Designer: John D. Clair | Artist: Chris Walton
Rulebooks. Every game has to have one, from three-card wonders like Win, Lose, or Banana to legendary monsters like Campaign for North Africa. And yet it is universally acknowledged that the worst way to learn a game is from its rulebook. Partly because we’re social animals and games are a social medium – we respond and comprehend better when faced with someone we can interact with, who can point at pieces and show you stuff – and partly because writing a good, clear rulebook is really hard; I’ve been doing this a long time and I can point at maybe five games that have a rulebook I’d read for pleasure – and I wrote one of them.