An instruction (as we’ll call it here) is anything that the game instructs players to do outside the ordinary flow of rules.

Some games call these things “effects”, “exceptions”, “powers”, or “rules text”. When you play a card and the card tells you to do something, that’s what we’re talking about here.

“Simple” is an arbitrary but useful distinction I use for instructions. Perhaps it will be useful to you as well.

Simple instructions are useful because they behave intuitively to most players, even non-gamers. Simple instructions feel natural to carry out, so they generate fewer rules questions or corner cases which may break the flow of play.

A game with a large number of simple effects leads to greater discovered play without unnecessarily complex or nuanced resolutions.

The attributes of simple instructions:

• Single Mode: They do the same thing every time.
• Immediate: They resolve and then leave play.
• Current: They only consider the current state of the game.
• Active: They are used actively, not reactively.
• Front-Loaded: All decisions are made up front.
• Consistent: They work as expected in edge cases.

Instructions have a single mode.

Each instruction only works one way, and it works that way every time.

By contrast, an instruction with multiple modes usually has a format of “pick one…” or “if X, do Y. Otherwise, do Z”.

Cards with multiple modes make it hard for players to understand potential outcomes, making counterplay difficult. They may also provide so much utility that discovering play opportunities for one or more modes is not worth the effort.

• Multiple Modes: “If you are adjacent to the opponent, +2 Power. Otherwise, advance 1.” This card works one way sometimes, and it does something totally different other times.
• Multiple Modes: “Pick one: Draw 1, advance 1, or +2 Power.” This instruction does whatever you want, whenever you want. When a card is this easy to optimize, there’s no skill to using it.
• Single Mode: “You have +2 Power.” This does just what it says. It’s up to the player to figure out how and when to make this useful.

Instructions resolve immediately.

When dealing with simple instructions, there are no ongoing or tracked effects players need to remember.

Ongoing instructions have persistent outcomes. To keep instructions simple, try formatting persistent outcomes as game state changes.

• Ongoing: “At the start of each turn, take $1 from the bank.” This instruction stays in play and forces us to check it again every single turn. The risk of forgetting the instruction and creating an incorrect game state is high.
• Immediate: “Increase your income track by 1.” This instruction changes the state of the game in a way that naturally accomplishes the same outcome.

Tracked instructions force us to remember to do something later. Such an instruction starts now and resolves later.

• Tracked: “The next time a player draws a card, you draw 1 and discard this.” After playing this instruction, we now have to remember to complete it.
• Immediate: “You may play this during another player’s draw step. Draw 1.” This instruction can’t be initiated until the proper timing window, keeping things simple.

Instructions are current.

Simple instructions do not look backward at the game’s history, and do not ask you to remember past actions or states.

Instead, they consider only the current state of the game.

• Historic: “If your opponent moved last turn, advance 2.” This instruction asks us to remember what happened last turn, but most games don’t provide any tools to track this history.
• Current: “If the top card of your opponent’s discard is a movement card, advance 2.” This instruction uses the game’s state to accomplish the same effect.

Instructions are active.

Simple instructions cannot be countered, reacted to, or prevented.

This is accomplished not in the instruction itself, but in the way you structure your instructions designed for counterplay. Wherever possible, make counterplay active, not reactive.

There is no “stack” or “chain” with simple instructions.

• Reactive: “When your opponent plays a movement card, counter it.” This instruction reactively interrupts another instruction, causing chaos and creating a “stack” of effects. Can the counter be countered too?
• Active: “Your opponent must discard a movement card from their hand, or reveal a hand with none.” This instruction actively prevents movement by taking away the opponent’s tools.

Instructions are front-loaded.

If a decision is to be made in carrying out the instruction, the instruction must not reveal any new information that could alter that decision.

• Back-loaded: “Pick up the top 5 cards of your deck. Put them back in any order.” The player gets new information mid-instruction, which they must pause and evaluate before completing the instruction. This creates a lot of downtime.
• Front-loaded: “Set aside 5 cards from the top of your deck. Put 5 cards from your hand on top of your deck in any order. Draw the set aside cards.” This instruction lets the player make all the key decisions up-front, without the opportunity to evaluate any new information mid-instruction.

Instructions are consistent in edge cases.

Edge cases are situations where the game state might prevent the instruction from working normally.

What happens when an instruction says “move 4 spaces” and there is only enough room to move 3? What about “deal 20 damage” when the opponent only has 4 life? What about “draw 5 cards” when there are only 2 cards left in the deck?

If some limitation prevents a simple instruction from completing fully, it should complete as much as is logically possible, without any special exceptions or interruptions.

In the above examples: We move the 3 available spaces and stop. We deal the 4 possible damage and stop. We draw the last 2 cards and stop.

The results of hitting these limits should be confronted only after the instruction is completed.

This is more of a high-level “golden rule” that you should watch out for and clarify in your rules. Try to structure your instructions so that it’s unambiguous what to do in the edge cases.

Notes: This is not hard to achieve in practice. When an edge case comes up, just poll your players “How do you think it should work?” their first instinct is often the intuitive one.