A presentation by Joshua Yearsley, a professional rulebook editor and writer (www.joshuayearsley.com) at Metatopia 2015 on how to improve your game's rulebook.

1. Ten (More) Ways to Make Your
Rulebook Awesome

2. Ten (More) Ways to Make Your
Rulebook Awesome

3. Ten (More) Ways to Make Your
Rulebook Awesome

4. Ten (More) Ways to Make Your
Rulebook Awesome

5. Ten (More) Ways to Make Your
Rulebook Awesome

6. Ten (More) Ways to Make Your
Rulebook Awesome

7. 1. Say how you win.
2. Give components some love.
3. Use concrete language.
4. Keep related elements close.
5. Make what’s important obvious.
6. Talk like a human.
7. Be consistent. Painfully consistent.
8. Go big, then small.
9. Silo that info.
10. Use all your tools.
Link at end.

8. Joshua Yearsley

9. Joshua Yearsley

10. Two Things

11. Structure

12. Structure
Lorem ipsum.
Blah blah.
Yadda yadda.
Text

14. Alright, get on with it!

15. 1. Portion Your Rules

16. “Rules-ese”

18. NO: Cover every edge
case, question, gray area,
and quibble perfectly.

19. NO: Cover every edge
case, question, gray area,
and quibble perfectly.
WHY? Because it makes
the essentials harder to
grasp.

20. NO: Cover every edge
case, question, gray area,
and quibble perfectly.
INSTEAD: Build a simple,
solid, intuitive foundation.

21. Build a simple, solid,
intuitive foundation.

22. Build a simple, solid,
intuitive foundation.
Make a Learn to Play book.

23. 12 pages…
Rulebook

24. Rulebook
24 pages…

25. 36 pages…
Rulebook

28. Learn to Play
Rules
Reference
Rulebook

30. 2. Signal Importance

31. Mechanics Strategy
FAQsTips
Reference

33. Body Sidebars Examples

34. Body Sidebars Examples

35. Critical Non-critical
Common
Uncommon
Rulebook

36. Critical Non-critical
Common
Uncommon
Rulebook

37. Critical Non-critical
Common
Uncommon
Learn to Play

38. Critical Non-critical
Common
Uncommon
Rules
Reference

39. Critical Non-critical
Common
Uncommon
Rules
Reference

40. Learn to Play
Rules
Reference
STOP
STOP
Basic Rules
Additional Rules

41. Learn to Play
Rules
Reference
STOP
STOP
Cards exist.
Cards are used for X
during X.
Full anatomy and
description of cards.
Card interactions.
Card rules exceptions.
Extended card play
examples.

43. Learn to Play
Rules
Reference

44. 3. Build a robust index

45. Learn to Play
Rules
Reference

46. Learn to Play
Rules
Reference
Narrative
Conceptual

47. Learn to Play
Rules
Reference
Narrative
Conceptual
Complete
Linked

48. A, B, C…

49. ✔
Fury of Dracula (3E)
What it is.

50. ✔
Fury of Dracula (3E)
What it does.

51. ✔
Fury of Dracula (3E)
What it related.

52. 4. Use tutorials carefully

53. Tutorial
Text

54. Tutorial
Text
Rules
Text

55. Tutorial
Text
Rules
Text
Tutorial
Text

56. Tutorial
Text
Rules
Text
Tutorial
Text

57. Basic
Game

58. Basic
Game
Run
Tutorial
Game

60. Structure
Lorem ipsum.
Blah blah.
Yadda yadda.
Text

61. 5. Use appropriate sentence types

62. Declarative
Imperative

63. Declarative
Imperative

64. Declarative
Imperative
Function

65. Declarative

66. “This happens.”
Declarative

67. Imperative

68. Imperative
“Do this.”

69. Declarative
Imperative

70. To play a Chaos card, a player simply
does the following:
Chaos in the Old World
Declarative

71. To play a Chaos card, a player simply
does the following:
1. Chooses a card from his hand of
Chaos cards.
Chaos in the Old World
Declarative

72. To play a Chaos card, a player simply
does the following:
1. Chooses a card from his hand of
Chaos cards.
2. Pays the selected card’s cost.
Chaos in the Old World
Declarative

73. To play a Chaos card, a player simply
does the following:
1. Chooses a card from his hand of
Chaos cards.
2. Pays the selected card’s cost.
3. Places the card on an empty
card space on any of the board’s
nine regions and carries out its
effects.
Chaos in the Old World
Declarative

74. To play a Chaos card, a player simply
does the following:
1. Chooses a card from his hand of
Chaos cards.
2. Pays the selected card’s cost.
3. Places the card on an empty
card space on any of the board’s
nine regions and carries out its
effects.
Chaos in the Old World
Declarative

75. Imperative
To play a Chaos card, you:
1. Choose a card from your hand of
Chaos cards.
2. Pay the selected card’s cost.
3. Place the card on an empty card
space on any of the board’s nine
regions and carry out its effects.

76. Imperative
To play a Chaos card:
1. Choose a card from your hand of
Chaos cards.
2. Pay the selected card’s cost.
3. Place the card on an empty card
space on any of the board’s nine
regions and carry out its effects.
✔

77. He?
She?
They?
Xi?
You!
(implicit)
Declarative Imperative
(Third-person subject) (Second-person subject)

78. Imperative good?
Declarative bad?

79. Imperative good?
Declarative bad?

81. ✔

82. ✔

83. “Any player may grab the Totem.”
“All players flip their tiles at once.”
✔

84. 6. Chunk concepts

85. ✔
Fury of Dracula (3E)

86. ✔
Fury of Dracula (3E)

87. ✔
Fury of Dracula (3E)

88. Cuba Libre

89. Nominalized
Titles
Cuba Libre

90. Chunked
Well-ish
Chunked
Badly
Cuba Libre

91. 7. Separate actions and concepts

92. ✔
Fury of Dracula (3E)
Action Rules
When a hunter performs a move
action, he moves his figure on the
board to indicate his new location,
which must be either a city or a sea
zone (see “What Are Locations?”).

93. ✔
Fury of Dracula (3E)
Concept
Rules

94. Definitions / Concepts
Mechanic Mechanic
Interaction

95. Definitions / Concepts
Mechanic Mechanic
Interaction
Move Action

96. Definitions / Concepts
Mechanic Mechanic
Interaction
“What are locations?”

97. Concept
Action
SplitIntegrate
Action
Concept

98. Concept
Action
SplitIntegrate
Concept
Action
Action
Action

99. 8. Define golden rules

100. You can do X.

101. You can do X.
You can’t
do X.

102. Definitions / Concepts
Mechanic Mechanic
Interaction

103. ✔Imperial
Assault
If a card or mission uses the
word cannot, that effect is
absolute and cannot be
overridden by other effects.

104. Definitions / Concepts
Mechanic Mechanic
Interaction

105. Thank you!
Questions?
www.joshuayearsley.com
@joshuayearsley
editor@joshuayearsley.com
First presentation: http://bit.ly/1Qlz7S1