Presentation and Rules Are Different Things

[Thomas Shey]

I've met people who read RPG books cover to cover. I simply can't: I always eventually get tremendously bored.

I read what I need to so I can learn to play, and use it as reference later.

I can't even say its that, since I read plenty of rulebooks I'll likely never play. Sometimes I end up reading them in pretty good detail over time, too (Eclipse Phase or Sabre Fantasy come to mind here) but just chonking through in a row just often is a poor way for me to absorb them. But then, again, I also suspect strongly I'm ADHD, so...

 

[Thomas Shey]

I am afraid that people that don't read cover to cover end up missing important bits, and often end up blaming the game for being "incomplete" or "poorly designed." I don't really trust people who think they just know everything they might need to know. Game design is hard and designed invest a lot of time and energy getting it right, and usually they put stuff in because it matters.

But then, often it seems like no one cares less about game design than half of RPG players. (The other half care, but don't actually understand it.)

Well, do note I'll almost always read a game I'm genuinely interested in all the way through at some point; I just don't do so sequentially or all at once (as in, I'll read the core parts, put it down, come back and possibly reread the core part and read another section in more detail, put it down, rinse, repeat).

 

[MichaelSomething]

I have no idea what your ideal layout would be unless you write a TTRPG yourself.

 

[Bae'zel]

I am afraid that people that don't read cover to cover end up missing important bits, and often end up blaming the game for being "incomplete" or "poorly designed."

Counterpoint: some game books ARE incomplete or poorly designed!

Some people don't know how to write properly, or organize content well, or make proper indices.

Excessive purple prose, overly scholarly text, pretentious wording, burying key rules in walls of text without headings or bullet lists… we’ve all seen these patterns before and they can be a deterrent to reading or learning a game fully.

I’ve met people who love Mythras but have visual impairments and can’t read the tiny fonts without tremendous difficulty.

It isn't always a user problem.

That aside, I simply won’t read everything in one go. I have no interest in reading everything single spell, every monster entry, unless I have a need to.

 

[Reynard]

That aside, I simply won’t read everything in one go. I have no interest in reading everything single spell, every monster entry, unless I have a need to.

Does this ever cause you problems, like operating on assumptions that turn out to be wrong when you finally need to look something up?

 

[Umbran]

Does this ever cause you problems, like operating on assumptions that turn out to be wrong when you finally need to look something up?

Should we expect it to?
Or, perhaps more importantly is reading it once going to prevent that? Unlikely.

A read through is nice, sure. It will increase understanding and all, definitely. But most of us don't have eidetic memory, so it isn't a silver bullet. A read-through is no substitute for hands-on experience and many instances of working with the material over time. When it comes to developing system mastery, reading it through once is only a start. And until you have mastery... you should expect to get it wrong sometimes.

 

[Reynard]

Should we expect it to?
Or, perhaps more importantly is reading it once going to prevent that? Unlikely.

A read through is nice, sure. It will increase understanding and all, definitely. But most of us don't have eidetic memory, so it isn't a silver bullet. A read-through is no substitute for hands-on experience and many instances of working with the material over time. When it comes to developing system mastery, reading it through once is only a start. And until you have mastery... you should expect to get it wrong sometimes.

I was thinking more about new editions and similar games,where the danger of misapplying old information is much higher. But if you read through those spells (or whatever) the ones that are different will pop out. Later you might not remember it exactly, but you will remember that it was different and look it up instead of assuming.

 

[Bae'zel]

Does this ever cause you problems, like operating on assumptions that turn out to be wrong when you finally need to look something up?

I honestly just want to keep the game moving, so I make a ruling and move on. If, later on, I find out I was wrong? Oops, I communicate the error to my players and move on.

We don’t really care that much. I don’t play with pedantic rules lawyers who get too upset if this happens once in a while.

As an aside, I do know how to look up rules if I need to. I insist that you can be a competent RPG player without an encyclopedic eidetic memory.

 

[Thomas Shey]

I was thinking more about new editions and similar games,where the danger of misapplying old information is much higher. But if you read through those spells (or whatever) the ones that are different will pop out. Later you might not remember it exactly, but you will remember that it was different and look it up instead of assuming.

That's exactly where reading the material is, barring really major changes in major sections, least likely to help. I've had cases where I, and three or four rules-conscious people read a section of a book multiple times, and still managed to get it wrong until one of us happened to read it again and a bit of language finally clicked, and that's most easy when reading a new version of a game you're already familiar with, since your brain will fill it in the way you expect it. I've had this happen with the Hero System, RuneQuest and probably other systems I'm forgetting.

This is an area where a "What's New?" document is very potentially useful, but when you've got a game system that makes a lot of changes it can be impractical.

 

[Autumnal]

I wish all rpg tomes came it two formats: one with art, lore, fluff and walls of text, and one in a strict tech manual format like Old School essentials.

This is a big part of why I’ve become a devotee of digest-sized books, and epubs. They provide fewer opportunities for kinds of layout that will make it hard for me to read and use a game book. As an example, Ironsworn (which is free in PDF, so folks can check me on this) and Starsworn (and Sundered Isle) are among the most beautiful gaming books I own, and have crystal-clear, easy-to-read, easy-to-use layouts.