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Help me word this rule

3 replies [Last post]
Tue, 06/23/2015 - 18:04
jvallerand
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Joined: 10/12/2013

It's a stupid thing really, but I can't seem to wrap my head around this one. Please don't tell the people who hire me to edit their texts!

So in my Euro-game, one of the actions is contributing to a building (think Caylus or Egizia). There are four buildings (temple, castle, university, and fortress), and each of them is shaped like a 4 floor pyramid: first floor has room for 4 contributions, second for 3, third for 2, and fourth for 1. The cost to contribute is (a) as many resources of the buildings color (temple is white, castle grey, university blue, and fortress red, and those are the colors of the four resources in the game) as the floor on which you're building (first floor is 1, second is 2, etc..), and (b) two other resources, which are different from one another, and different from the building's color.

So far the best I've come up with is "For each contribution, you must pay as many goods of the building's color as the floor on which you're building, and two other resources. You must use a total of three different resource types." However, I also have a fifth resource (money) which is wild, and it does make this rule untrue.

Anyone can do a better job than me?

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Tue, 06/23/2015 - 18:36
#1
MattPlays
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Joined: 04/12/2015
I would use

a diagram. Have a triangle with four stages, then numbers and/or arrows with the cost. You can then write something like +2 other single different colours.

I found when writing my own rule book that some diagrams made things a lot clearer. I did a diagram then used an example.

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Wed, 06/24/2015 - 06:12
#2
wombat929
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Joined: 04/17/2015
Got longer

jvallerand wrote:
So far the best I've come up with is "For each contribution, you must pay as many goods of the building's color as the floor on which you're building, and two other resources. You must use a total of three different resource types." However, I also have a fifth resource (money) which is wild, and it does make this rule untrue.

I will second the idea of a diagram and an example -- they're both key to explaining something this complex. But for words, here's a stab at it:

Each contribution requires a two-part contribution. First, you must pay goods matching the building's color. The number you owe matches the level to which you're adding (a first level yellow contribution requires one yellow resource, a second level blue contribution requires two blue resources, and so on). Second, you must ALSO pay two additional resources, one each from different categories. (Don't forget that money can substitute for any category.)

Of course, my example is twice as long as yours, but sometimes concise and clear do not go well together.

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Wed, 06/24/2015 - 10:50
#3
Soulfinger
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Joined: 01/06/2015
jvallerand wrote:So far the

jvallerand wrote:
So far the best I've come up with is "For each contribution, you must pay as many goods of the building's color as the floor on which you're building, and two other resources. You must use a total of three different resource types." However, I also have a fifth resource (money) which is wild, and it does make this rule untrue.

Anyone can do a better job than me?

In addition to diagrams, how about introducing a couple terms to help phrase things efficiently. So, for example, a "complimentary" resource is any resource that is not the same color as the building. "Primary" resources match the building's color. This allows for an explanation like:

"Each contribution costs two complimentary resources and a number of primary resources equal to the value of the floor on which you are building."

You cover the wild resource in its own section later. Plenty of games present the rules and then the rule breaking exceptions.

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