The rulebook is the only gateway a designer or publisher can count on to introduce new players to a game. Sure there may be someone experienced with the game to teach it, but at some point, someone had to learn the game from a rulebook. This makes the rulebook so vital to the success of a game that it cannot be ignored. As a designer, I have been thinking at length about how best to layout rules so that players can learn the game and reference the rules for questions as they play. (This obviously applies mainly to complex games.)
This is a very hard thing to do. When explaining the flow of a game, a rule can end up needing to be in multiple places. Where do you put it? And how in depth do you explain it each time it comes up? What about rules that don’t have a good place? This makes for lots of redundancy and a thick, intimidating rulebook; not a good thing.
Rulebooks need to logically explain the flow of a game while at the same time putting all of the rules exactly where players would expect them for reference.
I could talk about all the different kinds of rule book styles out there, but I am going to skip that. There is a method that is old and new that I am really falling in love with. (Settlers of) Catan did it and now Fantasy Flight is doing it again. It is the 2 rulebooks style – a learn-to-play book and reference book.
I remember when I first received Imperial Assault and found this 2-rulebook structure. “This is FFG overkill again,” my brain said instantly. You might be 
thinking the same thing. Two rulebooks? That is sure to turn people off. And it might at first, but once people get used to it I think it will be a boon for our hobby.
Think about it. We are talking about a rulebook needing to do two very different things: teach the flow and provide a reference. Why not have a smaller learn to play book that teaches flow and a larger reference book that allows players to very easily answer their questions. This makes complete sense. Thinking back to Catan this worked out wonderfully. I didn’t have to go searching through the learn-to-play rules when I had a question. I could easily find it in the Almanac. FFG is taking this a step further by providing related topics at the end of each rule explanation and an index in the back to quickly find things.
The designer/publisher can then allow the learn to play book to focus on only that, putting rules only where they need to be for the flow of the game to be clear. Then it puts all of the rules in an alphabetical order in a reference book for easy reference. To me this is the ideal situation. It teaches clearly without getting too wordy and allows for quick and accurate reference. No more hunting through to find an obscure rule.
If I design a complex game (which is what I like to do) I will probably go this direction with the rulebook. It is actually something I already do. Before writing the rules, I create a document called Core Concepts which is an alphabetical listing of the concepts in the game so I can reference them as I write the rules. Now I just need to turn this into the rules reference. Even if this is something that is just put in the back of one rulebook, this would be a really handy reference for players.
What are your thoughts on rule books? What have you found to be most helpful about the rulebooks you have used?
The rules for Krosmaster Arena are fantastic. It does a very good job of taking a video game style tutorial and implementing it right inside of the rulebook. Krosmaster is a tactical game and it takes you through several mini scenarios without letting you encounter all of the possible rules at once. It reminds me of the first time I played Halo and it taught me to look around and move before they handed me a gun. In Krosmater’s rulebook you learn to move, and then to fight, and then special moves in three different 10 minute games. It makes learning the game part of the experience, instead of forcing you to have to bumble around the first few rounds of a game. This kind of approach would make me much more likely to want to teach people games, since most people are very unwilling to sit through an explanation and would rather be more actively engaged.
That is a great way to teach and learn a game. I feel like this is the direction that board games need to go to appeal to a larger audience. Not all games lend themselves this way, but the ones that do should provide this type of introduction.
My favourite rulebook is actually a step-up from the two-rulebook system in terms of overkill; Just give a reference book that contains the rules… And a second detailed tutorial, that has you setup the board and push bits around, explaining in detail some rules and having you look up others in the rulebook. The GMT Solo Game Navajo Wars does this, and is the absolute best rulebook I’ve ever used. It’s merely one of the best for reference, but for learning the game it is absolutely the best I’ve experienced. Which is good, considering it’s also the heaviest game I own.
Of course, to properly do this you have to make the tutorial cross reference the rules, which means you kind of need the good old numbered paragraph system which some people find terrifying to pull it off…