Rick Thornquist: You Never Get a Second Chance…

... to make a first impression, or so the saying goes.  When it comes to games, many people’s first impressions come from the bits.  With me, it comes from the rules.  If I start reading a set of rules and they aren’t any good, I’ll often just toss the game aside and move onto something else.  If I don’t have the game yet and someone tells me the rules are crummy, I won’t even bother with it.  There are just too many good games with good rules to bother with the ones with bad rules.  Also, if the publisher didn’t take the time to put together decent rules, why would I waste my time with their game?

What brought this to mind is a new game from Atlas Games called Grand Tribunal.  In this case I haven’t read the rules myself, but I’ve heard enough horror stories about them to not even bother with the game.  I’ve heard there’s a FAQ on the Atlas Games website that clears up at least some of the problems, but as far as I’m concerned that’s too little too late.  Why the heck did they not do it right in the first place?

This is not the first time this has happened to me, nor will I expect it to be the last.  I remember a few years ago I bought a game called Theophrastus from Mayfair Games.  I did attempt to read the rules of this one but they were bizarrely written and completely incomprehensible to me.  I started to work on an alternate set of rules but then thought - why bother?  Why should I do the work that the publisher should have done in the first place?  That game is still on my shelf - unplayed - and I’m still annoyed that I wasted good money on it.

Incidentally, both Grand Tribunal and Theophrastus are from the same designer - P. R. Chase.  Coincidence?  Good question.

Other examples of bad rules:

Hidden Conflict from Twilight Creations.  The buzz on the rulebook was so bad I just avoided the game altogether. 

Siena from ZuGames and Z-Man Games.  I actually got a copy of this game before last Essen and I remember sitting down with the rulebook trying to learn it.  I literally was reading every sentence over and over trying to figure out what was going on.  I finally gave up.  I did get taught the game at Essen, but never wanted to play it again because I didn’t want to have to go back to that rulebook.  To their credit, Z-Man games rewrote the rules and posted them, but by that time I felt I’d already spent too much effort on the game and moved on.

I see these games on the shelves at my local game store.  It makes me cringe thinking that someone may buy one of them and actually try to play it with the rules in the box.  If they haven’t played any other new boardgames, a bad experience like that can turn them off boardgames forever.

Here’s some hints for publishers.  First off all, send the rules to as many people as you can to proofread them.  We’re not talking playtesters here, who know the rules, they should be sent to other gamers who know what a good set of rules looks like.  Secondly, as soon as you think you have a complete set of rules, post them on your website.  There’s a pretty good chance that gamers will be download them and check them out for you.  If the rules are crummy, they’ll be sure to let you know.

Of course, with all this proofreading, mistakes may still get through.  Some of them make me laugh - I remember reading the rules of Descent and wondering how many cards the Overlord starts with.  The answer?  Who knows, it’s not in the rules (the FAQ revealed the answer - three).  There are other classic cases of mistakes in rules - Dracula, Odin’s Ravens, the list is endless.  These mistakes, while bothersome, can possibly be excused as game rules are complicated and it’s difficult to catch absolutely everything.

Something that happened to me recently is a good example of this.  I received a pre-release copy of a game and read the rules.  There was a mistake in an example - not super serious, but a mistake nonetheless.  I emailed the designer and he was very surprised, to say the least - the rules had been proofread numerous times and no one else had caught the error.

Minor mistakes are annoying, but I can live with them.  Incomprehensible rulebooks, though, I can’t.  The lesson here for publishers?  Get your rules proofread - by as many people as possible.

Games Played
This week would have been a complete write-off game-wise had it not been for the fabulous Drexoll Games 24 Hour Game Night.  Drexoll is my local game store and the 24 Hour game night is a yearly even they put on.  This year it took place at their recently opened second store in a Vancouver suburb (while hearing about other games stores struggling or closing, it’s good to see one that is going strong and expanding).  I don’t know exactly how many people showed up, but it must have been at least 60 or 70, and 14 hardy souls made it the full 24 hours (I, needing my beauty sleep, was not one of them).

Games played last week and during the event included Puerto Rico, Medici, Coloretto, Elfenland, Taj Mahal, Blue Moon City, Yspahan, Shadows Over Camelot, Blokus Trigon, Ingenious, and Ra.

A quick note on Yspahan.  This one is the next game coming from Ystari, the folks responsible for Caylus and Mykerinos.  This was my first playing of a prototype of the game - I hope to get in a number of more playings in the near future.  I’ll need to get clearance from the publisher before I talk about the game in detail, but I think he won’t mind me saying that I did like it, as did the others that I played with like it quite a lot.

That’s it for this week!

© 2006 Rick Thornquist

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Comments:

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Hi Rick I perfectly agree with you. I really enjoy games rules when they are well written and the first impression come from there (really, the first first impression, if the rules are not available online, come from the box!). I think, most for new designers and new company, it is really a good hint to point out the importance of good rules! good play to all! Liga Posted by Andrea Liga Ligabue on Aug 1, 2006 at 04:07 AM | #

Hi Rick, I remember working the rules of a game in which each sentence read created 3 new questions, the game ended up being unplayable.  Could some of the problem lie in verbatim translations done by people who may understand the language, but don’t play the game?  Glad to see you still play Puerto Rico, Medici, Taj Mahal and Ra.  They must be on your timeless classics list! Cheers, William Posted by William Field on Aug 1, 2006 at 08:01 AM | #

One thing that designers and publishers should be doing is blind testing the rules.  This is a form playtesting where the designer is not present and the playtesters must learn the game from reading the rules alone.  Proofreading the rules will only get you so far - that catches spelling mistakes and grammatical errors, but is no substitute for a good blind playtest.  When players sit down with a brand new game and actually have to figure out all the elements of the game with nothing to turn to save the rule book, you quickly find the weak spots and omissions. Posted by Brett Myers on Aug 1, 2006 at 01:15 PM | #

I agree wholeheartedly with my brother Brett.  I participated recently in such a blindtest by MMP for _A Victory Lost_, a relatively simple hex-and-counter wargame.  A number of important clarifications were caught that will hopefully work their way into the final ruleset. As most will agree, Eurogames as well as wargames end up with points of unclarity that blindtesting in all languages would be helpful to reduce (In the Shadow of the Emperor comes to mind). Posted by Jeffrey D Myers on Aug 1, 2006 at 05:38 PM | #

I’ll throw out props to Days of Wonder for their meticulous attention to detail on rules sets.  Well illustrated too… with a strong emphasis on bridging understanding to the more difficult aspects of game play.  Although their earlier versions needed some work, the former Eagle Games “later version” rules sets were very well done too.  In particular, “Conquest of the Empire” and “Railroad Tycoon”. Second props to our own W. Eric Martin.  If he writes it, I am very confident that I will always understand it.  Excellent technical writer. Winner’s Circle is just one example of his work that I have come in contact with that was very well done and readable. Posted by Ryan Bretsch on Aug 1, 2006 at 07:02 PM | #

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