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This past weekend I attended Protospiel Chicago, my first in-person playtesting event (aside from a couple of small, local game nights where I've playtested a few things) since the one-day Protospiel Madison Mini back in February 2020! It felt really great to be back at a table playing prototypes with friends I hadn't seen in two years, even if we had to wear masks. This year I brought six games to playtest, all of which didn't exist at the last full Protospiel I attended. I was a bit nervous since only Rolling Seas had a lot of play (and the Current Events expansion I was testing was still new). None of the games had been playtested more than once or twice with anyone other than myself, and Polyhedral Prix had never been played with anyone. But the event was a great success!
My games were a hit with people asking to play them so much that on Saturday I barely got to play anyone else's games. Sunday I made a point to make the rounds and try out others' games, but I did end the event with two more plays of my games. I came home with some great feedback to ponder, a few tweaks to make, some rules to clarify, and an idea for a new game bouncing around in my head. Plus I made a few new friends over the weekend, met a few online friends in person, and got to see a bunch of older friends. So I call that a success!
In all, I played 8 games by 7 different designers, plus I had 6 of my games played: Rolling Seas w/ Current Events expansion, Duct Tape Roll, Go Make A Hike, Polyhedral Potions, Polyhedral Perils, and Polyhedral Prix. I played other designers' games for about 6.5 hours and had my games played for a bit over 7 hours (plus rules and feedback on both sides). So I used a bit more time than I gave this year, but people wanted to play my games!
Read on for a full recap of each game I played (or taught), including some thoughts on how my own games went. As usual, I'll include the designer, who I played with, and also three ratings, from 1-5.
