Presenting rules: Bullets vs Paragraphs

[Ken]

Hi-

I've been playtesting Ten-Cent Heroes for a few weeks now and have run into an issue with walk-up gamers. While running the demos I'll have someone come up and want to join in; no problem, make a character, here is copy of the rules & a character sheet. The problem comes when the play-to-be doesn't really read the chargen section and just starts filling out the character sheet any way they want. The fact that its happened more than once led me to believe that my directions may not be as clear as I thought; no problem, its an ashcan. So, what I did was make a comic book-style pamphlet with bullets that explain facts about each trait (how they are ranked, what the rank range is, that kind of stuff). That seemed to help.

I've been thinking about adding the bullets to the rule book for quick reference and maybe thinning out the text a bit. Its not a thick book, and I don't think you have to be a miner to dig out the gist of the mechanics, but hey, I already know the rules (most of them).

Has anybody else had clarity issues during playtesting (that may be as simple as players not ready the book), and what did you do to your rules (if anything) that helped solve the problem?

Thanks

Ken

[Hituro]

Oh yes, I've had all sorts of clarity issues

My biggest problem is stating something fairly clearly in a paragraph and then at the end making a throwaway comment that is supposed to compliment the rest but actually muddies the waters so far that people end up not knowing what I was saying. Or I make a 'cool' throwaway line that actually suggests a new rule and then don't follow up on it.

Back to the original question, I like bullets, they are clear, and they really do beat individual paragraphs that start 'first', 'second' , 'next' and so forth. However you have to use them sparingly, you can stand 4 or 5 on a page, but multiple pages of bullet points are death.

[Vulpinoid]

Your other good option here is to use text boxes with bullet points in them.

I've read plenty of books where the writing is atmospheric and really gets a player into the feeling of the game, but you've got to dig through two or three paragraphs of background information and colourful description to get something simple like "Elves get +1 to dexterity".

Don't get me wrong, I'd much rather have a paragraph about the gracefulness and elegance of an elf and how this translates into all of their actions. I think that removing a paragraph like this would turn the game into a vanilla clone like so many others that are around. But a lot of players who want to get into the game quickly won't want that kind of detail when they are generating their first character.

The solution I'm working with is to keep the flavour text (or fluff, or whatever term you use for it). But make an obvious and simple text box in the corner of the page that gives a concise explanation. You could even take this concept further by having a "cheat sheet" of rules at the back of each chapter (or even compile them at the end of the book). For example, you could have a combat overview sheet which gives you most of the details you need at a glance, similar for character generation, magic, etc. These sheets give you the basics to get started, but de;lving deeper into the pages of the book reveals the true richness of your world and system.

Just some ideas...

V

[Seth M. Drebitko]

But a lot of players who want to get into the game quickly won't want that kind of detail when they are generating their first character.

I have been experimenting with something along the lines of highlighting mechanical information within a paragraph black with white text so it plainly stands out from the fluff. This creates a quick easy to read page that is fullfiling to either those who want more or those who want less.
Regards, Seth

[tex]

What I do in Orp is always separate rules from the rest of the text.  It's kind of like this:

2.1 Parts of a Character

A character in terms of the game rules is really just
a structured piece of information (we'd call it a data
structure in computer programming lingo, but any-
way). In Orp, a character is defined as follows:

Rule 1: Characters. A character is described by
     six major parts: traits, resources, skills, knowl-
     edge, health, and experience. Each is specially
     defined below.

Most of the crunchy parts of an Orp character are
zero-average, which means that a zero is a perfectly
respectable value for a given value.

Theoretically, in this way it's always easy to know the key points of a given section.  The (possibly unrealistic) goal is for the rules blocks to be the only parts of the system that are "official", with the rest being examples, justifications, suggestions, and such like.  Campaigns would have to have additional information, such as skill and equipment lists, perhaps.

[FLEB]

I'm not sure how "deeply" the problem goes from your description: Are there mechanical "not following the rules"-type errors, or is it more that they fill out the sheet technically correct, but inconsistent with the theme or narrative of the game?

If it's problems of the first type, you might try designing a "sidecar" sheet, or an overlay for the actual character sheet that gives a one-by-one rundown superimposed with the actual paper you're working on. I did something a bit like this for a Mage CS a long time ago: http://rpg.pixelsaredead.com/mage-asc-charsheet-helper.pdf (PDF link). (Granted, this example is more of a mind-jog for an experienced player-- you'd probably want more information and a different layout, but that's the "overlay" concept I'm talking about.) You could also do something like many tax forms-- each fill-in field has a small number ("Box 1", "Box 2") that corresponds to a numbered list of paragraphs telling how to fill each one in.

[Ken]

I'm not sure how "deeply" the problem goes from your description: Are there mechanical "not following the rules"-type errors, or is it more that they fill out the sheet technically correct, but inconsistent with the theme or narrative of the game?

Most of my concerns fall under the first heading. The most common situation is connected to the Origin trait in my game. According to the rules, Origin has three facets, a rating which determines how many character flaws a character has, the number of bonus character creation points (or Idea Points) a player gets, and an archetype (which describes the type of events that conspired to empower or inspire the character). Most of my walk-ups just fill in whatever the heck they feel like, and have totally glossed over the mechanical elements of this trait. Another common mistake seems to be confusing rated traits with non-rated traits, which is probably just another symptom of speed reading.

I feel the trouble is mostly that when you have a walk-up at a demo, or whatever, they really don't have the time or inclination to read the rules in there entirety and try to skim as much as possible. The term may seem more narrative than quantifiable; so I'm sure that adds to the confusion (confusion which would be eliminated by reading the book). The rules, as they are written now, appear more focused on explaining each traits place in the system, and are less concerned with fast play (though once you read the text, I think it moves pretty quick).

What I've done so far is make a min-comic style handout that has info bullets on all of the traits. These bullets explain the details of each trait without having to read through the illustrative text. Essentially it sets up expectations for each trait to help player identify a wrong answer and steer them towards recording the appropriate info. What I'm thinking of doing, is adding comic-book style panels with all of the traits and include these bullets in the rules to kind of format the player's brain a bit, and help create specific expectations that the rules will fulfill once read (you'll still have to read the damn book).

I kind of feel that including formula for the traits may be a little too much. Once a player has made a character, doing it again is generally pretty easy. Character creation is pretty rules light (medium-rare, at least). I'm also thinking of adding a sample of character creation to help clear things up.

Now, with walk-ups there is still the case where the player's character concept doesn't fit the golden age comic book mold, but this can usually be driven to something more four color. In the real world, these players will either ignore this game or use it without the anacronistic setting; which is totally fine.

Thanks for the input. More experiences, observations, comments, or questions are welcome.

Take care,

Ken