Kleptos & Thieves PlaytestsBy: Jonathon Davis

The game I created is based on the theme of addiction, and is titled Kleptos & Thieves. This is a strategic board game where the goal is to steal your opponent’s special items, and successfully return them to the correct spaces marked with stars in order to win the game. A player is also able to win by eliminating all their opponent’s game pieces as well. At the end of all my playtests, I decided that the final winner would be the first player to reach 10 points. A player will earn 2 points if they win by successfully stealing and returning the items in the game. A player will only earn 1 point if they win by eliminating their opponent’s game pieces. The only things I could use for the game pieces were some nickels, dimes, and pennies, and then I also used M&Ms for the items that the players are trying to steal. So of course one player has all their coins face up, and the other player will have their coins face down. I will go over the rules in depth for the first playtest that took place, and I will only explain all the changes to the rules that I made for the remanding playtests. The only person that I was able to test my game with was my mother, and I was her opponent. Below you will see the game board, and the correct setup to start the game off.

Playtest 1 Rules

I will start off by listing how each game piece is allowed to move. No game piece is allowed to jump over any other piece in the game. The kleptos (Nickels) are only able to move in a straight diagonal line while staying on the same color it started on. The master thieves (Dimes) can only move two spaces in any direction. This also means that if an opposing piece is only one space away, the master thief will not be able to eliminate it. The thieves (Pennies) are only able to move one space in any direction. To eliminate an opposing game piece, the player must move one of theirs into the same space the opposing piece is occupying. The same must be done in order to take possession of one of the items. If a game piece comes in possession of one of the items, it will no longer be able to eliminate an opposing piece. Once an item has been successfully stolen and returned to one of the two appropriate star spaces, that item will no longer be in play. Both items can be returned to the same star as long as no game piece is occupying that space. This is one rule that did not change during any of my playtests, and is also the first rule that I decided to permanently keep. The second rule that I kept in all my playtests is that a single game piece is only allowed to be in possession of only one item at a time. This is also the second rule that I decided to keep permanent. If a game piece becomes eliminated while in possession of one of the items, that piece will no longer be in play, and the piece that did the eliminating will automatically take possession of that item. If that happens, that piece must then return that item the same way as if was stealing one of the opposing items, and if successful, that item will automatically go back to the same space it occupied at the start of the game. This is the last rule that I kept in all my playtests, and is yet another ruling that I kept permanent.

Results of Playtest 1

To my surprise, my mother had won the very first game by successfully stealing and returning both of the items that I was trying to protect. Since I made this a strategic game, the first round showed me that I had accomplished my goal in that one small mistake could cost a player the game. My mother and I had no issues remembering how any of the pieces were allowed to move since there are only three different types. I wanted to make sure the game was not overly complex so that anyone playing the game would not be too confused, and I believe I did just that. One suggestion my mother had was to allow the master thieves to eliminate an opposing piece if was one or two spaces away. The only other part she did not care for was that any piece in possession of an item was not allowed to eliminate any other opposing pieces. What she liked the most was that the thieves and master thieves were allowed to move in any direction, and could backtrack if needed.

Playtest 2 Rules

I only made two changes to the first set of rules for the second game. Both of my changes came from my mother’s suggestions. The first change is that the master thieves could now eliminate any opposing game piece whether it was one or two spaces away. The only other change I made was to also allow a game piece the ability to eliminate an opposing one even if it was in possession of one of the items.

Playtest 2 Results

I was able to get my revenge this time around and was able to successfully steal and return both of the items my mother was trying to protect. My mother and I both agreed that this was the best playtest after the game was finished. Since this round went so well, I decided to use all of these rules for my final game. One thing that this round had in common with the first round was that one small mistake had cost that player the game. It just happened to be my mother that made the mistake this time, and I was able to take advantage of it at the right time. All of the following playtests that I conducted after this one went by all of these rules expect for the changes I made that I will be explaining.

Playtest 3 Rules

The one rule change that I made for this playtest was that the thieves were now only able to move in the forward direction. This means that they only had three spaces that they could move to unless it was in a space that was also on the side of the board, and then it would only have two spaces it could move to.

Playtest 3 results

I was once again able to win the game by successfully stealing and returning both of the items my mother was protecting, and it happened again because she made one small mistake that I was able to catch in time. The one change I made also caused this to be the most challenging round out of all the playtests. My mother did not care for the change even though she did agree it made it more of a challenge.

Playtest 4 Rules

This playtest went by all of the rules I put in play from the second round with only one change. The change I made was that the kleptos and master thieves were now able to jump over one of their fellow game pieces. If they decided to do this, they could only move to the one space directly on the opposite side of the piece they were jumping over.

Playtest 4 Results

I ended up being victorious once more and was able to steal and return both of the items I was going after. This was the closest game that my mother and I had played. My mother was only one move away from winning once I completed the goal. The rule change that I made was enjoyable by my mother, but she still thought this rule was not really meant for this type of game.

Playtest 5 Rules

Once again, I went by the rule set from the second playtest, but with two changes in this round. The first change I made was that the thieves could only move one space in a diagonal direction staying on the same color it began on at the start of the game. The second change I made was to have the master thieves move one or two spaces only moving straight up and down, or side-to-side.

Playtest 5 Results

These were by far the most complicated rules that I decide to put in play from what my mother said. There were two times that I had to remind her on how the game pieces were allowed to move. I did win for the final time, and this was also the only game that my mother got completely beat. She made a fatal mistake right at the start and lost one of her klepto pieces after only a few moves. After that, there was just no stopping me.

Conclusion

My biggest surprise at the end of all my playtests was that successfully stealing, and returning both of the items won each game. The other part that came as a surprise was that there were no times at all that a game piece got eliminated while in possession of an item. Every game took between 40 and 50 minutes, and that was exactly what I was hoping for. Every change I made to all the playtests gave each game a different feel, and caused different strategies each time.