Author: Tim Gray (---.co.uk)
Date: 10-21-2003 07:42
The most basic principle is to avoid train crashes. If someone needs to understand Y before they can understand X, the Y section should come before the X section.
You'll probably find you can't do this perfectly, and you end up with a certain number of "(see section Z later)" notes, but it's a good principle. Another good principle is to put interesting stuff at the beginning to get the reader hooked.
All of which means that different games have to be in different orders. If your setting is basically our modern world you don't need to spend time explaining it before you can get on to other stuff. I did this with Legends Walk!, a supers game - I launched straight into character creation so people could get an idea of character abilities as soon as possible. You'd take this approach for X-Files or Stargate games. But if your setting is all weird and has key concepts which generate a lot of the rest of the game, you need to start by giving people that grounding. This would apply to Wraith, Fading Suns, Babylon 5 and Pirates of Dark Water.
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