"Suggestions for Rulesets" Topic

Depends on the rules set. Some of them "get it" and others don't.

side-by-side comparison – of what? Other rules?

design notes – always nice but sometimes just words on a page, it must have some value.

highlight new mechanics – New to whom? I find some authors 'discover' new mechanics that have really been 're-discovered/re-invented' from the past.

minis and basing section – Maybe I misunderstand what this means but my first response was "Really?" Even in historical rules, much less fantasy or SF, there are scales of miniatures and basing styles that vary beyond a writer's focus/preference. The rules should work whether I represent the figures at 1:5 or 1:20 and whether my scale/size of choice is 3/6/10/15/25mm and whether I base on squares or other shapes.

battle report – May be useful, if it reflects the core mechanics in play but not necessarily an entire AAR for Waterloo for a new napoleonic set of rules.

figures comparison – In the rules set? Uh, no.

This a daft poll, which author is going to waste their time discussing someone else's work. When trying to promote their own product.

Needs a "none of the above – all really bad ideas"

Army size expectation. How many figures/units for a good game?

My 'improvements' would be …

Check for consistent use of terminology throughout the rules. e.g. don't call it a Company on one page and the same thing a Unit on another, stick to one word meaning something specific.

Check the grammar, or, better still, have someone else to check it for you. Recent experience with a set showed that we spent ages discussing what a phrase was intended to mean as it couldn't possibly have meant what the author had written. After 4 such items in an hour of play we gave up.

20th, Joker and Gildas have the best points

I like design notes, as long as they explain the author's reasoning for certain rules decisions and the intent behind the rules. It makes it easier to come up with interpretations of grey areas in the rules that are in the spirit of the game.

Battle reports are only useful as extended examples of play. A battle report that took me through a game with various different situations cropping up and explained could be useful. A narrative battle report is just padding and I don't want to pay for it.

For the rest, comparisons between rules should be left to the review sites.

Needs a "none of the above – all really bad ideas"

Added

Most of these choices don't make any sense.

I would like a good index that actually helps you find what you need instead of mocking me.

"You thought you would find the prone rule here, but it isn't here. Now you and all the other players must spend 20 minutes digging for this rule, It will be in an unrelated section of the rules. I mock you sir!"

Five out of eight? Why not make it eight out of eight?

Well 5 out of 6 if you throw out no opinion and none.

Detailing differences between rules just released versus the market will be old in a year when the next set comes out. So I don't see what value that would offer.

Most of the items listed are what I would call advertising to draw attention to your rules. Such things should be on your website or included in your ads. I certainly don;t want to pay for it in the cost of the rules.

I'm not sure it means, what is wanted in a comparison between rules or an advertisement for a set of rules or the rules themselves?

I'm not tracking with this poll/those questions either.

In a rule book, I look for clean layout, systematic presentation, relevant diagrams, an index, stuff like that.

I don't need comparisons with competitor's sets or previous iterations or design justifications. Let the rules/mechanics speak for themselves.

Seems to me to be a flawed poll as well, since as mentioned, if you through out the last two, you only have to choose 5 out of 6. Also, dropping the last item, which rarely applies to rules sets of the need to only use the manufacturers minis with the rules, you get 5 out of 5 options.

For me, the most valuable thing I like to read about a new set of rules is and overview of how they work, including specific dice mechanics.

AARs, and the other stuff is nice to know, but I've seen few authors bother to compare how their rules set is better than another, or different. I suspect in some cases they may not know, and in others, their opinions would be very subjective anyway, so may or may not be useful, depending upon how objective they are.

Better to let others do that instead.

Seems to me to be a flawed poll as well, since as mentioned, if you through out the last two, you only have to choose 5 out of 6

1) I only chose 2 items.
2) It's a TMP poll.