NaGaDeMOn / RoleVember 2019 - Book Structure

When I develop my ideas, I start by considering the structure of existing roleplaying books. This way I can think about what needs to go into the game, and what general order they need to be presented in. I did a general readthrough of a variety of games a few years ago includng AD&D, AD&D 2nd Ed, D&D 3.0Ed, Call of Cthulhu (I can't remember what edition), the various White Wolf World of Darkness games, Palladium's offerings, Cyberpunk 2020, Shadowrun, Tunnels and Trolls, Paranoia, Chill (2nd Edition), and a scattering of indie products. There's a fairly consistent layout and presentation order, but the way they vary from one another often provides insight into what the author (or lead designer) feels is most important to the game. 

I vary my presentation order depending on the specific nature of the game I'm designing, and this is always subjet to change as the game evolves in my head. I then tend to generate a word document with a series of heading that generally gets fleshed out as I work. It usually gets called "working notes".     

Familiar Working Notes

• Setting
• Familiar Creation
• Supporting Cast Creation
• Awakened Creation
• Book Creation
• Beginning a tale
• Weaving a tale
• Ending a tale
• Developing the Familiars
• Developing the Awakened

The next thing I'd normally do is allocate a rough page count to the various sections, keeping in mind how many pages the book will be. But I've liked the way "The Law" is split into 32-page comic-sized booklets, so the same thing will probably work here. 

Familiar Working Notes

Book 1

• Intro (4 pages)
• Setting (24 pages)
• Story ideas (4 pages)

This book provides context for everything else. This may be a game about modern urban magic, based in the real world we live in... but every game setting has differences from the reality of the players. People engage in roleplaying games for a bit of escapism, so this book describes what those differences are, and how they might influence the stories told within the game. An intro has been added to the book, as it has for all the books, but in this case it's a more comprehensive intro describing not only what this book is about, but also what the whole game is about. The final part of the book is descigned to show how various types of stories could be told through the medium of thuis game. Whether telling the tales of specific familiars, or opening up to a wider story of the area and the communites within it.   

Book 2

• Intro (2 pages)
• Familiar Creation (8 pages)
• Supporting Cast Creation (6 pages)
• Awakened Creation (6 pages)
• Book Creation (6 pages)
• Tying the creation elements together (4 pages)

This book might basically be considered the player's guide in other games, but it's more about beginnings. ertainly the players will need to reference this book, but it doesn't really describe much about how the character's advance through the course of play. It's purely how the various elements of the story begin before the story starts to change them and develop them. An intro has been added again, and in this case I've added an epilogue that ties together the various creation elements, hopefully into a coherent whole.

Book 3

• Intro (2 pages)
• Beginning a tale (8 pages)
• Weaving a tale (8 pages)
• Ending a tale (8 pages)
• Turning multiple tales into a chronicle/campaign (6 pages)

This book might basically be considered the GM's guide in other games. It's mostly about the way stories are set up and how they play out. Since this is a collaborative game driven by the actions of the players, it's probably something that the other players should at least take a look at. It specifically doesn't have "monster stat blocks" or anything like that, because it just isnt that sort of game. Again an intro, and this time the epilogue is about taking the loose threads at the end of a (generally) self-contained story, and using them to launch new stories.

Book 4

• Intro (2 pages)
• Developing the Familiars (12 pages)
• Developing the Awakened (12 pages)
• Developing the World (6 pages)

This book doesn't really have an analogue in most other games, unless you were to consider the old BECMI D&D books, where those later sets beyond the (B)asic one start to explain how characters might develop once they've moved beyond the starting point of their careers. The difference here is that it is assumed that the word will change in response to the actions from the characters, that's the important epilogue I'm adding in.

That's 4 books at 32 pages each, for a total of 128 pages, which is still a lot smaller than many of the core rulebooks on the market for other games. If the game were going to go further, there might be specific 32-page books filled with pre-generated supporting cast, or books of magic... or perhaps a book or two describing a setting to play in. Most likely, there would be a crossover books offering the ability to tell these types of stories in the sprawl I've been describing in "Beneath the Glass and Steel", or "The Law".