The Sweet Spot: Rulebook Page Count

[Whiterook]

While reading a retooled version of the old Avalon Hill classic, Panzer Leader, a modest 12-ish page tome, it dawned on me that twelve pages is the sweet spot for me. I’d noted, but hadn’t really thought about this in other older games, where the page count hovers around that mark, and these ver “complicated” games to me back in the 80s!

Nowadays, with many rulebooks at 50-150 pages long, it has me wondering how much we have gained, or not, in the advances of game tech and complexity. I know many gamers that don’t seem to blink twice at these larger page counts, but I still have to convince myself this is a good thing. I bought several wargames a week ago at an expo, and I opened one of them up over the weekend, The Last Gamble, and was horrified to see a rulebook shy of a quarter inch thick! …another I bought, Air & Armor, is said to be notorious for page counts and repetitive blathering. And it’s not a new thing… Lock ‘N Load Publishing’s retool fo World at War system boasts near 150 pages.

There’s something to be said for a 12 page rulebook!!!

What’s your sweet spot?

[mikeh]

As soon as I read the title and before reading your thoughts I thought 12 pages also. Probably a Boomer thing as my nephew puts it.

My nightmare rule book is Serbian muss Sterbien, if memory serves it's 30+ pages and as someone at BGG states it "rules dense" I can't keep my mind on the rulebook. I really want to play this game but trying to get what the rules writers are trying to get across, it's not sinking in.

[josta59]

Good topic! You might remember I don't like big rule books. Early in my gaming career, I looked for rules with one or two pages! Nowadays I'm right where you guys are, around twelve pages. The rule book I'm writing right now is larger at around seventeen pages, but it's a re-hash of someone else's rule book, which is more than fifty (I cut a lot of fluff and made the text much smaller). The last completely home-brewed rule book I wrote was eight pages of small text.

For me, it's not just about not having too much to read and remember. It's also about being able to find a rule quickly when I need it. The larger a rule book is, the more difficult that is to do. So I like to write my rules with small text so there aren't so many pages to flip through.

[McCoy]

Faster gameplay is more important than tons of micro rules to make sure that the squad leader have tied his shoelaces, yes I'm looking at you ASL...