Rules Mastery For Dummies & Busy GMs Part 2: Getting Enthusiastic About Rules
Last time around, Johnn described (via exerpted email) his difficulty in getting enthusiastic about reading rules.
Johnn has been making a common mistake, and it’s one that I have been guilty of myself in the past.
When reading rules becomes tiresome, we avoid reading and re-reading the rules because we have the impression that we have to read them in one solid block, from cover to cover.
Because we avoid reading and re-reading them, the nuances fade from memory – if they were ever known to begin with; if learning a new game system, even that might be going too far.
Cover-to-cover is the worst possible way to read rules, in my opinion.
A far better approach, and one that can quickly overcome any aversion to the reading of rules, is to take a lead from what players do: they don’t read the whole rulebook, they read the parts that are relevant to their characters. And reread those sections. They look for any advantage or capability that they can take advantage of in those rules. Everything they read is taken from the perspective, “how can I use this to benefit my character?”
For a GM, the equivalent question should be, “How can I use this in my game?”
There are two approaches: the directed and the random.
Directed Rules Search
When you know that something is likely to come up, take a good hard look (in advance, preferably) at the game rules that deal with that event or condition.
You don’t need the grappling rules most of the time. But if you seed an encounter with a creature that has to grapple in order to use it’s special abilities, or if a PC has a bout in a wrestling match coming up, that’s when it’s time to bone up.
Make A Simple Procedure Checklist
Whenever you’re learning a new procedure, it’s a great idea to make yourself a bullet-point summary of that procedure. Make sure to include the page number where that step is discussed in detail.
If the procedure is not something that comes up very often, you can then file the summary away in a binder somewhere until the next time you need it; if you find yourself referring to the card frequently, you will soon learn the ins and outs of that rule.
Random Rules Search
Another favorite technique is to flip through the rules book until something catches your eye – then read that in detail, asking yourself the question, “How can I use this in my next game session?”
For example, your eye might fall on a particular spell. Learning the mechanics of that spell will not only give you a nice little plot element that was completely unpredictable, it will offer a refresher on spell use in general.
Keep A Page Log
Another technique that is often useful is to keep a page log. Each time you have to look something up in the course of play, jot down the page. At the end of the session, add them to a text document and sort it numerically from low to high. You’ll soon find that there are certain sections that seem to be consulted all the time, either because that game mechanic is complicated, or because of a recurring usage pattern.
The frequency of occurrance on the list is exactly the same as the reward for making more intensive study of that particular game rule section.
Look For Patterns
Game designers aren’t lazy, but when they develop a game mechanic that works, they will tend to repeat variations of it all over the place. The procedure for making a saving throw is usually very similar to the process of making a skill check. Whenever a game mechanic comes up in the course of play, try and associate the rules regarding that mechanic with something similar. If a player is using a certain part of the rules that you don’t know well because the mechanic is related to their shtickh, get them to show you where it is in the rulebook so that you can follow along as they trumpet their expertise – this makes it easier for you to learn those rules.
The Common Theme
The common theme to all of these is to make your study of the rules immediately useful, and hence immediatly rewarding, instead of studying the rules for the sake of studying the rules. Besides the immediate benefits of having studied the rules in question, the reward means that ‘rules burnout’ is not a problem; your enthusiasm is maintained and even reinvigorated.
- Rules Mastery For Dummies & Busy GMs Part 1: Introduction
- Rules Mastery For Dummies & Busy GMs Part 2: Getting Enthusiastic About Rules
- Rules Mastery For Dummies & Busy GMs Part 3: Student, Tutor Thyself
- Rules Mastery For Dummies & Busy GMs Part 4: The Quality of Rules
- Rules Mastery For Dummies & Busy GMs Part 5: Rules Touchstones – Combat
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December 9th, 2010 at 8:23 am
Something I learnt from my days of academic study: Skim the content first.
Game supplements are like textbooks, not novels, and therefore it shouldn’t always be necessary to read them from front cover to back to get an idea of what they are talking about. As such, most people can, and will, skim through looking at the material and content, getting an idea of what is where, only pausing momentarily to look and get excited over a few interesting features that spur their imagination.
Once you know where things are, you can easily find sections and read about them in more detail as you need them. Sections on campaign building are easier to enthuse about if you are actually building a campaign, likewise the more you use grappling or underwater combat in your games, the more enthused about these rules you will become.
Eventually, the rules and concepts you use the most will become so ingrained that you do not need to refer to the rulebook. Most core mechanics work this way, for example. You use the same mechanics over and over, it becomes an innate skill, a learned ability, rather than needing to refer to rulebooks or cheat sheets.
For the GM, the advantage of learning many systems is that they have a wide range of approaches to how systems handle things, and thus can choose the rules that they and their players find the easiest and most comfortable.
In the end, the GM is the rules, so as long as everyone knows how you are running the game, nothing else matters.
Da’ Vane recently posted..My World is Collapsing!
December 9th, 2010 at 9:42 am
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December 10th, 2010 at 10:49 pm
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December 11th, 2010 at 10:20 am
Good stuff Mike. I like how this series has started. i especially like the tip about Make A Simple Procedure Checklist and will be putting that into effect.
December 11th, 2010 at 10:30 am
Currently, I find reading rules un-fun. For the limited time I have available for campaign prep, I plan people, places, locations and events – flavour only. By the time game night arrives, I have not had a chance to research and apply the crunch.
However, I think the truth is more of procrastination. Due to my productivity tricks, I actually do have the time to figure out the rules for the stuff I have planned.
So I think it is more a case of avoiding it than not having the time or ability to do it.
I look forward to the rest of the series.
December 12th, 2010 at 5:35 am
@ Da’Vane: I think we’re pretty close to being in synch here.
@Johnn: The techniques I described in this part of the series are what work for me. Hopefully one of them will also work for you, and for anyone else experiencing this sort of problem. The simple checklist is how I studied Maths in school, making my own crib notes and writing them in an exercise book – which I still refer to, to this day. I scored 132 out of 150 for the final Maths exam, so I know the process works :)
The key to your specific situation lies in determining exactly why you procrastinate. That’s something I’m not qualified to do – the best I can do is offer solutions and hope one of them fits the situation!
December 12th, 2010 at 11:03 am
@Johnn – I am pretty much the same myself. Most of my notes are bare-bones, enough for me to run with, and the rest you make up as you go along. This is a lot easier to do with things like names as it is to do with crunch though, and crunch for many systems can be quite time consuming, particularly if you don’t know what to do and are looking for specific options to match flavour, rather than the other way around.
If you are learning a new system, go with the same methodology that introductory products use. Pick things out that are simple and let you get to know the system, and then use them to create the flavour. Reverse your thought processes a bit. Inspiration is a two-way street, and sometimes putting the crunch first, especially if you have a specific objective in mind, can work wonders.
Want to learn the underwater combat rules? Read the rules, and then use them to create a few encounters that get the PCs underwater. Not used a certain ability for a while? Give it to an antagonist and then explain the flavour.
In this way, you might find that something you appear to find much easier and enjoyable – i.e. the flavour preparation – will make an ample reward for covering the rules and mechanics.
In the Gamer Lifestyle program, one of your key productivity tips is that if you get stuck writing something, imagine doing it for your blog. I use something similar – if you want to learn something, imagine using it in your game. It works for everything, not the least of which is game systems!
Da’ Vane recently posted..My World is Collapsing!
December 13th, 2010 at 8:21 pm
Following from this comment, http://www.campaignmastery.com/blog/rules-mastery-1/comment-page-1/#comment-7560 it appears you have a great deal of expertise and enthusiasm for Campaign Mastery Johnn. You should probably look towards utilising this somewhat to help provide focus for learning the rules, rather than trying to digest new rules systems all at once.
One way to do this is to treat each new rules system from scratch as if you were a new player/GM, and set about creating a campaign using the system to get a handle on how it works. If it has a section on campaign construction, along with some handy tools, follow them and as you engage with them, you will find yourself more enthused to picking up the rest of the rules.
Repeat this for creating adventures, monsters, and other elements. You are particularly looking at the way things interact with each other, and being able to put into context of a campaign or adventure framework will probably help you keep it in more.
As with introductory modules and the like, focus on the simple things mechanically. When you are learning combat mechanics, you don’t want to be worrying about rules for line of sight or terrain, so strive to keep these minimal. The same with skills, storytelling tropes, and so forth.
Once you have the basics, then you can start experimenting with advanced or obscure rules, creating reasons for them to come into play in the world. As previously stated, you can used rules-based decisions to drive your campaign in interesting directions you might not have normally considered.
By doing this, you can combine something you have more confidence and passion for with something you have little passion for, and as a result increase your passion and expertise in both.
Da’ Vane recently posted..Maelstrom of Combat
December 14th, 2010 at 12:45 pm
My favorite way to read/understand the rules is to go to a forum (like EnWorld) and find the rules-question threads.
I find that having different people expose different problems and having different answers actually helps me remember the rules because it has context (ie, my players do this, how do i ?). Those that answer the questions have different ways of explaining which usually has a better wording then in the rulebook.
Also, having a quick rules question answered in the same day saves me the time to look it up and trying to understand what i think is the answer.
I setup my RSS reader (google reader) to get the feed for 4th edition rules question. Here is the link http://www.enworld.org/forum/external.php?forumids=317&type=rss