WotA Playtest Packets

With summer con season approaching I've been thinking about coming up with some different playtest packets for WotA.  Since WotA is a kingdom building game, it's a little harder to come up with a way to showcase how it works, but I think trying to come up with a "use case" for each of the mini-games is a good way to go.

The mini-games are: Skirmish, Infiltration, Diplomacy, and Warfare.  The Infiltration and Diplomacy mini-games are probably where I'll focus first.  The Skirmish mini-game is basically the Fate Core conflict system, so it's not very unique, and Warfare is a little trickier to demo, since there's more overhead in terms of an area to lay out different counters for units and such.

I think it would be nice to come up with backstories for different Strongholds, focused on different sorts of activities.  That way, I can have playtests which are varied both mechanically, and thematically, showing off the different possibilities in the game.  It will also probably help me in design, since I can see how valid the various strategies are.  I would group a set of five pre-generated characters with a sheet for the stronghold, and one mission.

For diplomacy, probably a trade mission is the best way to go.  Maybe a trade mission to Lily Manor in year two or three, with the goal of getting assistance setting up various methods of tracking commerce and trade, with the hope of increasing soft power.  This could feature diplomatic maneuverings and highlight how the trade system works.  It's helpful to have a cultural theme for the Stronghold - maybe a sort of fantasy Renaissance Italy?

With Infiltration, I already have quite a few options fleshed out (courtesy of what my home group has been doing).  One that sounds good is a mission to help Burgan Vale (they're sort of the hippie mage faction), that are being attacked by the Autarch via a bizarre mana draining device.  This would fit a group that was going a more magic/stealth route.  I've wanted to base one Stronghold after a fantasy Asian (maybe Chinese?) theme, and maybe this would be a good fit.  This Stronghold would also probably be a mid-game society (year two or maybe three).

For Skirmish, I can probably just use the characters already in the book and one of the initial Conquest missions, probably to take Sightrock - which seems to be a de facto opening season move.  I'm also not really as interested in playing Skirmish during playtests, not because I don't like it, but because it already works fine, and I don't see it changing.

I'll probably punt on Warfare for now, but I think that would be suited to a late game Stronghold, with a strong military, attacking the Autarch.  But I'll have my hands full just creating characters and sample Strongholds for the Infiltration and Skirmish cases, so I doubt I'll get to Warfare, but ideally, I would like to have one strong playtest ready for all four types of mini-games.