A Beginner’s Guide to Board Games

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Seven spreads from the first six chapters and the print-and-play pages. Click a page to see it full size.

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ContentsCh. 1 · What happened?Ch. 2 · DecisionsCh. 3 · Who is still playing?Ch. 4 · Where is the learning?Ch. 6 · RandomnessPrint and play

Contents

1. Part I

   Play like a designer

   Stop asking ‘was it fun?’ and start asking ‘what caused that?’

   1. 1What happened?Before you can fix a game, you need to know what actually happened in it.
   2. 2DecisionsA game is a string of choices. Some are real. Some only look real.
   3. 3Who is still playing?A game is only as good as it is for the player in last place.
   4. 4Where is the learning?A good game has more to learn than its rules.
   5. 5Reading a rulebookMost arguments at a game table start with one sentence in the rulebook.

2. Part II

   The mechanism toolkit

   How each mechanism works, what it does to players, and when to use it.

   1. 6RandomnessLuck is not the enemy of a good game. Luck in the wrong place is.
   2. 7SnowballsComing soon
   3. 8Everyone at onceComing soon
   4. 9The shared poolComing soon
   5. 10Push your luckComing soon
   6. 11Hidden informationComing soon
   7. 12Scoring and endingsComing soon
   8. 13The economy in one pageComing soon

3. Part III

   Build

   Go from an idea to a game that people can play, learn and pick up.

   1. 14The smallest playableComing soon
   2. 15ComponentsComing soon
   3. 16Writing rulesComing soon
   4. 17Teaching in three minutesComing soon
   5. 18Making it look like somethingComing soon

4. Part IV

   Test and balance

   Evidence over opinion: test your game and let the results guide your changes.

   1. 19Running a playtestComing soon
   2. 20What the numbers tell youComing soon
   3. 21One thing at a timeComing soon
   4. 22The second playtestComing soon
   5. 23When to cutComing soon

5. Part V

   Modes, formats and tournaments

   Take your finished game out into the world.

   1. 24Variants and modesComing soon
   2. 25FormatsComing soon
   3. 26Running a tournamentComing soon
   4. 27Tiebreakers and the judgeComing soon
   5. 28Publishing to the shelfComing soon

How it’s made

The book is built like software: one source, automated checks, and numbers that can be reproduced.

• Typeset in LuaLaTeX with Atkinson Hyperlegible Next, a typeface designed for low-vision readers. Hyphenation is off, because whole words are easier for weaker readers and students learning English.
• Every number quoted about Market Day comes from a Python simulator, so each chance-of-winning chart can be reproduced exactly.
• Part colours come from the Okabe–Ito palette, and a script checks every text and background pairing against WCAG contrast. A greyscale contact sheet checks that nothing relies on colour alone.
• Style checks catch long sentences, American spellings, and straight quotes; a term checker makes sure every defined word appears in the glossary exactly once.