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I think a lot of the problems with game _rulebooks_ are actually problems with the game _design_. Once you start getting into _dozens of pages_ to explain the
by empath75 2y ago
I think a lot of the problems with game _rulebooks_ are actually problems with the game _design_.
Once you start getting into _dozens of pages_ to explain the rules, there's no amount of re-organization or quality technical writing that can fix that.
Some people like really crunchy rulesets with lots of rules, and that's fine, but games like that are never going to have an easy teaching or learning experience.
Probably my favorite board game rulebook wasn't a rulebook at all:
Fog of Love has a playable tutorial, where all the cards are setup in a particular order with game rules printed on cards that you draw when you need them. You don't even really need to open the rule book to get through the first game, and it's actually a fairly complex game. The rulebook itself after that is mostly for reference.
- joemi 2y agoI completely agree. I've seen many games with good rulebooks, but they're not the sprawling complicated dungeon crawlers like so many examples from the essay. Those big games are going to have complicated rulebooks because they have complicated rules, and there's no way around that without changing the games themselves.
- stevage 2y agoYep. And it has to do with how complex the rulesets are, not just how many rules there are. If there are dozens of rules that could apply at any moment, that's much harder to deal with (and learn and teach) than sub-rulesets that are compartmentalised (like when in battle, use all the following rules).