#104: Teaching Games

Thomas Manuel

I. Dear Reader,

I think about how to teach games a lot. Not just because I’m always teaching every game I run. I’m also thinking about it as a philosophical and practical challenge to being in the game design / publishing business.

Let me explain. Currently, the dominant idea in game design is that people will learn by reading the rulebook. But like a leaky cup, I’m not sure that idea holds water. Now I can’t prove it… but just by being present in many gaming spaces over the last few years, I have become convinced that a lot of people can’t just read a book and learn a game. Including me sometimes. (Some people can, of course, no denying that.)

Because making the rulebook a teaching guide is a hard. (They’re also designed to be art objects which complicates things further.) And as Mike Lombardi points out, if you’re serious about making a teaching guide, you need to present that guide in different forms for people who are at different points of the learning process. Some people will need reference sheets, some people will need a basic “how to GM section”, some people will need both. It’s tough!

And even if these exist, it’s still hard to understand how things work together just from the text. So designers produce Actual Plays – some which are just straight demonstrations, some which are more explicitly to teach new players. If you want example of APs, that are clearly meant to teach. Check out Shawn Tomkin’s first Ironsworn podcast and Jeremy Strandberg’s video AP for Stonetop. While Shawn Tomkin just explains the rules as he goes, Jeremy Strandberg puts up screenshots of the rulebook as the game is played.

But this is still only step one of the teaching process. Because the rulebook and the APs are probably only aimed at the person who is going to GM or facilitate the session. That GM now has to teach the rest of the table. And this is a separate issue, usually much less supported. Some designers pay attention to how they introduce their games to new players and provide that as a guide: Vincent Baker on running Apocalypse World at conventions, Stras A on running Blades in the Dark as a one shot, and so on.

Now all this is pointing out at the real truth: that we learn games from other people. And that’s a big truth to explore. And I don’t really know where to go with it. More next week.

Yours exploratorily,

Thomas

II. Listen of the Week

  • I linked to two APs up top but will put it another plug for the Stonetop AP, which is a regular game while also being a teaching tool.

  • At the Generation Analog 2022 conference, there were lots of academic talks on games and gaming culture. I haven’t had time to get into them yet but was recommend this talk by Judd Karlman and I have to agree, it’s very good! Check out PS Berge talking about reading D&D from the point of view trans power.

III. Links of the Week

News

Reviews

  • A review of John Battle’s Sun Kings Palace, a megadungeon where you risk losing your character sheet.

  • A review of Jess Levine’s I Have The High Ground, a two-player game of duels and banter.

Articles

  • On the Gauntlet blog, Lowell Francis continues his series looking at all the games that came out a decade ago. This week sees Monsterhearts, Monster of the Week, Night’s Black Agents and Marvel Heroic among others.

  • Dicebreaker do a feature on Monte Cook Games. It’s a good article but I really think it misses what makes MCG an exciting subject. Like they focus too much on the Cypher system and misrepresent it as “rules lite”, whereas I would loved a much deeper dive on MCG as a design and publishing business and how they have continuously found success in an industry that is as wobbly as ttrpgs.

  • On the One Book Shelf blog, a series on pricing trends and advice from the CEO. It’s an interesting window into how DriveThruRPG and sister sites work for those who publish on those sites.

IV. Small Ads

All links in the newsletter are completely based on my own interest. But to help support my work, this section contains sponsored links and advertisements. If you’d like your products to appear here, read the submission form.

This newsletter is currently sponsored by the Bundle of Holding.

Hello, dear readers. This newsletter is written by me, Thomas Manuel. I’m half-man, half-beast, half-journalist, half-game designer.

If you’d like to support this newsletter, share it with a friend or buy one of my games from my itch store. If you’d like to say something to me, you can reply to this email or click below!

Thanks for subscribing and take care out there!

Leave a comment