The Playtesting Perils

What I have discovered through multiple play-testing of this game is that at current the game has some large problems. What I have found is that players have a lot of problems when it comes to being critical of other peoples storytelling abilities, beyond the obvious (I.E when people's stories stop making sense) players did not like telling people their stories were no good. I also found that the game had no real ending point and giving different cards effects complicated the game and detracted from what the game is about.

Just to re-iterate it - mostly for myself - the reason I created Preposterous was to make a game that made it easier to create stories and tell them to your friends, anything that does not work towards that is missing what the game is actually about.

The main problem preposterous had was balance, the game was always either heavily favoured on the side of players questioning stories or it was heavily in favour of the storyteller. I believe I have solved this in the newest iteration of the game's mechanics: I have removed the part of the game which relied on players deciding a player's storytelling was not good enough; it was obvious that players did not enjoy the idea of openly down-talking each others storytelling abilities. The new system includes a 'duel' system, where the aim is speed and the ability to weave more things into the players story on the fly. I have also re-introduced the ability to take stories off players as the game progresses, which should remove the problem that occurred when all players acquired points as fast as one another.

I will be play-testing these new rules within the next two weeks and creating a new iteration based on feedback, I will then find out if the original rule set is still preferred by anybody to make sure what I am doing is actually imrpoving on the game. For now here is the current Preposterous rules:

Preposterous Rules  (3-6 Duel-style play)

• Firstly, all players choose a character card, they place it face up in front of them so that other players can see. The cards are double sided; the players choose their gender by which face is visible. 
• Players then shuffle and draw one virtue and vice card, they place them either side of their character card; this denotes the characters reputation.
• Once all players have done that they are encouraged to ‘introduce themselves’ by giving their characters a name and a slight amount of history. This is not a required step, but it can be fun to establish things at this stage which you can recall later on.
• After this stage the first player draws a story card and places it in front of them. They then read out the title of said story and draw a number of proof cards in relation to how many questions are asked in the story setup. 
• The player then has 30 seconds to think, after that they must tell a Preposterous story using the proof cards they have to justify the events of their story. As a rule, each question on the story card must be answered, with a proof card attached to the events that answer said question. The player may not make a mistake in the telling; it must make sense and reference all elements of the character’s reputation (virtue, vice, title etc.). If the other players unanimously agree the story has a serious hole in it (by shouting Preposterous!), the player waffles or rambles or takes more than 30 seconds to prepare the story it is discarded and the turn order moves on.
• Once a story has been told, the players all draw a card from the proof pile and the storyteller hands out question cards to the players (one to each player). The players then must ask questions of the player’s stories in an attempt to disprove or poke holes in the story; they ask a question of a piece of proof offered up by the player and use the proof they have to back up their query. If the others players deem the question unsuitable it is discarded.
• The defending player must then defend their story against the allegations, they do this without any proof cards, the players then decide together which was the weakest argument the player made by means of a vote (the storyteller is involved in this vote), the player who asked that question may not duel the player for the story!
• If the players agree that a player gave plausible or strong arguments for all questions equally, then they can allow the storyteller to pick which player they shall duel with.
• The two players must then duel for the story! They take it in turns to flip cards from the proof deck and use them as talking points for their argument. Each time a player flips a card they have 5 seconds to think before they must make their argument, they must stay on topic, remembering to argue about the story and the story alone. The first player to fall off topic, take longer than 5 seconds to answer or slip up in their argument loses. The impartial character with the highest Social standing* may also at any point declare a winner based upon the quality of the arguments presented. 
• Once a winner has been determined that player takes the story card and places it face-up below their character, they must then take one of the original proof cards they played and place it above the story card, leaving the number value of the story card visible. This story element is then treated as part of the character’s reputation, meaning it must be referenced in every single story they tell from now on!
• *The social standing of the characters is based on their character cards, with the mayor at the top and the crook at the bottom. In 3 player games the player not involved in the duel is automatically the person with the highest social standing. 
• A player may at any time decide to challenge another player to a duel in lieu of creating another story. That player must offer up one of their stories, the player they challenge may accept, meaning they offer up a story of their own and begin the duel as normal; the winner takes ownership of both stories. If the other player does not accept the duel they turn their character card sideways, the player who announced the duel may then tell a story as normal. 
• At the end of the game all player with their character cards still facing forward (meaning they never backed down from a duel) get an extra point, for their true bravery. 
• The game ends when the last story card has been drawn, or any player is in the lead by 10 points at the end of a round. The last story told in the pile of story cards is a group story, meaning all players treat it as if they are the storyteller to an extent. Each player draws one of the proof cards (starting with the person on the lowest points), and answer one of the questions as if the entire group were at said event.
• Once the story has been told the players all attempt to re-tell the other elements of the stories, questioning another part of the story as normal; the game then follows the duel mechanic in an elimination style, eventually leaving one player with the final story. The final story value is also doubled!