I took a hiatus from Illeria after starting my new job. I needed it. I'm back though. I set a deadline to playtest Illeria 20 more times, and then contact my first publisher (Osprey). I'm at 9. I told myself I'd do a check-in at 10, so that will be my next post.
For today, I wanted to talk about grammar in rulebooks. I know, why did I take so long to talk about something so exciting? :p
Seriously though, as I was writing my rulebook, I noticed I was being inconsistent about what I capitalized. For example, do I write, "If a Spellcaster is Linked, they gain +2 Soul when casting Berserk," or "If a spellcaster is linked, they gain +2 soul when casting berserk"? Previously I had been just doing what felt right, without putting much thought into it (this in a book that I've edited and rewritten for the past decade). My recent full edit made me think I should be more intentional in my choices.
I talked to Sarah (a former English teacher) for advice. She said that game rulebooks are such a niche that there probably aren't standard conventions, and to just be consistent. She also suggested looking at other games, and seeing if I found a pattern.
So, I did this, and here's what I found (some of these in old-edition rulebooks):
Dungeons & Dragons capitalizes stats (Wisdom), skills, table names, abilities, and various quantities that they abbreviate (Armor Class as AC). They use lower case for race (dwarf), class (barbarian), and condition (paralyzed). They italicize spell names.
Warhammer 40K and Necromunda capitalize stats (Leadership), races (Ork), titles (Champion), terms like Combat Score or Break Test, psychic power names, skills, and mission names. They also capitalize weapon names when they are in a table, but not in text. The use lower case for statuses, phases of the turn (shooting phase), and the terms short and longe range.
Infinity capitalizes stats, attributes of weapons, troop types, skill names, statuses, mission names, and attributes like Short Skill or Range. I couldn't find anything significant that was lower-case.
Frostrgave capitalizes stats, class (Elementalist), magic schools, spell names, and the words "Line of Sight" and "Wizard Sheet." They use lower case on creature names and mercenary classes.
Savage Worlds capitalizes stats, skills, action names, status, and the term "Unit Card." It uses lower-case for the term "cover".
King of War capitalizes stats, move types, missions, statuses, troop type, movement types, and the terms Line of Sight and Enemies. I couldn't find anything significant in lower-case.
Going through this made me feel better about how indecisive I've been, it seems a little all over the map, and some games seem to just capitalize everything.
I found one discussion of it on BGG, which seemed to suggest that there is no standard convention, that "only capitalize proper nouns" is a good rule of thumb. I also like the idea of using italics for highlighting certain things.
Here is my working idea. I will capitalize:
-Stats (Armor)
-Terms like Energy Points, Residual Magic, and Training Dice
-Mission names (Scoria Hunt)
-Phase names (Action Phase)
-Action names (Melee Attack action)
I will italicize:
-spell names
-ability names
I will use lower-case for:
-statuses (linked)
-terms like summoned creatures and damage
-class names (mystic)
-terrain types (heavy cover)
-names of creatures (eidolons)
I'll see how this looks, and edit it as needed.
