The nature of tabletop role-playing games is that the players can try to do anything, so it's impossible to cover every possibility in the rules. In a way your rules are like the programming of a video game, because you can’t cover every possibility.
Among the online audiovisual game design courses I offer (on Udemy.com) is about six hours on rules writing for tabletop games. The following discussion is specifically about the special aspects of RPG rules writing.
The question really amounts to: how long do you want your rules to be? Hundreds of thousands of words as in Fifth Edition Dungeons & Dragons, or as in a Pathfinder rulebook (a massive 566 large-format pages)? Or do you want to stick to a “mere” 100,000 words, which is on the long end of the average novel length? I recently saw a game by Robin Laws quoted at 700,000 words!
Contrast this with board and card games which have rules as little as 1,000 words, where 20,000 is a lot (that’s more than the rules and commentaries of my epic game Britannia). The British 20th century composer Sir William Walton wrote only one opera; when he finished he said “don’t write an opera, too many notes”. From a design standpoint I have the same view about role-playing game rules: “too many words.”
You have to choose your emphasis, even if you write 700,000 words. What are the main attractions or foci of your game? Is it combat, interpersonal relationships, role-playing, exploration, politics, or something else? Write your more detailed rules to cover those possibilities. Don't try to be exhaustive, because if you do you'll become exhausted, and so will many of your readers. Some of them will be happy to read every word you want to write, but that's the exception. I hearken to these maxims even in role-playing games, certainly in board and card games:
Settings, on the other hand, describe the area where the player characters operate. It may be an entire world, it may be part of the world, it may be quite small or quite large. Its geography, chronology, history, technology, culture ecology, and other aspects are all part of the setting. So you can have setting books that are larger than the average novel.
Most RPGs have a default setting that determines things like: Are there rayguns? Are there horses? Are there large warships? Is there gunpowder? and so forth. For D&D the answer was "late medieval with magic added, and a little Tolkien".
Adventures describe a situation with an objective, where characters have the opportunity to succeed or fail. There can be a story imposed by the designer, or the designer can present an interesting situation and let the players write their own stories, or somewhere in between.
You are obliged to write the rules if you're going to make a game. As the game designer you're not obliged to write the setting or adventures, but either one (and especially some kinds of adventures) might make it easier for your game to function immediately when someone buys it.
Keep in mind also that role-playing games derive from miniatures games, not from board or card games. People expect board/card game rules to be precise and all-encompassing, although it often doesn't work out that way. People expect miniatures rules to require a certain amount of negotiation! In RPGs we have the GM to arbitrate and mostly avoid negotiation. Your RPG rules are most unlikely to be as precise, and certainly not as all-encompassing, as board or card game rules, because RPGs inherently involve fewer constraints. There's just a lot more you have to talk about in an RPG, unless you leave a great deal to the GM.
In the early evolution of the hobby the GM was god-like in his or her effect on the game. This has changed because it's hard to be a GM, to be able to make rulings that make sense and hang together, to deal with the diverse agendas of the players. So over time games have tended to make the GM an arbiter of the rules rather than a godlike influence, with the idea that this is easier for a GM to do. The unstated objective, I think, is to enable more people to GM successfully. But it means the rules must have more and more detail, and must be more and more precise to avoid interminable arguments between GM and players. So your choice of rules length is likely to make a big difference in what kind of GM you require.
RPG and board game rules are different because there are different objectives, but mainly because games need either precise rules, or a GM. Always keep in mind, the more you try to do with a set of rules, the more likely you are to leave them unfinished!
Your Turn: Have you ever written a set of RPG rules? Did you finish? If not, why not?
Among the online audiovisual game design courses I offer (on Udemy.com) is about six hours on rules writing for tabletop games. The following discussion is specifically about the special aspects of RPG rules writing.
Tabletop vs. Video Game RPG Design
The nature of tabletop RPGs is that the players can try to do anything, so it's impossible to cover every possibility in the rules. That's the reason why you have a human game master (GM). In video game RPGs, without a human GM, the players are far more limited in what they can do, but that’s no different than other video or board games. In a way, your rules are like the programming of a video game, because you can’t cover every possibility. So how much DO you cover?The question really amounts to: how long do you want your rules to be? Hundreds of thousands of words as in Fifth Edition Dungeons & Dragons, or as in a Pathfinder rulebook (a massive 566 large-format pages)? Or do you want to stick to a “mere” 100,000 words, which is on the long end of the average novel length? I recently saw a game by Robin Laws quoted at 700,000 words!
Contrast this with board and card games which have rules as little as 1,000 words, where 20,000 is a lot (that’s more than the rules and commentaries of my epic game Britannia). The British 20th century composer Sir William Walton wrote only one opera; when he finished he said “don’t write an opera, too many notes”. From a design standpoint I have the same view about role-playing game rules: “too many words.”
You have to choose your emphasis, even if you write 700,000 words. What are the main attractions or foci of your game? Is it combat, interpersonal relationships, role-playing, exploration, politics, or something else? Write your more detailed rules to cover those possibilities. Don't try to be exhaustive, because if you do you'll become exhausted, and so will many of your readers. Some of them will be happy to read every word you want to write, but that's the exception. I hearken to these maxims even in role-playing games, certainly in board and card games:
- “everything should be made as simple as possible but not simpler” (Albert Einstein)
- “a designer knows he has achieved perfection not when there is nothing left to add but when there is nothing left to take away” (Antoine de Saint-Exupery).
Rules vs. Settings vs. Adventures
Keep in mind the distinction between rules, settings, and adventures. A game must have rules, but a role-playing game does not need an explicit setting, and does not need to include adventures. The rules describe the mechanisms of the game. Rules govern what the characters can and cannot do, and how they try to do them, and the GM takes care of the rest.Settings, on the other hand, describe the area where the player characters operate. It may be an entire world, it may be part of the world, it may be quite small or quite large. Its geography, chronology, history, technology, culture ecology, and other aspects are all part of the setting. So you can have setting books that are larger than the average novel.
Most RPGs have a default setting that determines things like: Are there rayguns? Are there horses? Are there large warships? Is there gunpowder? and so forth. For D&D the answer was "late medieval with magic added, and a little Tolkien".
Adventures describe a situation with an objective, where characters have the opportunity to succeed or fail. There can be a story imposed by the designer, or the designer can present an interesting situation and let the players write their own stories, or somewhere in between.
You are obliged to write the rules if you're going to make a game. As the game designer you're not obliged to write the setting or adventures, but either one (and especially some kinds of adventures) might make it easier for your game to function immediately when someone buys it.
Keep in mind also that role-playing games derive from miniatures games, not from board or card games. People expect board/card game rules to be precise and all-encompassing, although it often doesn't work out that way. People expect miniatures rules to require a certain amount of negotiation! In RPGs we have the GM to arbitrate and mostly avoid negotiation. Your RPG rules are most unlikely to be as precise, and certainly not as all-encompassing, as board or card game rules, because RPGs inherently involve fewer constraints. There's just a lot more you have to talk about in an RPG, unless you leave a great deal to the GM.
Game Master Rules
That brings up a major question in writing RPG rules. In board and card game rules you have no impartial arbiter to interpret and flesh out the rules. Players will be reading the rules, and players tend to read rules the way most benefits them in the specific instance. (Of course, RPG players do this as well.) The question is, how much do you want to leave rulings to the GM?In the early evolution of the hobby the GM was god-like in his or her effect on the game. This has changed because it's hard to be a GM, to be able to make rulings that make sense and hang together, to deal with the diverse agendas of the players. So over time games have tended to make the GM an arbiter of the rules rather than a godlike influence, with the idea that this is easier for a GM to do. The unstated objective, I think, is to enable more people to GM successfully. But it means the rules must have more and more detail, and must be more and more precise to avoid interminable arguments between GM and players. So your choice of rules length is likely to make a big difference in what kind of GM you require.
RPG and board game rules are different because there are different objectives, but mainly because games need either precise rules, or a GM. Always keep in mind, the more you try to do with a set of rules, the more likely you are to leave them unfinished!
Your Turn: Have you ever written a set of RPG rules? Did you finish? If not, why not?
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