Spinal Landscapes

This sort of playtesting is emotionally fraught. On one level, you have helped make a Thing that you enjoy using with others. On another, you are supposed to break the Thing, coldly and systematically, and to be able to describe what you did and what happened in a manner that’s useful to your teammates writing the code, to prevent others from experiencing what you have just experienced. But if you begin to suspect that the problem with the Thing you have been talking about for the last hour is not systemic but local to you and your ancient, crumbly potato of a computer, the situation becomes more complex, because you begin to worry, with more than a little shame, that you may have been crying wolf (lizard) all along, and that your friends and teammates have better things to do than sort out your incompetent ravings.