Example First

[Roger]

A typical RPG manual consists primarily of rules, with some examples of play used to illustrate and clarify them.  However, there's no reason why this relationship couldn't be reversed.

I'm suggesting a manual consisting primarily of examples of play, with some rules described to illustrate and clarify them.

This is a thought-experiment at this point, though I would like to give it a try in the real world by writing a game manual in this style.  Perhaps it would be more useful to rewrite (that is to say, paraphrase) a game system, so that there are two manuals to compare against each other.

Comments on this idea are, of course, welcome.


Cheers,
Roger

[xenopulse]

I think that's a great idea. Too many books have too few examples. I want to open the game book and find out how the game plays and what kind of potential it has.

[Bankuei]

Hi Roger,

I think a really great example that hasn't been brought over here yet is many rpgs in Japan will include examples of play- in a comic format.  These instructions typically show what the players are doing at the table, as well as what's going on "in game".  

Chris

[FzGhouL]

Its a good idea.
*Sigh* reminds me of my game though, which has not a single example in 45 pages of instruction, and no rule is repeated twice, and no background of the game is introduced.

I envy you if you can make an effective instruction booklet going from the reverse order.

[Darcy Burgess]

I also think that it's a wonderful idea.

However, beware of one pitfall -- inability to index or reference rules!

It's not a direct example, but Dream Pod Nine's Tribe 8 RPG uses this format for their "world description" section -- the whole background is given through anecdotes and stories from the perspective of major and minor NPCs in the gameworld.

It's an incredibly effective way of conveying the information -- so long as you sit down and read 50+ pages of information.  And because there isn't a "this is what such and such looks like" section, there's no easy way to look stuff up down the road.

I can foresee a similar problem for you in your example/rule idea.  Just watch out for it, as it could make your rules section unwieldy as a reference text.

[Mark D. Eddy]

Of course this is why God, in Her infinite wisdom, allowed us poor mortals to invent indexes and quick reference sheets.

As long as both are comprehensive, understandable, and accessible, I don't foresee a problem with this idea. Or summaries at the end of each section. Of course, there is the issue of making sure you don't miss anything vital...

[daMoose_Neo]

lol- Nice God reference considering what I was about to suggest: Biblical style markups.
Chapter X line Y: "And twenty seaons after the fall of the Capital the Orcs swarmed across the remaining lands" - the primary key being the time of the Orc invasion.

[kaikatsu]

It would be even more interesting if the examples were all iconic characters and/or setting layers, so that by the time you've read all the examples (and the corrisponding sidebars that contain the rules) you not only know how to play the game, but also have the backstory too.

I can SO tell this wouldn't work for what I'm doing at the moment, but there are some cases where I think it would work really well.  If someone pulls this off, I want to hear about it!

[HereticalFaction]

I like the idea of an RPG in the form of a novel where the "rules" are simply sidebars about the method of plot construction... But, having read someone else's game first, before encountering the system as a range of options, would players find it dificult to create compelling games with charachters/situations OTHER than those in the "instructions"?

[Callan S.]

If it were a more sim orientated game and given Rons idea of 'Reading a sim book is actual play', I wonder what would happen in this case?

[Roger]

It warms my heart to hear so much positive feedback!  I'll try to touch on some of the points that have come up:

Indexing/Referencing problems:  This is a very good point.  A good index would be very helpful, I think.  To get a bit self-referential about the whole thing, one of the play examples could show people looking something up in this very manual, which might be fun just for its own sake.

Manual as Novel:  To be fair, this really isn't my idea per se.  I'm not suggesting presenting the manual as the story of what happens (what some would call an In-Character account) but rather more like a literal transcript of what the players are saying about their characters (which is to say, more like an Out-of-Character account.)

I think either might work.  My intent here, though, is to efficiently show a new reader how the game looks and works in action.  Ideally, if the examples were extensive enough, they might require no explicit rules clarifications at all.  No amount of In-Character fiction would lead a reader to understanding the underlying rules, in my opinion.

Thanks for the further food for thought, folks.


Cheers,
Roger

[Brendan]

Hmm.  I know this stopped being cool in about 1995, but this discussion really makes me wonder what one could accomplish by blending rules and examples with hypertext.  The nice things about a book, of course, are that you can pass it around a table and hold it and it smells nice and it's easier on the eyes.  But what if you unbound the book and made the index references actual links?

Consider:  The title page has two outlines, one for the example of play and another for the bare-bones rules.  This is the index:  the outline allows the reader to skip to any given page or topic, and each of those pages has links at the bottom to the pages before and after itself.

Meanwhile, within the pages, the actual text is filled with hyperlink cross-references.  When the example GM says "roll for stunt success," it's an anchor tag that goes to the Conflict Resolution:  Stunts subtopic in the ruleset; if you don't want to interrupt your reading of the thrilling play example to check that, you can ignore it or pop it up in a Firefox tab and come back to it later.  When the ruleset comes to Opposed Skill Tests, you could have "for example, two players might attempt to best each other in a poetry contest," and "poetry contest" is linked to the poetry contest in the example of play.

This kind of system would allow for hardcore intuitive, hardcore logical and in-between players (like myself) to approach the rules as they found it easiest.  You could read through the entire game without ever seeing a clearly defined rule, if you wanted, or you could read the ruleset without ever contaminating it with somebody else's ideas of how it would be used.

Actually, I think this would be an excellent use for a wiki, and I will very likely incorporate something along these lines whenever I get my own design wiki off the ground.

Of course, there's always the annoying fact that a bound book can be shared around a table more easily than a monitor, and that it's just basically easier to read books than screens.  One idea:  what about two books, The Rules and The Example?   If you could write them at roughly the same length and have the page numbers simply correspond, you could just lay out both books on your desk and turn the pages simultaneously.  When you wanted to check something in the book you weren't reading, you'd just look across to the other book and see what was there.  Granted, this could make for a very linear play example (or a somewhat-confusing rulebook), but it wouldn't be impossible.

Another idea:  you could write the whole rulebook as an example of play on all the even-numbered pages, and put short rules descriptions on the odd pages, like annotated copies of Shakespeare.  That would make the index even more critical, though.

[Umberhulk]

How about including a CD or DVD with actual real people playing the game for examples?  Digital camcorders are getting pretty cheap.   Like when you learn an Xbox game, the instuctions are told to you and you are shown on the screen at the same time.

[contracycle]

Chapter X line Y: "And twenty seaons after the fall of the Capital the Orcs swarmed across the remaining lands" - the primary key being the time of the Orc invasion.

I thinjk thats a good idea.  And what with the bible having some chapters of pretty boring "how to run a household" stuff, thats where the actual rules might be conducted.  Furthermore, the text from inspired unchallengeable wisdom - rather like that of the game designer describing the rules.  the RULES could appear as all the "thous shalt nots".

[Mike Holmes]

I agree with Eggo about the problem of presentation. I absolutely despised reading the Tribe 8 rule book because of this presentation. I kept falling asleep, actually. Took me days to get through it.

I don't agree that an index solves this problem, because it's not just one of referencing, it's one of the presentation being boring. See, people like me don't like to read examples. I use them only when I don't get what the text is telling me, or if I feel I need a clarification on something. To date, I haven't read half of the examples in the HQ rulebook, and have played dozens of sessions.

Now with a really engaging example, that's very light on color, and sticks to the system principles being applied, and that it also hypertexted...that I might be able to deal with. But realize that there are some freaks like me for whom this approach would be bad. People like me who like reading textbooks.

Mike