What makes a gaming book fun to read?
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Jack7
First Post
I guess with me it is a number of things.
Usefulness - When I'm reading it do things in the book strike me as being able to be usefully applicable to real life, if they were changed around.
Associations and Allusions - I like allusions and associations to things like real life mythology, hosiery, religion, science (if applicable), folktales and legends, mystery, etc. I personally don't game to escape or divert myself from life, I game as a sort of extension of other things I do in life. So good strong associations are important to me. I have no interest in a game or a milieu or setting that is totally fantasy based, or divorced from reality. Rather I like an extension of reality in which it is possible to explore real world problems in a different way, setting, or context. I like a game that helps establish such criteria for problem solving, and I like a gaming book that is more concerned with overall usefulness than mechanics. (Though good mechanics are important, they are the easiest thing to me change and manipulate according to taste - it takes little effort to envelop better metahetmtcoial models than most games use, but a bad gaming philosophy means the whole game has to be redesigned to be useful - that is to say it is far easier to tweak numbers and formulae than it is to modify an overall bad design. Same with a book. It is very easy to change the numbers in the book, very hard to change a badly written and conceived book into something useful. Better in that case to just write your own and far better book.)
Interesting and Stimulating to Read - I prefer books that are interesting to read and multi-layered, rather than those that read like dry, anemic, and linearly designed textbooks with just a one dimensional application. In college I almost universally skipped reading textbooks altogether, for that very reason. If in psychology class I read Jung, not a textbook about psychology. If in physics class or mathematics I read the Principia, and skipped all that useless textbook crap, which was often filled with erroneous interpretations anyway. (It has often been my suspicion that many people who write textbooks never read the original work they are discussing, certainly not all of it, they just simply read what someone else had said about the original work. In other words many textbook writers make a living simply by writing books about other books. I often seem to see the seem general process at work in many game designs and books about gaming. Nothing really original written, no original methods of presentation either, just stock formula repackaged in a different form. More like a redesign of an old design in a different facade than a new paradigm being presented.)
If I was in religion or philosophy class I read scriptures or the Philokalia, or the Republic, or the Novum Organum. I hate textbooks (because for the most part they are as useless as they are often wrong) and I hate gaming books that are set up like textbooks. For that kinda stuff I prefer just plain old chart and graph books, and computer programs.
That was one thing I really liked about Gygax. Yes, there were charts and graphs and mathematical formulae (though crude) but they integrated pragmatically and practically into the overall work, they were not the overall work. It was more like reading an original Work or an Opus when Gygax wrote about gaming, than reading a stupid textbook or technical manual. Almost more like reading a piece of literature about the concepts and philosophy of role play gaming, or viewing a piece of artwork in motion, than reading a table of functions.
Interesting Methods of Combat, Wargaming, Negotiation, Maneuver, and Espionage. If it's gonna involve tactical wargaming then it ought to be interesting and challenging when it comes to combat, and to conflict resolution.
Innovation and Originality, or an original reinterpretation on an old problem
Good artwork and graphics. If I could I would have all really good gaming books be something more alike illuminated manuscripts than cartoon blocks.
With me, and overall, I think it is about integration.
If the game integrates with my overall life, and is not a sort of second life or just a diversionary enterprise, then I like that. I can usually tell by reading the gaming manuals (and I wish more game books were more like Gygax's original Handbooks and Guides than mere technical manuals about gaming operations and functions) if the game itself will be useful to me.
Usefulness - When I'm reading it do things in the book strike me as being able to be usefully applicable to real life, if they were changed around.
Associations and Allusions - I like allusions and associations to things like real life mythology, hosiery, religion, science (if applicable), folktales and legends, mystery, etc. I personally don't game to escape or divert myself from life, I game as a sort of extension of other things I do in life. So good strong associations are important to me. I have no interest in a game or a milieu or setting that is totally fantasy based, or divorced from reality. Rather I like an extension of reality in which it is possible to explore real world problems in a different way, setting, or context. I like a game that helps establish such criteria for problem solving, and I like a gaming book that is more concerned with overall usefulness than mechanics. (Though good mechanics are important, they are the easiest thing to me change and manipulate according to taste - it takes little effort to envelop better metahetmtcoial models than most games use, but a bad gaming philosophy means the whole game has to be redesigned to be useful - that is to say it is far easier to tweak numbers and formulae than it is to modify an overall bad design. Same with a book. It is very easy to change the numbers in the book, very hard to change a badly written and conceived book into something useful. Better in that case to just write your own and far better book.)
Interesting and Stimulating to Read - I prefer books that are interesting to read and multi-layered, rather than those that read like dry, anemic, and linearly designed textbooks with just a one dimensional application. In college I almost universally skipped reading textbooks altogether, for that very reason. If in psychology class I read Jung, not a textbook about psychology. If in physics class or mathematics I read the Principia, and skipped all that useless textbook crap, which was often filled with erroneous interpretations anyway. (It has often been my suspicion that many people who write textbooks never read the original work they are discussing, certainly not all of it, they just simply read what someone else had said about the original work. In other words many textbook writers make a living simply by writing books about other books. I often seem to see the seem general process at work in many game designs and books about gaming. Nothing really original written, no original methods of presentation either, just stock formula repackaged in a different form. More like a redesign of an old design in a different facade than a new paradigm being presented.)
If I was in religion or philosophy class I read scriptures or the Philokalia, or the Republic, or the Novum Organum. I hate textbooks (because for the most part they are as useless as they are often wrong) and I hate gaming books that are set up like textbooks. For that kinda stuff I prefer just plain old chart and graph books, and computer programs.
That was one thing I really liked about Gygax. Yes, there were charts and graphs and mathematical formulae (though crude) but they integrated pragmatically and practically into the overall work, they were not the overall work. It was more like reading an original Work or an Opus when Gygax wrote about gaming, than reading a stupid textbook or technical manual. Almost more like reading a piece of literature about the concepts and philosophy of role play gaming, or viewing a piece of artwork in motion, than reading a table of functions.
Interesting Methods of Combat, Wargaming, Negotiation, Maneuver, and Espionage. If it's gonna involve tactical wargaming then it ought to be interesting and challenging when it comes to combat, and to conflict resolution.
Innovation and Originality, or an original reinterpretation on an old problem
Good artwork and graphics. If I could I would have all really good gaming books be something more alike illuminated manuscripts than cartoon blocks.
With me, and overall, I think it is about integration.
If the game integrates with my overall life, and is not a sort of second life or just a diversionary enterprise, then I like that. I can usually tell by reading the gaming manuals (and I wish more game books were more like Gygax's original Handbooks and Guides than mere technical manuals about gaming operations and functions) if the game itself will be useful to me.
Doug McCrae
Legend
1) A high idea to text ratio. Examples: Ken Hite's Suppressed Transmission, Over the Edge, almost anything about Glorantha.
2) Good writing. Examples: Over the Edge, Amber, almost any Chaosium product.
Crunch heavy books are completely different and shouldn't be read in the same way. They are like manuals or textbooks. You look for the specific bit of info you want, you don't read them straight through, like Chris Pramas tried to do with the 4e PHB. They are not fun reads, they're not supposed to be, any more than the rules of Monopoly or M:tG are supposed to be fun reads. The fun resides in the playing.
PS Gary's writing sucks.
2) Good writing. Examples: Over the Edge, Amber, almost any Chaosium product.
Crunch heavy books are completely different and shouldn't be read in the same way. They are like manuals or textbooks. You look for the specific bit of info you want, you don't read them straight through, like Chris Pramas tried to do with the 4e PHB. They are not fun reads, they're not supposed to be, any more than the rules of Monopoly or M:tG are supposed to be fun reads. The fun resides in the playing.
PS Gary's writing sucks.
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kitsune9
Adventurer
For crunch, I like examples that facilitate play so I can see how a mechanic works and also be provided an interesting story. Also in rulebooks, I like how there maybe a beginning intro for each chapter to continue to capture the "feel" of the game. Warhammer FRP 2e has a lot of these cool stories and they a frickin' awesome in helping capture the rules and feel of the game. I actually have reread them several times.
Pathfinder does the same for their new final corebook with a very short intro for each chapter.
WotC did a little bit with Tome of Horrors.
Anima the RPG also had some of those that were okay.
So even if a game designer has to present rules that read like VCR instructions written in Swahili, a little presentation in examples or a story makes it go a long way for me.
For fluff stuff, a mixture of narrative and historical presentation are what works for me. I don't like to read a setting book that reads more like a Social Studies book. I like to get a perspective of a native writing on the topic at hand. I think that works best for me in what I like to read in game books.
Pathfinder does the same for their new final corebook with a very short intro for each chapter.
WotC did a little bit with Tome of Horrors.
Anima the RPG also had some of those that were okay.
So even if a game designer has to present rules that read like VCR instructions written in Swahili, a little presentation in examples or a story makes it go a long way for me.
For fluff stuff, a mixture of narrative and historical presentation are what works for me. I don't like to read a setting book that reads more like a Social Studies book. I like to get a perspective of a native writing on the topic at hand. I think that works best for me in what I like to read in game books.
The authorial voice is, in my opinion, the most important part. Generally, a slightly informal voice, and one that is consistent throughout a given section of the book, makes a book a lot more fun to read. Tone and vocabulary that fits in with the setting also helps a lot.
Anecdotes or quotes from characters in the world. Short fictional pieces that give a feel for the world.
Mechanics and setting that mesh well.
A large idea to word ratio.
Suitable repetition of names/ideas/setting information so that important facts are not hard to find when you look for them later. Interlinking of ideas so that they are not all disjointed.
Anecdotes or quotes from characters in the world. Short fictional pieces that give a feel for the world.
Mechanics and setting that mesh well.
A large idea to word ratio.
Suitable repetition of names/ideas/setting information so that important facts are not hard to find when you look for them later. Interlinking of ideas so that they are not all disjointed.
Rykion
Explorer
Art, art, then some more art. I want inspirational art, and I want every item in the gear section represented with art. I want interesting background and rules written in a casual tone. I don't want the rules written in character, that just gets too cheesy and is often hard to follow. I want a single column of main text with boxes and sidebars that have examples of play, background information, optional rules, and other goodies such as art. 
The book better include an index too. The chapter breakdown should be logical, and rules should be repeated or have a page reference in every section of the book in which they are relevant.
The book better include an index too. The chapter breakdown should be logical, and rules should be repeated or have a page reference in every section of the book in which they are relevant.Similar Threads
