For formulating rules, there needs to be a clear, established structure for two main reasons: - Players need to be able to quickly scan the rulebook and filter out rules relevant to them. - This allows relevant types of conditions, action or other keywords to appear at predictable places - Players should be able to formulate rules (correctly) without relying on a series of dropdown menus ### Structure For establishing a structure, rules are split up into sentence modules: 1. Rules Conditions - Effect Timing - Effect Trigger - (Optional) Limits - (Optional) Logic Connectors 2. Rules Subjects - Players - Objects - Rules 3. Rules Effects - (Common) Actions - Laws - (Optional) Choices #### 1. Rules Conditions For rules to be able to resolve properly, they need to tell people precisely when they should apply the effect of the rule during play. ##### Effect Timing These types of conditions are tied to a specific timing during the player’s turns, or specifies the lack thereof. ###### Examples: At the start of the turn, do X These effects are resolved as the first effects at the beginning of the turn. At the end of the turn, These effects are resolved once the turn attempts to end. From now on, These effects are constantly in effect, and must always be considered whenever a player does ANYTHING. Once, These effects only occur a single time after the creation of the rule. ##### Effect Trigger These types of conditions require specified actions to be met as conditions. Their syntax is very uniform, but also extremely versatile. These effects behave similar to laws, but demand an additional action to be performed whenever their condition is met. ###### Examples: Whenever X happens, do Y ex.: Whenever a player draws a card, that player may also steal one card from an adjacent player. ##### (Optional) Prefix: Limits Limits act as an optional prefix, and are also not needed for the game to function on a basic level. ###### Examples: Only for the next X turns, These effects only stay active for a limited amount of turns. Only for subject X, Only applies to a specific player, object or rule (any subject). Only X times, Typically prefix to a condition, it limits the quantity of triggered actions. Only X times per turn, Typically prefix to a condition, it limits the quantity of triggered actions per turn. Only for the next X minutes, Interacts with game/turn timer. The remaining time needs to be public information. ##### (Optional) Suffix: Logic Connectors These suffixes should only be used to create more specific triggers or perform an identical action at different times. Otherwise players can use this to create multiple rules worth of rules each turn. ###### Examples: and or except when while #### Rules Subjects Everything in the game is a subject that rules can apply to. Only the [[Unalterable Ruleset]] is exempt from being modified. ##### Players Players need a unique identifier to enter the game. This unique identifier is placed on the game field in order of sitting positions (IRL) or determined turn order. Typically used when you want to introduce a new action during the resolution phase. ##### Objects Objects refers to all game objects/tokens etc. in the Game Area. Each type of object should have a clearly defined name, but it should have limits on how specific unique identifiers need to be: You normally cannot tell apart Queen of Spades A and Queen of Spades B after shuffling, so any copies of the Queen of Spades should always be treated as identical. ##### Rules Rules can also apply to other rules (or possibly themselves). #### Rules Effects Represented by the verb used as part of rules, the effect fundamentally determines what occurs when the rule attempts to resolve. ##### Common Actions It is impossible to list all hypothetical actions that could reasonably be part of the game. What is important is to be clear what each action does (/means) and which terms are treated as synonyms (functionally identical). An option to display all rules with uniform nomenclature should be considered (eliminate all synonyms and display rules as if they had been composed utilizing the main terminology). ###### Examples: Add (/Get) A new object is added to the game area under unspecified ownership (default: neutral aka. not owned by anyone). Remove Preexisting object is removed from the game (and the game area). Steal Preexisting object changes ownership. Take (/Draw) Preexisting object moves into ownership. Shuffle During this action, information about the shuffled subjects will be temporarily unavailable. The shuffled objects can be inspected after the conclusion of shuffling. ##### Laws Laws serve to allow/disallow performing certain actions in the game. Just like adding objects, laws can allow players to perform new types of actions (as long as these actions have been properly defined). ###### Examples: …players cannot draw cards. Disruptive, but this forbids all actions of the type “draw” (and by extension “take”) in conjunction with card-type objects. …players cannot gain ownership over cards. Very disruptive towards card-based actions, but even those types of rules can serve to work towards victory conditions. …players cannot suggest this rule. Tied to a condition, this shapes what kinds or rules are allowed to be suggested. …that player wins the game. Tied to a condition, this is the fundamental type of law that drives this game.