill in missing details during a session, but those are always written down and locked in the first time they come up.

I just ask, honestly. People usually have a pretty good idea what they did or didn't like. If there were any problems with balance found during test I note them myself, but mostly my feedback helps me make classes more engaging, rather than more balanced.


Same boat here. The homebrew I've tested so far (about half of what I've written) has been balanced enough to not break anything. I always try to get feedback after the game as well, and most of my changes revolve more around how the brew "feels" during play.


I usually edit a lot until I reach a point where I consider it ready to playtest, then shelve it until I can find time to test it. After a test, I either write the small updates or make notes that I need to overhaul some glaring issue (my Alchemy system didn't have *any* non-resource power originally, making it feel worse than casters because cantrips are usually at least relevant to a fight, unlike unmodified light crossbow attacks with a secondary stat).

Same here. I suppose I just write too much! haha. I have way more material to test than time/players/DMs to test it.

[Kane0]

How do you find a table to playtest?
I use my existing group, pretty standard friends/family. If posting here I will welcome any feedback from those that use it,

Who plays the 'brew? (you or someone else)
Well first I eyeball it, then run it internally if I think its warranted. Then I add it to the catalogue for the group to see and use, which also means it's here for everyone else to see, use and comment on.

How do you and the DM handle balance issues?
Typically by earmarking the issue and taking a closer look at it at the end of a given session. Don't change 'brew mid-game.

How do you ask for/receive feedback?
Before, during and after using the guinea pigs, and putting it here.

How often do you update the 'brew?
As often as I like, I don't have the problem of millions of hard copies already existing that will cause confusion. My work is all centralised so if something is out of date it's probably because you saved/printed it yourself (and that's fine, feel free to keep using whatever version makes you happy).

If you're wondering, my internal test follows this pattern and can be done as a one-shot session with 1 or 2 players if I don't want to do it all myself (note this is for D&D 5e specifically):
1) One week downtime as preparation
2) Travel to adventure location (mobility, tracking, etc)
3) Initial combat (few tougher opponents)
4) Breaking in (stealth, lockbreaking, trapspringing)
5) Second combat (larger number of weaker opponents)
6) Social encounter (hostage negotiations, breaking morale, duel of wits, etc)
7) miniboss combat (single stronger opponent with minions)
8) boss combat (single strong opponent with legendary/lair actions)
9) travel back from location with loot
10) One week downtime for recovery, celebration and bragging

The test subject is accompanied by warrior, expert and spellcaster sidekicks of equal level to make up a control party of 4, and they can take up to 2 short rests during the adventure any time between sections.
This is the kind of thing I do for full class rewrites and changes to fundamental rules, not minor tweaks like racial features or spell/feat adjustments. I like to run a few of these at different levels if I get the chance to, roughly corresponding with the Tiers of play (Levels 2-3, 6, 12 and 20 usually). Typically I only *actually* run it at one or two of these stages though.

[Rynjin]

I typically chuck it at my players and tell them to have at it. Then someone will use it in game at some point. occasionally I've played stuff I've homebrewed myself, but that's usually full subsystems that people end up liking (at this point my players have run more games using my Freedorm Class system for Pathfinder than I have. Ironically I...kinda hate using it as a player lol).

If it's not a player option I technically never "playtest". I just USE it, eg. homebrew monsters.

I do make edits at the table; that's what a playtest is for. If something comes up as wack, it needs fixing.

[gooddragon1]

I don't. I just think about a problem I perceive and try to fix it. Though the omni-fix I've thought of for dnd 3.5 takes too much effort to write up.

Basically, you deduct 1, 2, or 3 points of BAB for the day and get access to martial energy. That would let you get class features like resistances, special strikes, per day abilities, static bonuses, etc etc etc (all within one of several schools like Tome of Battle schools in a way) without needing a feat or item. But you could require those too if you want. Makes mundanes more variable if you want them to be. But as you can see, that would take a lot of writing.

For the 5e ranger, all you need to do is give them spell arrows. Then they can use their casting to be hawkeye from the avengers with trick arrows.