Individual explanations?
There are many games that have a lot of different pieces or cards.
Magic the Gathering is one of such games that has over 1000 different cards.
Each card has a functional explanation of how to use the card. But some also have a little story to tell instead:
http://i46.photobucket.com/albums/f109/neverlanding/magic_gathering_enor...
...Always been my favourite...
But how much use has this little story? Once read, the player will not read it again. Right? Unless one player (me) wants to annoy the other one with the story while placing the card on the table.
The thing is, with certain war games you have a lot of different units on the map. You could make a little (humour) story for each. Which is not much of a problem for me. But these stories would only be in the [units] manual. The player reads only the parts over and over that have useful information like the main manual. A little story does not add much info to the game itself. Does it have any use to spend time on making these short stories? Or should I find a way of putting tactical/strategic/hints into these stories? And then try to spice them up?
Of course I could just simply put all the information about the unit statistics into the manual. But I have the Unit Statistics Card for that.
My game is comparable with A&A, but then based on the C&C style of rock scissors paper.
There are more different units to play with. Yet you are limited in the number of having them.
They can attack from a distance, or not. And they have different movement speeds. A bit like Runescape.
Each unit is unique, but there are also groups of some that have the same characteristics.
It can be explained all. Maybe it should be explained all? The strategy goes very deep in this game.
The main questions would be:
What is the usefulness of a little story with each unit?
Would players reread these stories?
Would it be useful to explain the unit in detail?
I know that they will be rereading explanations to get to the bottom of it. But after a while when the player knows, it stops?
And would the player not rather find out for him/herself how the unit works?
Would it not be better to explain the usefulness of an unit in a mission description?
The plan involves the use of a certain unit in a certain way.
The players always will be rereading those.
Manuals will usually be reread. Until the player knows the game. But that are what manuals are for.
So, what use would it be? To make stories and/or units descriptions or their usefulness?