Board Game Rules

Board game rules contain everything you need to know to learn and start playing your game, ideally without having to look up a Youtube video or to get guidance from the designers.

How to Structure Rules

There is a generally agreed upon structure for rulebooks in the board game industry.

Your rulebook should have a clear structure starting with the theme, a presentation of the materials, the game's goal, and the the rules in the same order as the game's flow.

I've come up with this board game rules template to help you get started.

What Doesn't Go in the Rulebook

A rulebook is not a lorebook. It is not a short story. It is not the place for your players to get to know you.

I cite the ancient texts.

Few things scare off newcomers quicker than a gargantuan tome of a rulebook.

How to Explain

My absolute favorite piece of board game advice is to write in what is called the mandative subjunctive. In this form, sentences are written in commands in order to avoid the passive voice and ambiguity.

Here are some examples to get an idea:

"Players will take turns" (they won't) → "Take turns"

"You may either take gold or train a soldier" (do I have to right now?) → "Choose between taking gold or training a soldier"

"The player with the most gold goes first" (when?) → "As the player with the most gold, take the first turn"

"You cannot draw cards if you have no money" → "Draw cards if you have money"

What you write in your rules and what someone reads aloud to the table are identical. Assume that, if you had not told them to, the players take no action.

What do I Say?

I like to explain my rulebooks by introducing new concepts as my players need to know them. Here's my entire Cold War card game summarized:

Win the game by collecting more Prestige than your opponent. Collect Prestige by winning Situations each round. Win a Situation by exerting more total Influence on it than your opponent. Exert Influence by deploying your Assets, which provide Influence, from your hand into the Situations on the board. At the end of the round, sum the Influence of each of your Assets on a Situation and take the Prestige of any Situations you won. Launch your Asset's unique abilities called Operations to help you win Situations. Use the unique rules of each Situation to draw closer to victory.

What next?

So you have a rulebook that's structured well, is easy to read, and contains no fluff.

A great way to test if your rulebook is effective is to run what is called a blind playtest, where your players must rely on the rulebook alone to learn and play the game, without your input.