New sign&portents&Battlefield:Evolution rules

[Makoto]

You look at description for weapon X and it says "cannot fire as reaction; armour saves are -1", and that's little different from saying Pack, Piercing/1

Yes, definitely different - instead of looking on 2 words and a number You have to search the entire text. Above scenario is simple, but how about: Multihit, LZ(3"), Ready, Artillery only, Piercing/1, Flame, Accurate? OK, am too lazy to write it all as the text, but just imagine You only want to make sure You remember correctly all the specifics for that weapon.

 

[Lorcan Nagle]

You look at description for weapon X and it says "cannot fire as reaction; armour saves are -1", and that's little different from saying Pack, Piercing/1

Yes, definitely different - instead of looking on 2 words and a number You have to search the entire text. Above scenario is simple, but how about: Multihit, LZ(3"), Ready, Artillery only, Piercing/1, Flame, Accurate? OK, am too lazy to write it all as the text, but just imagine You only want to make sure You remember correctly all the specifics for that weapon.

It's still not going to be a huge amount of text, and you're still only going to need to read it until you've got the rules and stats down - and then you're just going to have to scan a small paragraph at worst to find the info you want.

 

[Soulmage]

instead of looking on 2 words and a number You have to search the entire text.

Not really. After you've been playing with the system a while, just a glance at a particular paragraph will cause a couple words to jump out at you that remind you what it is. You don't have to sit there and start reading from the beginning and finishing at the end every time. Its not a scrolling text display!

 

[Makoto]

It's still not going to be a huge amount of text, and you're still only going to need to read it until you've got the rules and stats down - and then you're just going to have to scan a small paragraph at worst to find the info you want.

But it's carefull scanning of the paragraph instead of just glancing on two-three words when I want to make sure about weapon properties - huge difference.

 

[dyssnowman]

But we are talking about few lines of text, not War and Peace.

If you need to carefully read the text, then it sounds like a serious rule question. In that case, a better comparison would be carefully reading of a few lines of text or looking in the back of the book for the correct page number, flipping to that page, and then reading that description. Writing out the rules on a card does is eliminate searching the glossary finding the right page, and then going through a few paragraphs to find the right answer.

 

[Makoto]

But it does allow quick glance to make sure You remember the weapon effects correctly, and unless an army roster with traits listed is planned (sth like the ones on the last pages in current armybooks) then paragraphs on cards are in no way even close to being that handy.

 

[tneva82]

But it does allow quick glance to make sure You remember the weapon effects correctly, and unless an army roster with traits listed is planned (sth like the ones on the last pages in current armybooks) then paragraphs on cards are in no way even close to being that handy.

Amen! Not to mention learning out rules for new army.

 

[Lorcan Nagle]

But it does allow quick glance to make sure You remember the weapon effects correctly, and unless an army roster with traits listed is planned (sth like the ones on the last pages in current armybooks) then paragraphs on cards are in no way even close to being that handy.

But they're likely going to be layed out in a clear and logical fashion. even if it's a paragraph. It's not like it's going to be some rambling run-on sentence.

The thing to remember is that this system has been sucessfully used on at least two wargames already in recent years with no complaints.

 

[Galatea]

The thing to remember is that this system has been sucessfully used on at least two wargames already in recent years with no complaints.

That's no reason.
I know people that have player Warhammer40k for years. Then they played one time confrontation. And never touched their 40k army since that.
Sometimes you don't complain because you simply don't know it can be better.
And traits are better.

I vote for traits and paragraphs on the cards - the one to learn it, and the second for providing a quick information when you already almost know what your toys are doing.

 

[Lorcan Nagle]

The thing to remember is that this system has been sucessfully used on at least two wargames already in recent years with no complaints.

That's no reason.

No - it's pointing out that putting the full rules on the cards works.

I know people that have player Warhammer40k for years. Then they played one time confrontation. And never touched their 40k army since that.
Sometimes you don't complain because you simply don't know it can be better.
And traits are better.

Well that's your opinion, and one I kinda agree with - I'll clarify below.

I vote for traits and paragraphs on the cards - the one to learn it, and the second for providing a quick information when you already almost know what your toys are doing.

This is kinda what the Warmachine and Hordes cards too - each rule on the card has a bolded title, and then the details follow. So any unit that has a combined attack ability (or whatever) has exactly the same wording - once you know it for one unit you know it for all them.

But that's just a case of formatting and typesetting.