Score Tracker Layout: Snake vs. Graph

(Source: BGG, James Clarke's fan-made Seasons score board.)

Just a general FYI for score tracker layout. Generally score trackers fall into two groups.

"Snake" score tracks follow a serpentine S-shaped path. The "Snake" is best to represent a step-by-step journey, often for games with small increments of scoring happening somewhat frequently. If you use a snake, make sure it's clear that you have a path to follow. You don't want to arrange the spaces in a grid, which implies the Graph layout below.

"Graph" score tracks that are arranged in a grid, with rows of ten spaces each. If you use a graph, you'll gain a lot of fans among engineers and mathematicians. This is much more abstract, but can be extremely useful for jumping double-digit increments at a time, especially in endgame scoring with lots of bookkeeping.

(Edit: For more, Geoff Engelstein covered some of this on Dice Tower Episode 398 at 7:15.)

And as always, make sure each space is numbered. Not just the 5s and 10s. Hope that helps with your tabletop graphic design!

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