A Case of Awkward Rules Wording


Happy to report that the this week's playtest of Nine Lives went very well. The new trading and set collection rules are working well, encouraging plenty of decision-making each turn. In the next update, I'm adding some special abilities and I'm stumbling on how to word some of the more complicated ones if they're going to fit neatly onto the cards. They don't necessarily need to fit on the cards, but it would certainly help early learning of the game.

For background on the game's terms, cards in your hand are called your hand (naturally). Cards that are face-up in your possession are called your kennel. Cards in the middle of the table available for capture are called the alley. And the deck is called the deck.

That in itself is a sticky wicket. I could come up with generic terms for kennels and alley, like tableau and pile, but I like integrating thematic terms where they will be the least confusing. I did the same thing with Koi Pond's Pond (tableau), House (hand), Lake (central pile), and River (discard pile). Heck, even the word "deck" fits nicely with that watery theme.

But I'll address that later, for now here are the nine powers I'm trying to word concisely but clearly.

  • Move a card from the alley to your kennel.
  • Move a card from an opponent's kennel to your hand.
  • Discard a card from any kennel.
  • Move a card from your hand to your kennel.
  • Move a card from your kennel to your hand.
  • Move a card from an opponent's kennel to yours. Move two cards from your kennel to theirs.
  • Move a card from an opponent's kennel to yours. Move a card of equal scratches from your kennel to theirs.*
  • Move a card from an opponent's kennel to yours. Move a card of the same cat from your kennel to theirs.*
  • Move a card from an opponent's kennel to yours. Move a card of lower rank from your kennel to theirs.*

The powers with *asterisks are the ones that are too long. And honestly, I'd even consider just changing those powers so they are simpler if it means shorter wording. I posed this problem to Twitter last night and got several suggestions. Here's what I'm considering.

  • Steal: Alley to your kennel
  • Steal: Opponent's kennel to your hand
  • Discard: 1 from any kennel
  • Move: 1 from your hand to your kennel
  • Move: 1 from your kennel to your hand
  • Kennel Swap: Take 1, Give 2 of any card
  • Kennel Swap: Take 1, Give 1 of same scratches
  • Kennel Swap: Take 1, Give 1 of same cat
  • Kennel Swap: Take 1, Give 1 of lower rank

Seeing the powers written up so concisely, I can see how there are some odd outliers. There are four kennel swap powers, but only one Discard power. I might be a little neurotic, but I almost want to try making three Steal powers, three Swap powers, and either three Discard powers or three Move powers. I may explore that later.

Still happy to take suggestions, but this seems like it'll be one of those times when it may just be easier to show these powers as diagrammatic icons with very short gamey phrases.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

5 Graphic Design and Typography Tips for your Card Game

Image
Chris Farrell of Illuminating Games just wrote a thorough critique of card games setting their body text to be so small that they cannot be read at arm's length, let alone across the table. Here's an excerpt, but the whole thing is worth a read for any would-be card game designers out there. (Myself included.) Break out your copy of the base set of Dominion, and look at the Chapel. This has a text box roughly 3.5cm by 4.5cm. It's got a single line of text. That line of text is 1 (one) millimeter high. 1mm! For me, it's only clearly readable at half an arm's length even in the bright light of day. (...) Compare this to a more sane game like Glory to Rome, where the font size is 2-3 times as large (text is 2mm high, keywords 3mm and usually highlighted). I can generally read Glory to Rome cards across the table, and can certainly see the important keywords. To heap insult upon injury, not only does Glory to Rome have far more legible text than Dominion it also has...
Read more

Low-High Dice Game

Image
A dice game inspired by the stock market (and playing lots of Martian Dice). Roll a bunch of dice and choose which sets to keep. Choose your strategy wisely! Stuff You Need Two-to-Six PLAYERS A PENCIL and PAPER to keep score Thirteen standard six-sided DICE How to Play The shortest player takes the first turn. On your turn, first roll all thirteen dice. Several dice will have matching results. These are called SETS. (A single die result is a set, too.) You must choose a set to keep. For example, your first roll results are 111124445555 . The sets are four 1 s, one 2 , three 4 s, and four 5 s. After keeping a set of dice, lock them up in a row. This is called the GOOD TRACK. For example,  you could keep the set of four 1 s, one 2 , three 4 s, or four 5 s . You decide to keep the four 1 s and line them up in your good track. After keeping a set, you may end your turn or re-roll the remaining unlocked dice. When you re-roll, immediately set aside any results tha...
Read more

One Thing to Avoid in Game Design

Image
When game designer Paul Peterson was interviewed for the upcoming Titans Series of games from Calliope Games, there was one segment at 1:55 that really caught my attention (emphasis mine): "A couple years ago I was teaching people how to play Guillotine and I hadn't played in a while. The first thing I did was say, 'The first thing you gonna do when you open your game is you look through this deck and you take this card.' I pulled out the Callous Guards card and threw it over my shoulder. Everybody laughed. I said, ' That's the biggest mistake I ever made as a game designer in my life.'" Oof. Those are strong words. What's the big deal? For context, the game Guillotine is all about collecting the heads of French nobles during the revolution. There is only one guillotine, with a line of nobles waiting for their grim fate. On your turn, you play action cards to change the order of the line, then take the Noble card from the front of the ...
Read more