Do you enjoy reading rule books?

[Tom]

I used to love reading rule books, but for some reason, it's kind of a pain now.

What about y'all? Do you, or did you, like reading the rules to games?

If so, are you the go-to "rules person" of the group? Does it affect your gaming at all?

[Zedsdead]

YES. I used to love being "the one who knows". I was good at it; there tended to be fewer stallouts in new games if I was the one who read the rules.

Over time it just became more work and less fun. I still do it though...somebody has to and the payoff is worth it.

[Tom]

Eric wrote: "there tended to be fewer stallouts in new games if I was the one who read the rules"

To this day, my friends will find me at a convention to ask for a ruling on Battlestar Galactica. I totally hear you about lessening the stallouts.

[Rindis]

Reading rules is not one of my favorite things (that would be using the rules!), but I'm generally fine with it. The main impact is that the group tends to play a number of different games as there'll be a number of people familiar with the rules of whatever we play (all hail rules PDFs!).

[Agnieszka]

I'm usually the person who is asked to read the rules, even if I don't own the game. I got used to it and I don't mind it. I'm more of a visual person so I get a better grasp of how to play the game from reading the rulebook than from someone else's explanation. But I hate it when the rulebooks are over 20 pages, this might put me off and then I start looking for a video runthrough.

[Tyler]

Reading rule books is something that I consider part of the way I engage with and enjoy the board gaming hobby. I've definitely read rule books for games I don't even own. That said, whether I actually "enjoy" reading a rule book depends a lot on the same factors as one's enjoyment of reading a book of any other kind -- mainly how well written it is and how compelling the reader finds the subject matter.

[Andrew]

Yes. Sometimes to see whether I want to buy a game, sometimes after being taught a game to see what I missed,...

[d]

For me, it depends on the rule book and the context. I don't really like reading rules in the same way I like reading books. That is: if I have the opportunity to read a book, I'd rather read that than a rule book. However, if I'm getting ready to play a game, then I want to read the rule book - even if I've read it several times before because I want to get more information, particularly if it's a long strategy based game.

I usually don't read much of the RPG rulebooks unless I have a compelling reason to do so. It's rare that I really like something like that for itself. The only rulebooks I've read that way were D&D when I was in 8th grade (OMG - sooooo cool) and recently Numenera, because I love the setting and the premise.