Readable, Presentation and Usable
A wise manager once told me when it comes to projects, “Cost, Schedule, Function… Pick any two.” He meant that it’s possible to bound two of those items, but the third will always be unbounded and won’t be within the limits that your interested in. I think that role-playing game books or manuals have a similar pattern but different three items. These are Readable, Presentation and Usable.
Every book is readable if it’s in a language you understand, right? Well, that depends on your point of view. I personally have trouble finishing a book if it reads like a college Calculus book. If the book is boring or difficult to understand, it is hard to finish that book. Some examples that I have had difficulty reading are Diaspora and Burning Wheel. With Diaspora, it is just difficult following the writer’s train of thought. It could really use an editor going through it with 100 red pens. As for Burning Wheel, the text is just boring. Now to be fair, Luke Crain, the author states that you don’t want to read it cover to cover. An example of a game that I love the readability of is Swashbucklers of the Seven Skies.
Most game books need to be usable during play at some point, so usability is a key component. Some take it to an extreme, for example, Dungeons and Dragons 4th Edition; the game’s books are really meant to be referenced at the table. Usability is critical part of the function of those books. One of the games that I find difficult to use is Song of Fire and Ice(SIFRP) from Green Ronin. A specific example in that book is armor. The cost is in one section and the stats are in another. This really bugs me and makes it not fun for me to use.
Presentation has to do with the whole package. Is the book pretty? I have been known to buy an RPG book simply cause it’s beautiful even if I never plan on reading it. A number of examples are Aces and Eights and Dark Heresy. Both games I own with no intentions of playing unless some else runs it.
There are books that do only one of these well but are still fun game. Take SIFRP, in my opinion, it is very pretty presentation but has very low usability and readability, I still enjoy the game a friend is running for me.
Another example is Burning Wheel, it concentrated on usability but is a boring read and doesn’t have that much in presentation. Granted, it’s only 25 bucks for the core system, so it’s still a bargain.
Diaspora has been getting a lot of love out in the Internet. This is what got me thinking of this post. It fails in all three categories. Some might argue that it has charts at the end of the book which increases it’s usability, but if you need to go through the text, you’re going to be at it for a while. I really enjoyed the ideas in the book, but it’s really hard to get to them. I kept hearing a large number of FATE fans say this is an awesome book, so I ended up finishing it, but it took me a month and some sections I had to reread.
What games do you enjoy reading? Do you buy games just cause attractive layout and art? How important is usability to you?
Tags: Gaming
March 31st, 2010 at 12:57 am
Wow… contrariwise I actually found Burning Wheel to be a hilarious and fun read. Then again, I’m also the guy who, as a kid, read mommy and daddy’s old text books, and actually did enjoy reading the caclulus text book, so I guess I’m not a good gauge.
On the other hand, I do have my fair share of pretty books filled with systems I’d never touch, so presentation does definitely win the day sometimes.
March 31st, 2010 at 4:42 am
I love the game just hated reading the game. On the other hand, I read Burning Empires cover to cover. I do think Luke has gotten better at writing but that happens with practice. There were some text books that I enjoyed, but I didn’t my Calculus book.
April 1st, 2010 at 11:37 am
Good stuff. Kind of like a Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle Reading your post made me think of Reign. I absolutely love the game, and I think the book is beautiful, but I find it very difficult to use. The alternating chapters of rules and setting also is troublesome for me for some reason.
I definitely buy attractive books even though I will never run them. The paizo stuff definitely fits in that category for me.
A couple of additional thoughts:
1. I think that usability can be thought of in two categories: a). usable at the table during play and b). usable when creating characters. For example, some games present information in the order it is needed to create a character. This might not be a logical order when trying to look up a rule during play.
2. Ken Hite, on his livejournal, discussed Weapons of the Gods a while back. In that game, the setting material is incorporated into the game mechanics (into lore sheets). Ken really liked that idea because it encourages players to buy into the setting. While this may be good in concept, I found that it made the book very difficult to read. While this is not exactly what you were posting about, it is related to readability – where game rules interfere with the readability of a text.
April 15th, 2010 at 11:56 am
Burning Wheel does some things right and does some things wrong. On the right side, I like the conversational tone and the summaries at the end of every section. At the wrong side, there’s really no clear way to tell “here is a rule!” while scanning the text, nor are all rules summarized elsewhere.
As far as the point in your article goes, I’d like to point out that in many cases you don’t need to reference the book at all while playing. I find it quite hard to imagine someone having to look up a rule from the FATE book while in play. Does this excuse books from not being easily referenciable? (is that a word?) No, I don’t think so. I do think so that a happy medium can be achieved.
Things that help out?
1- Structure of the book though out.
2- Summaries at the end of each section.
3- Any rule that potentially needs to be searched for during play is either reproduced in an appendix or really well indexed.
4- Good index. I’m not talking about indexing every possible thing. I am talking about having an index solely dedicated to mechanics that is easy to thumb through.
And so on… knowing how to produce a text that serves as a tool to teaching is also a great boon.
April 16th, 2010 at 12:11 pm
Federico,
You hit the nail on the head if you can excuse the cliche, producing a text that serves as teaching tool is key since most of us won’t have the game designer in our homes when we try these games. We need to be able to play them based on reading the book. That is key.