Design is the process of suiting an item to a task (or a set of
closely related tasks). Details like shaping a handle to fit a
hand seem obvious, but they get overlooked all the time. Anyone
that’s sold an RPG or a boardgame knows about game design and
book design and has a lot of respect for the people that do them
professionally. The idea that the text itself is an act of
design may seem foreign, though. Shaping a book to fit the minds
of its readers is easier to overlook and harder to accomplish.
Some thought goes in to the quality of your prose, but that is
the tip of the iceberg. Structure and organization are an act of
design and, thanks to the nature of rules, it’s a tricky act of
design, too. The rules text is not your game, it is your game’s
user interface. It is the button pad on your cell phone; the
remote control to your cable or satellite box; the steering
wheel, gearshift and pedals in your car. It is the way players
(in the absence of a teacher) connect with your game and it
needs to be designe