I recently discovered a free series of rules from
Quick Play Rules
released via
Firepower Gaming
and was particularly taken by the set for the American Civil War: Rebels &
Yankees.
At only 29 pages, with a clear well spaced layout, the rules are very easy to
read with a good structure and lots of useful tables etc. If they play
as quickly as they read I'll be well pleased.
I did spot a few things that I would class as glitches in table layout and design but that doesn't detract from the rules themselves. However, I would like to use them to highlight how simple changes can have a large impact of clarity and readability.
[1] Resilience Table (Page 10):
Here's the portion of the page which defines the process and the lookup table.

Looking at this in detail:
- Rolling 1d6 cannot give a score of more than six so the 6+ is misleading.
- Logically, the bands are not exclusive as 3+ includes 5 and 6.
- Novices may not know when Gettysburg was so the periods are "loose".
- The Zealous classification looks strange in a column of dates.
A quick rework gives this table:
Now each part of the table is specific and mutually exclusive. The classification of the Confederate troops as "Zealous" has been moved to a footer but it could equally be an additional one-entry column. The latter is a bit excessive for one entry.
[2] Resilience Outcomes Table (Page 12):
Here's the portion of the page with the lookup table for the results.
Looking at this in detail:
- The row for a result of 7 is exactly the same as that for 8-9.
- Not sure what "Carry On" means as it's not defined in the rules.
- Not sure what "Charge" means, specifically is it the same for those charging and those receiving a charge, as it's not defined in the rules.
Again a quick rework gives this table:
This version assumes that the actions in the table are all compulsory so "Forced" is superfluous. Even so it's still a bit busy with lots of "Carrying On".
I did try a version that merged like cells across rows, as there's a lot of duplication, but it was a touch too hard to lookup values in columns. One way to solve this is to merge some cells as follows:
I think this is still sub-optimal but it just goes to show how hard this is.
As the author of the rules, I do welcome the feedback about and having seen the examples of improvements, I does show clearly these effects. I will be implementing the suggestions above in the specific rules mentioned and my other sets. Again thank you for the time and feedback. Nigel
ReplyDeleteNot a problem Nigel. Glad to help. My wife says it has kept me quiet today so that's another benefit.
DeleteIf you'd like further help do get in touch.