So for the last 5 years, I have been working on a D&D 5e homebrew campaign with almost enough rules to make my own system. I want to find an effective way to play test it however there are a few caveats.
I am using an established IP (Shin Megami Tensei: Persona) as a fan campaign setting so this campaign and content cannot be published and properly shared without risks of IP violation.
I have a massive amount of homebrew rules, custom mechanics such as a traits/flaws mechanic, a lot of special role play based mechanics, time and weather mechanics, 24 backgrounds, 12 class archetypes, tons of custom gear, and around 200 spells.
While still in progress, about 200 proposed monsters.
I have made a document that is well over 110 pages worth of information that is used by the players.
The campaign alone is a level 1-20 adventure that is likely going to take 1-2 years to complete.
The characters that are made are actually created from a detailed backstory instead of mechanical aspects. So their backstory determines what their class will be. The PCs will have some character creation control but it will restrict the choice of the race (humans only) and classes (which is picked and issued by the DM at a certain point in the story).
The story take place over the course of a year and so many elements are dependent on the day by day time passing in the story. Even the time affects the mechanics of combat.
I know that this is VERY complicated under the circumstances and while I want to believe it is balanced after working on it for 5 years, I still have it played it in application. I figured it is worth asking if there are suggestions on how to play test before starting the campaign for my main group. They are all asking me to test things out before this extremely long campaign starts to make sure it is well balanced. Any thoughts?
there is no way to simulate the entire campaign that would take that long, but it sounds like the playable characters are mapped out. What i would do if i were in your situation would be to get an online group specifically to playtest and skip around for about 2 months between lvls and story. Test the introduction levels and beginning. Once thats out of the way, Go to lvl 5. Fast forward to a part in the story you need testing. play a session, mainly encounters, unless a part in your story needs its RP tested. skip again to lvl 10. and so forth. Might take 2 to 3 months, but at this point I can tell you are a very patient creator, so I doubt that would be an issue.
So for the last 5 years, I have been working on a D&D 5e homebrew campaign with almost enough rules to make my own system. I want to find an effective way to play test it however there are a few caveats.
I know that this is VERY complicated under the circumstances and while I want to believe it is balanced after working on it for 5 years, I still have it played it in application. I figured it is worth asking if there are suggestions on how to play test before starting the campaign for my main group. They are all asking me to test things out before this extremely long campaign starts to make sure it is well balanced. Any thoughts?
there is no way to simulate the entire campaign that would take that long, but it sounds like the playable characters are mapped out. What i would do if i were in your situation would be to get an online group specifically to playtest and skip around for about 2 months between lvls and story. Test the introduction levels and beginning. Once thats out of the way, Go to lvl 5. Fast forward to a part in the story you need testing. play a session, mainly encounters, unless a part in your story needs its RP tested. skip again to lvl 10. and so forth. Might take 2 to 3 months, but at this point I can tell you are a very patient creator, so I doubt that would be an issue.
I just realized you can't share it due to ip ... so online is out of the question.