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How Should RPG Books Be Organized?
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<blockquote data-quote="Staffan" data-source="post: 9177566" data-attributes="member: 907"><p>Generally speaking, I would like to have basic rules before character creation, but more specific rules afterward. So start by explaining how you roll dice, what the difference (if any) is between ability scores and skills, and stuff like that. If the ability scores don't need much description, you might put those here too. But things like the skill list (if there is one) and specific sub-systems should ideally come after character generation.</p><p></p><p>I could see having an abbreviated skill list before character creation too, without going into detail. So maybe the pre-chargen chapter has:</p><p></p><p><strong>Athletics</strong> — used for running, climbing, jumping, swimming, lifting, and things like that.</p><p></p><p>And then the skill chapter would go into actual rules for doing those things.</p><p></p><p>On a second note, I think the whole thing comes down to whether an RPG rule book should primarily <strong>teach</strong> the game, or be a <strong>reference</strong> book for looking things up. Those require rather different approaches. Some moderately rules-heavy board games actually come with two rule books for precisely this reason: one "Learn to play" and one "Rules reference". This works fine when you have a 16-page Learn to play and a 32-page Rules Reference, but less fine when you're dealing with 256+ pages. But you could still have parts of the book being more about guiding the player and others being more referential.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Staffan, post: 9177566, member: 907"] Generally speaking, I would like to have basic rules before character creation, but more specific rules afterward. So start by explaining how you roll dice, what the difference (if any) is between ability scores and skills, and stuff like that. If the ability scores don't need much description, you might put those here too. But things like the skill list (if there is one) and specific sub-systems should ideally come after character generation. I could see having an abbreviated skill list before character creation too, without going into detail. So maybe the pre-chargen chapter has: [B]Athletics[/B] — used for running, climbing, jumping, swimming, lifting, and things like that. And then the skill chapter would go into actual rules for doing those things. On a second note, I think the whole thing comes down to whether an RPG rule book should primarily [B]teach[/B] the game, or be a [B]reference[/B] book for looking things up. Those require rather different approaches. Some moderately rules-heavy board games actually come with two rule books for precisely this reason: one "Learn to play" and one "Rules reference". This works fine when you have a 16-page Learn to play and a 32-page Rules Reference, but less fine when you're dealing with 256+ pages. But you could still have parts of the book being more about guiding the player and others being more referential. [/QUOTE]
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