One of the most difficult aspects of incorporating activities with a high cognitive load, like games, into a school or library program is managing multiple activity streams and instructing diverse groups in how to play a variety of titles. Not knowing how to play a game is always a barrier, but it’s significantly tougher for potential players unaccustomed to internalizing new and complex rules structures. Fortunately there is a new trend in tabletop games, one that video games adopted years ago: have the game itself teach players how to play - without needing to wade through an impenetrable rules book.
That impenetrability raises a further question: why are most rules books so horrible? The reasons range from poor visual presentation to simply overwhelming new players with irrelevant information. A set of rules that effectively teaches players how to play a game is a different beast than one that acts as a good reference guide once players already know the the structure of the game.
Game companies have tried a variety of ways to sidestep these issues. Some games have introductory scenarios while others include long narrative examples to provide more context than players would get out of a bullet point. It’s also become common to find “How to Play” videos on YouTube in an attempt to mitigate the difficulty of thickly written or poorly designed rulesets. If a game can’t be taught effectively straight out of the box, there are options. But having to take that extra step just to learn how to play isn’t exactly a good thing.
With games like those in the Fast Forward series, Stronghold Games has embraced the idea of teaching the game as it’s being played. The three games of the Fast Forward series - Fear, Fortress, and Flee - have no ponderous tome of rules. Instead players start with a deck of cards, and the starting rules are right on the first card. Players draw cards to begin playing the game, and as they work their way through the deck new rules cards surface so players learn the relevant sections as they play.
The Fast Forward system is an elegant framework allowing players to explore a growing gamescape. The sense of discovery is intense and exciting, despite the small steps players take towards learning how to play the complete game. Fear, Flee, and Fortress are each amazing because at the end of the experience, players can either rebuild the starting deck so they can be played again from scratch, or the rules cards can be kept out and the cards can be shuffled so the games can be played in their final, completed form.
While this system of game instruction is ideal for games with relatively simple rules that can scale and evolve, that isn’t the only place where this structure would work. Hush Hush Projects’ Fog of Love is a rich game with a much more complex set of interactions, and their tutorial system steps players through their first play of the game with named and numbered cards integrated into numerous decks. Besides the significant difference in complexity and subject matter, Fog of Love also has well structured rules that exist less to teach players how to play the game, and more to act as a reference to answer questions that pop up during play or in future sessions of the game.
Not all games need to inflict a significant learning curve on players. Even richly detailed games which have a fully functional rulebook, like Fog of Love, can still walk players through an engaging learning experience while shorter games that need repeat plays to experience seem ideally made for this format.
Escape Room Games http://www.inversegenius.com/gsl-blog/?category=Escape+Room
Unlike the other entries on this list, escape room games aren’t a single product with a single publisher or a single way of doing things. Many have a “Get started now!” option, but games like the Unlock! series also have a tutorial that teaches you how to play without having to digest a rulebook, as well as an app that helps manage the game experience without needing to have a librarian standing by and answering questions. Check out our series of reviews on escape rooms for more information. http://www.inversegenius.com/gsl-blog/?category=Escape+Rooms
Self teaching games also support computational learning activities by serving as an example for how to chunk instructions by breaking up information and providing them as needed instead of all at once. This has really served as an inspiration for how we manage game design classes; our young game designers write their rules on note cards so they can better examine how to organize and present them during play.
Not only can self teaching games like these help reduce the load on staff during high traffic game days, but the sense of exploration through play is intoxicating. It’s a joy of discovery: the playing field is leveled between the people who would normally be running the game and the people who play it, preventing any one personality from dominating the group and allowing everyone to bring their own ideas and interpretations into play. That same element of discovery encourages a level of collaboration often missing from games that give away all the rules up front.
The rest of this series will have in-depth reviews of the games mentioned here, as well as The Cloud Dungeon, and other self teaching games as they become available.
Unlike the other entries on this list, escape room games aren’t a single product with a single publisher or a single way of doing things. Many have a “Get started now!” option, but games like the Unlock! series also have a tutorial that teaches you how to play without having to digest a rulebook, as well as an app that helps manage the game experience without needing to have a librarian standing by and answering questions. Check out our series of reviews on escape rooms for more information. http://www.inversegenius.com/gsl-blog/?category=Escape+Rooms
Self teaching games also support computational learning activities by serving as an example for how to chunk instructions by breaking up information and providing them as needed instead of all at once. This has really served as an inspiration for how we manage game design classes; our young game designers write their rules on note cards so they can better examine how to organize and present them during play.
Not only can self teaching games like these help reduce the load on staff during high traffic game days, but the sense of exploration through play is intoxicating. It’s a joy of discovery: the playing field is leveled between the people who would normally be running the game and the people who play it, preventing any one personality from dominating the group and allowing everyone to bring their own ideas and interpretations into play. That same element of discovery encourages a level of collaboration often missing from games that give away all the rules up front.
The rest of this series will have in-depth reviews of the games mentioned here, as well as The Cloud Dungeon, and other self teaching games as they become available.
Article by Donald Dennis
Games in Schools and Libraries is produced in association with Inverse Genius and the Georgetown County Library System.
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