DToW #7 (Player Aids)

Why are we talking about Player Aids?  Isn't that something people on BGG put together for published games?

I decided to broach this subject because I have read and heard some other designers talking about how important it is to write down the rules early in the process.  There are lots of benefits, like:

• Understanding when you have a difficult concept (putting it down on paper brings that out)
• Remembering the rules if you put the prototype away for a while
• Getting someone else to read them and help you figure out where they are confusing
• Just the process of writing something will sometimes bring out it's flaws

These are all valid points, but I don't write the rules early in the process, and I started thinking about why.  Part of it is having a design partner lets me talk over lots of game concepts.  If something is hard to verbalize, or there are lots of questions about it, you will figure out really quickly that your concept needs to be revised.  Read more about that here DToW #3 (Co-Design).

The other reason I don't write the full rules is that I write detailed Player Aids very early.  After my first playtest I will usually have a fully flushed out Player Aid.  Here are some additional benefits to the Player Aid, above what you get from just writing the rules:

• Something to give to playtesters that they can look at quickly while you go over the rules
• Something you can look at yourself to find a key rule
• An outline for when you do write the rules
• You rules are fluctuating so much at this point that a Player Aid is much easier to update than a full set of rules

How big are these Player Aids?

I like to keep mine to a half a page.  I will include a couple of examples below. 

As you can see I have them divided into card sized quarters.  I will try to use as few cards as possible, but this lets me know when the rules for any one thing are getting too complicated, or I have too many symbols.  I sometimes start with just a round summary on one card and grow from there.

For The Last Bastion I have an End of Round summary on the First Player Marker.  This lets me kill 2 birds with one stone.  One less component and having a quick reminder right there on the table without taking up more space.

What should you put on them to make them useful?

I usually don't put exceptions, unless they come up a lot.  I just want the basics of the rules. Things like:

• A Round Summary
• End Game Conditions/ Scoring
• Action Summaries
• Symbol Summaries
• Cover any key phase of the game more in depth
• Cover key cards if you have space (better to make one big exception you can apply to multiple cards if possible though)

If your Player Aid is done right, it should be directly translatable to the rule book.  The key concepts will be described in more detail in the rules, but the wording should be directly translatable.

What else?

Nothing this week.  As always if you have comments please post them below, reach out to us on Twitter @MVPBoardgames, or by e-mail: MVPBoardgames@gmail.com.  Also, we will be at the Unpub Mini in Virginia this Saturday 6/21/14, come out and see us.

Next week I will be talking about what I learned at the Unpub Mini.  Until then, I am Peter, keep designing great games.