How to Reflect Aesthetic and Tone through copy in Tabletop games…

Image for one second, living in a world where everything is explained in the same monotonous way. Nobody has a unique voice and everybody’s communication is solely intended to simply execute logically and effectively.

Well that would be a world of robots, where everyone is a robot, and thankfully, we don’t live in that world and (hopefully) aren’t robots. No offence if you are a robot of course. This is a very progressive LGBTR friendly blog you know…

Copy and the way things are written have a huge impact on our interpretation of things; products, brands, books, advertising, etc etc. It shapes the communicative character of a piece of work or a billboard ad or even a political campaign. It is something that you should definitely NOT overlook when it comes to creating a product, aka, your tabletop game design.

To that end, what steps can we take to ensure the copy and communication is as effective as possible, whilst still retaining identity, life, emotion, empathy and all that good stuff. Well here are a few exercises to help you get there…

Exercise 1: Imagine how your character or characters would perceive and communicate their world

One thing you can try and do to make your copy more immersive is to write through the voice or character of someone in your game. Sure this doesn’t work if you write through the voice of C’thulhu, but an impassioned speech from the mercenary soldier about the dangers of pushing your luck too far will be far more immersive than simply writing out the rules. Use this device where you can to add value to certain elements of your game that may require either emotional or psychological investment. The more effective this is the more immersed your players will be in the experience.

Exercise 2: Create an personal embodiment of your product, and communicate through it

Don’t ask about the image, first google search and all…

The second part of the first exercise is something that is very common in branding and identity development for brands and companies. Create a character, or persona around your tabletop game. If your game was a real life human person, who would they be, what would they wear and where would they shop. What relationships would they have and with what people, where would they work, etc etc. Once you have figured out the persona of your game, you will be better positioned to communicate that game in a way that better matches the visual tone, look and feel, and also enhances that experience.

Exercise 3: Clarity is Key

Taking it back to basics a little bit before you get carried away here. So, it’s a bit counter intuitive, but despite writing through character, and adding those quirky elements of voice and tone into your copy, you’re gunna have to be regimented about keeping it clear, keeping it simple, and keeping it concise. Nobody likes flowery prose when they are trying to understand a core game mechanic, which leads me on to…

Exercise 4: Set a goal for every element of copy, and always refer to those goals as guiding principles

With every piece of copy you (or a copywriter more likely) produce for your game, be clear about it’s goal. What are you trying to achieve with this copy and what are you trying to communicate. Then, you can figure out what delivery mechanism works best for that piece of copy, and what form that takes and where it sits. If explaining an advanced strategy tip for example, because it isn’t a core piece of information, you might want to speak through the warcommander character in your game, and use the form of ‘Barry’s rules of war’, explaining each rule through that character. Whereas if you are explaining how to play your turn, you might want to just use the general tone of the game’s persona, but communicate in a clear and concise, calculated fashion, breaking the turn down into numbered bullet points.

What this all comes down to at the end of the day is effective communication though, and involving your players as much as possible in the process of learning and playing your game. Once that has been achieved, you’re onto a winner.

Yours copyly,

Chris

Board Games & Life Aims

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Blog about board games and life pains! Too many terrible puns and plenty of bad advice... New articles every Monday and Thursday!

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