Playing by the Rules

Every day of our lives we expect, indeed trust, others to follow the rules.  If we didn’t, crossing the street, handing our credit card to a waiter, leaving the kids home alone in the afternoon and any number of seemingly mundane actions could become fraught with tribulation.  We depend on the rules to impose a sense of order on the chaos of competing objectives within ourselves and between ourselves and others (safety vs speed; ease vs hassle; reward vs risk).

Of course, there are those who don’t always follow the rules, but, as the old adage goes, they are the exceptions that prove the rule (where prove means put to the test, rather than the more commonly used establish the validity of something).  For rules to stand up to these regular tests, the rules need to make sense.  Otherwise, we would find it difficult to justify the effort it often takes to comply with them.

In the game business, clear and justifiable rules are indispensable.  In fact, many game publishing companies require a copy of an inventor’s game rules before they’ll take a look at a prototype, let alone take a game in for trials. 

Good rules make apparent how a game works.  The how makes a game flow smoothly – how many can play, who goes first, how does movement occur, how are points scored; how does one win, etc. 

Great rules, and, by extension, great games go a step beyond the how.  Great rules make it easy to fathom why the how works as it does.  The why helps a player to decide between often-competing objectives – to move ahead or to thwart an opponent; to build or to sell; to take a chance or to play it safe.  Without the why, a game, like life, can collapse into chaos or a stubborn stand-off. 

Because brevity is another key feature of well-written rules, justifications are seldom written in detail.  Nonetheless, the rationale underpinning great rules is key to the successful understanding of and enthusiasm players feel for a game.   The reason for a rule should always be easy to surmise and never boils down to the seldom enforceable ‘’because the rules say so’’.  Whether it’s a simple concept (e.g., a maximum number of players because of the number of playing pieces) or something more sophisticated (e.g.,  reverse the order of play so that no player ends up going last in each round), the why enables players to understand the rationale behind game play and, thus, to develop strategy-based concepts – the so-called ‘’critical thinking’’ that moves a novice game player from roll & race, essentially luck-based, games like Candyland to European-style games such as Settlers of Catan. 

A fun and challenging exercise to hone both critical thinking and language skills is to engage a group in rule writing.  Begin by discussing examples of simple rules members of the group observe every day – waiting at a cross walk, taking turns, using an ‘’inside’’ voice.  Then discuss why these rules matter and what would happen if they didn’t exist or if everyone ignored them.

Once the notion of rules and why they are important has been reviewed, brainstorm with the group to identify a favorite game, ideally one played on the playground/lunch room or while riding in a car (i.e., one for which extensive rules do not already exist in a box or a book). 

Before writing the rules, discuss the game play, focusing on the how points. 

• Cover the basics (how many players, what’s needed to play, set-up required before the game is played).
• Review how the game is won (player with most points, first to the finish line, first to discard all their cards, etc).
• Then, review the steps between set-up and winning.

When the discussion has been completed, it’s time for members of the group, alone or in teams, to write the rules.  The objective is to explain the game play clearly, giving examples where necessary, but limiting the text to short sentences or bullet points.

Refining the rules will require a few rounds, as writers take it in turns to read out their rules and other members of the group amend their versions to include points they have omitted or interject where they think the reader has left out important information. 

Once the group has completed a full set of rules covering all the hows, it’s time to focus on making the rules as concise as possible.  Read out loud each rule and ask why the rule exists.  What function does it serve in the game’s how or why?  Is it essential to the game play or can it be omitted?   Can it be summarized, using action words and very few descriptive phrases?

Once the rules are as concise yet complete as they can be, it’s time to test them out.  Divide the group into players and observers.  The players follow each rule precisely, while the observers note whether their actions mirror the actual play they had envisaged.  If not, it’s back to the editing table, then back to the trials, and so forth until the rules can be declared a clear, concise and complete written summary of the game play.

Once you’ve got the hang of this exercise, it’s time to focus your rule writers on creating their own games and entering their creations in the Chicago Toy & Game Fair’s Young Inventor Challenge.   The rules won’t make the game, but they can very easily break the game!  Good luck and better writing!!