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Just wondering… what are some games that you think have the best rulebook layouts.. in terms of how the rules and fluff and art and everything is presented? not how easy or well written they are, talking just an appearance point of view and ease of use.

And what do you think about rulebook sizes or orientations? Do you prefer the typical “portrait” format? What about “landscape” where the book is wider instead of taller? Or do you prefer smaller format softcover books that are “just the rules” like GW’s starter sets?

My preference is big, heavy hardback rulebooks, but maybe it’s just from 25 years of GW brainwashing me? I do like the smaller format books, but I feel like those are only good for if you already know the game world.. a big tome is better for new players who are new to the game world, but at the same time they tend to be too pricey and could be a big turnoff.

What do you like best?

Infinity is one of the best examples I have for rulebook layout, organisation and presentation.

Witch is hardly a surprise as it is what I suggested to everybody that asked before the creation of this book.

Colour coding segments, keywords, visual examples whenever possible and index.

Separate fluff and rules into different books sell them both as one product.

Rulebooks exist to convey information and the companies that write rules should get a clue from the visual encyclopedias, group rules into logical segments colour code them and have the colour on the side so one can jump straight to the section they need, have clear coloured visual examples when needed, especially on odd rules, tag things so the reader can understand what things fall in the same category and have an index that can be navigated fast.

I tend to prefer regular rulebook sizes in a portrait format. Landscape is good for art or lore books but not for rules. I want to be able to open it and hold it with one hand, while flipping through pages. It also makes it easier to reference with other players when held in one hand. Landscape is harder to do that when showing rules in a book to others. Smaller books are ok, maybe for an initial quickstart rules. The smaller it is though the harder it is to read and the cost of savings isn't really that much.

I do love a good hardback book but I can understand why companies moved away from them (cost).

I prefer my rulebooks to be A4 / letter format, portrait pages, so they lay out nicely when I have other reference material.

I suspect that landscape orientation (BFG) gives a superior layout for books that lay flat on the tabletop, but they won't go on the shelf as nicely with my other rulebooks.

I no longer bother with A5 and smaller books. I do not accept small print. Minimum 10 pt body text, prefer 11 pt or larger.

I strongly believe that increasing rules volume means a lack of focus and editorial control. 40k and Infinity are obvious examples of rules bloat.

The only advantage a landscape layout has from a rules perspective (its great for display artwork for example) is that the pages stay open, I still do not think this is a good reason to print in landscape.

The ideal text size to read is 12p Helvetica or some other rounded sans-serif font.

I tend to agree. If there is a portion of the rules that needs to stay open, that's what a reference sheet is for!

The font face is of lesser signficance compared to size. 11 point is good, 12 point, better!

I've always liked the idea and the look of landscape format books, but they're just not as easy to use. BFG was like that and I remember it being a pain to read. I noticed the rulebook for the HINT board game is gonna be landscape format too. I guess it's not so bad if it's a board game and relatively thin though.

I like the idea of separate rules and fluff books too, like GW has been doing, but at the same time since I already know the fluff I only want the rules, and I get annoyed that I have to buy the whole big expensive box set.. or a magnifying glass to read the small one.

The re-print of the Cyberpunk: 2020 rulebook by R.Talsorian games, the one that had the new artwork in it, was great. It edges out the original run only because of the new art, because both of them had logical layout, excellent flow and easily-found rules, all in black-and-white. It starts at explaining the game and the world a bit, moves into character creation, roles, attributes and skills, then moves into equipment, and then into the crunch of rules for both combat and non-combat scenarios, and the last quarter of the book is world-building, NPCs and a map of the city the game takes place in.

 PsychoticStorm wrote:


The ideal text size to read is 12p Helvetica or some other rounded sans-serif font.

Helvetica is not a text font. It was design to be used as a display font (titles or signage). Avenir, for example, is easier to read than Helvetica at 12p and in anything longer than a few words. You get better results for long text with a typeface that is actually designed for that, especially at smaller sizes. Helvetica has tighter spacing (which works for signs and big titles) and that combined with smaller letters leads to worse readability.

For dense, readable print text, I prefer something like Times.

I am not familiar with Avenir, but looks nice.