Icons or Text?

[Excalibur]

I'm looking at my current game and wondering if I should go to icons/pictures instead of text for describing attribute, attacks, defenses, and damage.

I'm leaning towards the images because it's far quicker for me to identify what I'm looking at and I don't have to think about it too hard. This makes me believe that by doing this, I am able to speed up gameplay a bit. So for instance instead of saying "Requirements: 3 Strength and 4 Dexterity," I can say something like, "(3)[Strength] (4)[Dexterity]." Where the numbers are in circles and [Strength] and [Dexterity] are images.

What do you think?

[David Berg]

In that particular example, I'd find reading very fast in either case.  In general, though, I love icons, provided it's clear enough what they represent.  Visuals (small icons, full-page images, varied layouts, and on and on) help me remember and (especially) find rules better than text does.

[Ar Kayon]

I like how icons are used for Elder Scrolls.  I personally think they help speed things up; go for it.

[Daniel B]

Would that be appropriate for tabletop roleplaying? Keep in mind, the players will want to reproduce the stats to communicate them, and numbers is a common language. Icons and symbols would require them to learn a new language.

That said, I *much* prefer icons in a suitable environment.

[Excalibur]

My current game is card and dice based and I have been leaning toward symbols for aspects of the game.

That being said, each person would receive a card with the icon and it's meaning. Such as:

[Strength]: Strength, how strong your character is and how much damage he is able to deal in combat.

Or something similar. I wasn't going to leave out a legend heh

I also think that symbols have a place in table-top role-playing as well, but not as much as in a fast-playing card game.

[RandomCitizenx]

I like the idea of using icons to convey keywords or more common words, especailly with the special dice or cards. The icons, however, need to be clear and unique. The time that is saved by introducing icons is utterly destroyed if there is any confusion between icons.

[Excalibur]

Agreed. I am planning to use some custom icons that are based off of standard card suits from the U.S. and abroad, chess, and also some that I am designing from scratch. They look completely different from each other and will have a smaller version so people can recognize them in normal text such as in the rulebook where the normal size of the icons would destroy the formatting of the text.

The larger, "on card" icons have 2-3 colors, pretty much the most that I can handle myself, any more and it begins to look like garbage. Are almost always surrounded by a disc of some sort, and are being made to be crisp and clear to view.

In addition to this, there are also icons to denote the function of a card such as Attack, Defense, Item, One-Use, Place, etc.

I playtested a game that used Futhark runes to represent aspects of the game. Such as a green "S" in Futhark meaning strength, the upside-down 'y' meaning magic ability, that sort of thing. It got me to thinking because I looked at the single symbol and knew what it meant instantly without having to read.

Sadly, we seem to be going back to a world of hieroglyphs...

[Finarvyn]

I think it comes down to the number of icons needed.

If you have 6 stats and each has an icon, you're fine. Players will figure them out quickly enough. However, if you have 64 skills and each has an icon then the players essentially have to learn a new language, and may not bother to play your game.

I have this problem sometimes with games written to use vocabulary which I don't consider commonplace. Filling up paragraphs of rules with words like "quintessence" instead of "soul" just tends to make a game less interesting to me. I remember the first D&D knock-offs trying to find alternate words for Strength, Intelligence, Wisdom, Constitution, Charisma, Dexterity, Armor Class, Level, Hit Poits, etc., and when they were done it often became unreadable to me.

I don't need flowerly language, what I need are rules I can understand.