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MajiMonsters Playtest: Playtest Primer
What You’ll Need to Play
plAYtest primer
Odds are, you’re probably already an experienced role-player.
You won’t need anything unique to play MajiMonsters that you
wouldn’t need for other role-playing games. Here are some quick
guidelines on what you should prepare.
Thank you for your support of MajiMonsters, the monstercatching role-playing game! This is an exciting opportunity to
preview the game and provide feedback!
Players. The playtest is written for a party of up to six players, excluding you, the Game Master, who will run the game. A group up
to this size is ideal to keep the pace of combat and character actions
moving, especially since the players will be learning the rules to
the system at the same time. However, you can accommodate more
players if you wish. If you include more players, we recommend
that you add more MajiMonsters to each combat encounter to keep
things challenging for the group.
In the playtest, you will be assessing portions of the game, but not
the whole thing. Because of this fact, you might find elements of
the rules that are unclear or references to parts of the game that
are not included in the playtest. We are working to correct errors
and develop the best game possible. To that end, we invite you to
contact us with any questions you may have and to provide your
feedback on what works, what doesn’t work, what you like, and
what you don’t like.
Time. We’ve ran the MajiMonsters playtest over the span of 4
to 6 hours, which we would consider the length of a typical play
session. However, you may find that it takes you longer to complete. This depends upon how quickly you grasp the game’s rules,
how many people you have playing, and how quickly your group
progresses through play. There’s no wrong amount of time it takes
to finish. Try to plan play sessions ahead of time to avoid having to
stop abruptly during the game.
Please keep the following things in mind as you play:
Nothing is final. We’ve put lot of hours into developing
MajiMonsters, but there are no sacred cows here. In the end, we
want to provide the most fun role-playing experience. If we get resounding feedback that a portion of the game isn’t working, we’re
going to work to make it better. We’re committed to putting in the
time and effort required for a project of this scope. We’d rather take
extra time than rush out a poor product.
Dice. In addition to the materials provided in the playtest packet,
you’ll need at least one set of polyhedral gaming dice to play
MajiMonsters. These dice are commonly available for purchase
at hobby stores. The dice are referred to throughout play by the following convention:
Experiences will differ. No two groups of role-players are exactly
alike. Your group might really dislike an encounter or gaming mechanic that another group greatly enjoys. We believe that the rules
are always in service to the players’ experience and we default to
that way of thinking when it comes time to make a decision on
what will, and will not, make the final cut. We know that we will
probably receive mixed feedback on some aspects of the game, and
we will have some tough choices to make as a result.
Number of dice required + “d” + the amount of die’s sides
Therefore, if you are required to roll one eight-sided die in
MajiMonsters the game text will refer to it as “1d8.” If you are
required to roll two six-sided dice, it will be referred to as “2d6.”
Our recommended set of game dice includes:
We can’t do it without you. We humbly ask MajiMonsters
playtesters to submit surveys and provide additional feedback to
Late Knight Games, LLC. After all, this is the opportunity for your
voice to be heard, and we’re eager to hear from everyone who
plays the game!
2d4, 2d6, 2d8, 1d10, 1d12, and 1d20
If you would need to roll more dice than you have, simply roll the
die the required amount of times and total the result.
Miscellaneous Materials. This playtest has been designed for
combat and other encounters to be represented on a grid of 1”
squares—we’ve provided tokens you can print and cut out to use
for MajiMonsters if you use a grid. Each square represents 5 feet.
If the game refers to a measurement in feet, simply divide by 5 to
determine its equivalent in squares. Your group may prefer not to
use a grid while playing MajiMonsters, letting the action play out
in what is referred to as the “Theater of the Mind.” That’s fine! If
that’s the case, we’d love to hear how your group handles distances
and combat during your gaming session.
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© 2015 Late Knight Games, LLC. Do not distribute.
MajiMonsters Playtest: Playtest Primer
Using This Playtest Packet
What Playtest 1 Covers
If you are the Game Master, we recommend you read the following
documents in this order:
This playtest is designed to cover the core tenets of the game. It
includes a small adventure designed for you to become used to
making checks, fighting combat encounters, binding Monsters,
challenging rivals, exploring the world, and making decisions.
1. How to Play. The rest of the playtest packet assumes that
you are familiar with the rules presented in this document,
which presents the basics of play.
2. Game Master’s Guidelines. A quick list of advice and tips,
including the nuts and bolts of setting check difficulties,
creating engaging encounters, and role-playing NPCs and
MajiMonsters.
3. Playtest Adventure: Reclaiming History. This brief adventure consists of a couple planned and optional encounters designed to make you and your players familiar with
the setting and rules of the game.
4. Playtest Option. Because we’re trying to get the most
possible feedback, we’ve included a system variant for
MajiMonsters that you can use if you wish. This option
requires a little work on your end to convert each MajiMonster and substitute combat mechanics, but utilizes a
different rules system we may choose to explore in our
core system. We’d like to get solid feedback from our
players about this and encourage you to try it!
The playtest will not cover a majority of aspects beyond that. For
instance, MajiMonsters will not gain experience or advance during
the course of this playtest and neither will your binder. Many options that are available to binders and MajiMonsters in the game are
limited, or pre-generated, for use with the playtest. It’s our intention
to include more customizable features over future playtests and in
our core rulebook.
If you are a player, here is the recommended order for reading the
playtest packet’s documents.
1. How to Play. The rest of the playtest packet assumes you
are familiar with the rules presented in this document,
which presents the basics of play.
2. Pre-generated Characters. The playtest includes six pregenerated characters for players to choose from. We’ve
allowed for a couple options for each character so you can
make the experience feel unique to you, and it can also
allow multiple players to try the same character with different abilities selected.
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© 2015 Late Knight Games, LLC. Do not distribute.