Ten (More) Ways to Make Your Rulebook Awesome - Metatopia 2015

Ten (More) Ways to Make Your Rulebook Awesome

Ten (More) Ways to Make Your Rulebook Awesome

All new!

Ten (More) Ways to Make Your Rulebook Awesome

All new!

Improved!

Ten (More) Ways to Make Your Rulebook Awesome

All new!

Improved!Maybe only actually

eight things!

Ten (More) Ways to Make Your Rulebook Awesome

All new!

Improved!Maybe only actually

eight things!But still like a hundred slides!

Ten (More) Ways to Make Your Rulebook Awesome

All new!

Improved!Maybe only actually

eight things!But still like a hundred slides!Don’t worry!

1. Say how you win.2. Give components some love.3. Use concrete language.4. Keep related elements close.5. Make what’s important obvious.6. Talk like a human.7. Be consistent. Painfully consistent.8. Go big, then small.9. Silo that info.10. Use all your tools.

Link at end.

Joshua Yearsley

Joshua Yearsley

Two Things

Structure

Structure

Lorem ipsum.Blah blah.Yadda yadda.

Text

Alright, get on with it!

1. Portion Your Rules

“Rules-ese”

NO: Cover every edge case, question, gray area, and quibble perfectly.

NO: Cover every edge case, question, gray area, and quibble perfectly.

WHY? Because it makes the essentials harder to grasp.

NO: Cover every edge case, question, gray area, and quibble perfectly.

INSTEAD: Build a simple, solid, intuitive foundation.

Build a simple, solid, intuitive foundation.

Build a simple, solid, intuitive foundation.

Make a Learn to Play book.

12 pages…

Rulebook

Rulebook

24 pages…

36 pages…

Rulebook

Learn to Play RulesReference

Rulebook

2. Signal Importance

Mechanics StrategyFAQsTips

Reference

Body Sidebars Examples

Body Sidebars Examples

Critical Non-critical

Common

Uncommon

Rulebook

Critical Non-critical

Common

Uncommon

Rulebook

Critical Non-critical

Common

Uncommon

Learn to Play

Critical Non-critical

Common

Uncommon

RulesReference

Critical Non-critical

Common

Uncommon

RulesReference

Learn to Play

RulesReference

STOP

STOP

Basic Rules

Additional Rules

Learn to Play

RulesReference

STOP

STOP

Cards exist.Cards are used for X during X.

Full anatomy and description of cards.

Card interactions.

Card rules exceptions.Extended card play examples.

Learn to Play RulesReference

3. Build a robust index

Learn to Play RulesReference

Learn to Play RulesReference

Narrative

Conceptual

Learn to Play RulesReference

Narrative

Conceptual

Complete

Linked

A, B, C…

✔Fury of Dracula (3E)

What it is.

✔Fury of Dracula (3E)

What it does.

✔Fury of Dracula (3E)

What it related.

4. Use tutorials carefully

TutorialText

TutorialText

RulesText

TutorialText

RulesText

TutorialText

TutorialText

RulesText

TutorialText

Basic Game

Basic Game

RunTutorialGame

Structure

Lorem ipsum.Blah blah.Yadda yadda.

Text

5. Use appropriate sentence types

Declarative

Imperative

Declarative

Imperative

Declarative

Imperative

Function

Declarative

“This happens.”

Declarative

Imperative

Imperative

“Do this.”

Declarative

Imperative

To play a Chaos card, a player simply does the following:

Chaos in the Old World

Declarative

To play a Chaos card, a player simply does the following:1. Chooses a card from his hand of

Chaos cards.

Chaos in the Old World

Declarative

To play a Chaos card, a player simply does the following:1. Chooses a card from his hand of

Chaos cards.2. Pays the selected card’s cost.

Chaos in the Old World

Declarative

To play a Chaos card, a player simply does the following:1. Chooses a card from his hand of

Chaos cards.2. Pays the selected card’s cost.3. Places the card on an empty

card space on any of the board’s nine regions and carries out its effects.

Chaos in the Old World

Declarative

To play a Chaos card, a player simply does the following:1. Chooses a card from his hand of

Chaos cards.2. Pays the selected card’s cost.3. Places the card on an empty

card space on any of the board’s nine regions and carries out its effects.

Chaos in the Old World

Declarative

ImperativeTo play a Chaos card, you:1. Choose a card from your hand of

Chaos cards.2. Pay the selected card’s cost.3. Place the card on an empty card

space on any of the board’s nine regions and carry out its effects.

ImperativeTo play a Chaos card:1. Choose a card from your hand of

Chaos cards.2. Pay the selected card’s cost.3. Place the card on an empty card

space on any of the board’s nine regions and carry out its effects.

✔

He?

She?

They?

Xi?

You!(implicit)

Declarative Imperative

(Third-person subject) (Second-person subject)

Imperative good?

Declarative bad?

Imperative good?

Declarative bad?

✔

✔

“Any player may grab the Totem.”

“All players flip their tiles at once.”

✔

6. Chunk concepts

✔Fury of Dracula (3E)

✔Fury of Dracula (3E)

✔Fury of Dracula (3E)

Cuba Libre

NominalizedTitles

Cuba Libre

ChunkedWell-ish

ChunkedBadly

Cuba Libre

7. Separate actions and concepts

✔Fury of Dracula (3E)

Action Rules

When a hunter performs a move action, he moves his figure on the board to indicate his new location, which must be either a city or a sea zone (see “What Are Locations?”).

✔Fury of Dracula (3E)

Concept Rules

Definitions / Concepts

Mechanic Mechanic

Interaction

Definitions / Concepts

Mechanic Mechanic

Interaction

Move Action

Definitions / Concepts

Mechanic Mechanic

Interaction

“What are locations?”

ConceptAction

SplitIntegrate

Action

Concept

ConceptAction

SplitIntegrate

Concept

Action

Action

Action

8. Define golden rules

You can do X.

You can do X. You can’t do X.

Definitions / Concepts

Mechanic Mechanic

Interaction

✔Imperial Assault

If a card or mission uses the word cannot, that effect is absolute and cannot be overridden by other effects.

Definitions / Concepts

Mechanic Mechanic

Interaction

Thank you!Questions?

www.joshuayearsley.com@joshuayearsley

editor@joshuayearsley.comFirst presentation: http://bit.ly/1Qlz7S1