Dropzone Commander Review - The Rule Book, Part 2

Lauby:  Here we are at part 2 of the review of the Dropzone Commander main rule book - and, sadly,  it's no where near as positive as part 1.  But neither is it testicle and/or soul crushingly negative.  Oh, and in case we forgot to mention it, we are primarily reviewing the book as a physical object and information source at this point.

Dethtron- Correct, this won't be the free hand jobs for all affair that was part 1 of this review series, but neither will it be "Dropzone Commander: Operation Dumbo Drop."

Organizing a rulebook is, I'm sure, no small chore for those involved in publication, but I think there are a handful of decisions at work here that undermine an almost otherwise perfect first release.

Lauby:  Yeah, for all the amazing battle scenes, glossy paper, the pretty cool background material and the sheer amount of time that was obviously put into this book by a very small team, I felt like a lot more attention could have been paid to how all the super important information was organized.  Granted, those of you who know me are well aware that access to information is one of my things and that I tend to be a demanding about it.  However, just because the rules themselves were only 35 pages long, does not mean that a detailed index isn't required.

Not helpful.

Dethtron- The index did leave something to be desired.  I would have liked to have at least seen an entry for every special rule and weapon type.  It was difficult sometimes to find information in the rules for say a flying unit's movement when embarking troops.  Would it be in the section on flyers or movement disembarkation?  Fuck, I can't even remember where that did wind up.  I'd have to refer to the copious amount of post it notes in my rulebook to even tell you.

Lauby:  Now, we've all seen some pretty atrocious rule books in our days.  Hands down, I would say that the almost completely unusable first edition of Malifaux was the worst I've seen. Though even that had an index.  We've also all seen some really good rulebooks.  The most recent edition of Flames of War comes to mind.

Dethtron-  Agreed.  The FoW book is a textbook example in two things- 1) making a softcover binding so piss poor that it may not stand up to a single reading 2) getting your shit organizized.

What I think a lot of gaming companies should learn from FoW and, more germane to this review, what Hawk Wargames should note for Dropzone 2.0 are the following:

• Organize chapters in terms of turn sequence.  Try to avoid separating movement or shooting rules based on unit type.  Instead include them all in movement or shooting.
• Include a summary of each turn step at the beginning or end of a chapter.  This makes the first few games players engage in easier.  Following down the rulebook in exact page sequence during each turn helps ensure players aren't missing crucial steps.  Turns out there's a download for this, but hey, I'm lazy as hell.
• Highlight or overview key concepts in the rules after an entry.  FoW does a great job in distinguishing BS from rules by publishing core concepts in italics, while everything that is simply further explanation or just simply page filler is in a standard font.  I love the shit out of that.

Lauby:  Further complicating the matter of finding information in the book was the way the text was formatted.  For the most part, the rulebook was done in a pretty standard, two-column format.  No problems with that - lots and lots of other companies do that.  I actually quite like it since it concentrates the usually small amount of text for special rules into easily found blocks.

The problem with Dropzone Commander, however, was that from time to time, the format would switch over to a single column format- often on the same page and sometimes even in the middle of an explanation.  This made finding information a bit more difficult than it needed to be and made a few key pieces of the book fairly difficult to actually read and process.  It's just like a good film - good editing does not draw attention to itself.

Again, I may seem like I'm being picky, but rulebooks, at their core, are information sources.  The whole point is to make the game accessible to people and to communicate the rules to people who aren't familiar with them.  There was a definite sense of impenetrability in the Dropzone Commander rulebook.  While certainly not anywhere near the level that the main Infinity rules currently enjoy (despite the fact that I love that game, I have no rational explanation for how it caught on), it is a bit frustrating and frustrating people with your primary source of information is a Bad Thing (tm).

Dethtron- Well, this is the last of my major organizational gripes about the setup of the book.  I can't recall a single rulebook I've ever read- and that even goes back to that piece of shit shit-green leaflet of a battletech rulebook from the 90s- that didn't include a section in the front or back containing charts a-plenty.  I'm all for DLC, but we shouldn't have had to take a tube ride to Internet town to get a one page collection of all the to-hit charts and all that shit.

Lauby:   I will say this, as a positive   the rules themselves were very clearly written and very easy to understand on the whole.  Again, the problem is with how the rules are organized rather than the the rules themselves.

Dethtron-  Ahhh, but Lauby, that would take us into the next part of our journey.  See you next time, kids.