Hi guys. I was just wondering what size font you find to best for your players. I've been using 12pt Eurostile, but was wondering if I could go 11pt - or am I really just making it harder for readers?
What does the industry 'typically' use in 2 - 3 pages of rules?
Cheers .... TwoBob
Well I think it really depends on the product/company, I want to say (which means I am probably wrong), that the rule books for magic use a very small font, might be 8pt. But I have not looked at a magic rule book in a while so I am most likely wrong.
I really think you need to consider the audience of your game. Will they need something as big as 12pt? For the most part I think you could get away with a nice clean 10pt font (like arial), but as I said, the font has to be clean/crisp. So if you are going to use some fancy script-like font, you may need to go bigger just to help the readability of the text.
Well I dont think I helped much, but personally I would use a nice clean, crisp 10pt font for my minimum. Though I hold the right to change my mind in the future :)
I want to say (which means I am probably wrong), that the rule books for magic use a very small font, might be 8pt. But I have not looked at a magic rule book in a while so I am most likely wrong.
For myself, my rules are usually in 11/12pt Optima, and if the ruleset runs past three pages (excluding stuff like components and set-up) then I generally consider that I'm on the wrong track... :-))
Far be it from me to say "ha!ha!! wrong!!" (I wouldn't dream of it :-), but in fact Magic hasn't had a "rulebook" for a long time.
These days you either get an introductory booklet (which basically steps through a fairly simple game but covers all the main interactions) which is packaged with the "Starter" sets, or you get a "rules insert" (which you only get with the boxes, not the boosters) which explains any new abilities that are introduced with the set.
haha!! I was actually talking about the insert in the starter boxes, but did not actually state that! So I now haha to myself for not being clear with my information :)
But I will point out that you helped me show that a game like magic uses a smaller font (which means I was not really wrong about the font size they use).
In general, you can use anything you want. Though I do like Scurra's point about the larger the rules set, the more concern I would have with the design of the game. You should not try to fix a game design by reducing the font size on the rules.
Beyond that I would not worry about the font size of the rules, since that does not really matter until you are being published. And if you get that far, the publihsher will be involved in the final layout of this type of thing. If you are going to self publish, you need to decide the format/layout of the rule book.
As someone has stated before on the forum, take out a feel rule books from (purchased) games you have around the house and start modeling your rule book based on those that you like most.
My two cents: focus on who you want to be buying and playing the game. If you're aiming at the specialty market (like Magic, Clix, or any of those), you can get away with having lots of rules in small print. Why? Because that's what they're used to.
If you're aiming at the "non-gamer", you'll need to make your rules as non-threatening as possible. No one likes to sit down and slog through a bunch of tiny text.
Here's a link to the rules for SiegeStones (http://www.liveoakgames.com/siegestones/rules.htm), which is aimed at the mainstream rather than the specialty gaming crowd.
In contrast, here's a link to the rules for Hex-Hex:
http://www.smirkanddagger.com/downloads/hexrules.pdf
which is a niche card game. They're still quite readable, but a heck of a lot smaller!
 | Why a SpaceGame (part 2) (42) by X3M |
| Blank Poker Card Sale - Only 3 Cents Each! (0) by The Game Crafter |
| 2025 Unpub Mentorship Program (0) by The Game Crafter |
 | Prospector — I decided to have a dedicated BLOG for this "Expansion" (32) by questccg |
| Dead Steam - Post Apocalyptic train building card game (38) by Tbone |
| Board Game Blueprint - New Episode Every Wednesday (32) by The Game Crafter |
| Tabletop Game Jobs (0) by The Game Crafter |
| Protospiel Cleveland (0) by The Game Crafter |
| "Never Seven" - Playtest Rules - Suspended While the Game is Undergoing Modification (7) by Steve |
| New Board Game Pieces - Premium Mushroom & Premium Brown Mushroom (0) by The Game Crafter |
| Weight of sorting (4) by X3M |
| Placing cards (planets) in specific positions (orbits) (4) by Tbone |
| Designing from a personal pool of mechanism (36) by larienna |
| New Board Game Pieces - InFUNity Tiles (Hat Shape) (0) by The Game Crafter |
| New Auction: 1 Month of Advertising on FatherGeek.com (0) by The Game Crafter |
| DuelBotz: Sample New Card (19) by questccg |
| Comparing 2 new dice replace mechanics (2) by X3M |
| Happy New Year!!! (1) by questccg |
| How to design and balance a Rock-Paper-Scissor like mechanism (44) by X3M |
| Monster Keep — Retiring this Design (0) by questccg |
| Build your own [insert game genre here] (13) by larienna |
| Finalists Selected for the VHS Case Challenge (5) by larienna |
| 2025 New Year Sale at The Game Crafter (0) by The Game Crafter |
| Merry Christmas 2024! (0) by questccg |
| Winner Announced for "That Cool Stock Part Challenge" (0) by The Game Crafter |
I'l agree that your rules could be as low as 10 pt type (of just about any celan typeface). You could go lower if you had to (to fit a small rule sheet into a small tuck box), but you probably don't want to go smaller if you can help it.
This will depend on the type and complexity of your game. Most games come with rules printed on a single leaf of apper folded once, making 4 pages of text about the size of your game box. Some rule sheets will be 3 times as wide as your box and folded into 6 pages. Keep in mind that anytime you staple sheets together, the page count must be evenly divisible by 4. 2 pieces of paper stapled and folded will make 8 pages, 3 pieces will make 12 pages.
How long should your rules be? Kepp them as short and concise as you can. Try to keep it to 4 pages tops if the complexity of your game is fairly low. Otherwise, make it as many pages as you need to get the point across.