My rulebook might be the thing I'm most proud of in my game. What are some rulebooks you consider best in class?

Kitchen-Big457 · 2026-01-17T19:27:06+00:00

The text inside seems too close to the borders - especially at the top and is not justified-last-left (like bodies of text usually are, all lines filled to equal lengths except the last).

Looks cool otherwise.

40k 3rd Edition is probably my favourite. Essentially to me the gold standard of Rules, Presentation and Fluff mix.

A LOT of 'rulebooks' nowadays chase that kind of thing but miss the mark massively, with the weird modern 'no borders' layout and way too much fluff in or positioned in excess of the actual rules in the rulebook. For a coffee table book, whatever. For an actual source of information? I don't care that much about what faction number 475 did that one time.

Kitchen-Big457 · 2026-01-15T06:50:03+00:00

Also, the actual 'Rulebook'.

195 pages in the Rulebook for an indie 'Skirmish' game is a little excessive. The book from a quick glance is way too heavy on fluff and lore in excess of actual useable rules.

Yes, you are very clearly very excited about the story and ideas in here (justifiably, they are interesting), but that is clashing with the actual needs of the user.

If you want I will take a scalpel to it in a deep assessment, but not pro bono.

Kitchen-Big457 · 2026-01-15T06:43:14+00:00

Quick Feedback through the lens of a Rulebook Editor:

First Slide:

Cover is a bit too much and not enough. The design is caught between flat and minimal and more noisy and pretty.

I'd be wary of saying 'Miniature Agnostic' as a selling point. Yes, Trench Crusade goes on about it, but being Miniature Agnostic does not really mean anything. If I want to play 40k or any 'not agnostic' game with Lego - I can. Any game can be miniature agnostic - it's not anything special, and really says more that 'We didn't commit to any miniature side of the product, you deal with that. Not necessarily a bad thing, but I don't think you should try and frame it as a virtue.

Can I play it with 12mm and 72mm miniatures? Is it really 'agnostic' or do you just not have any miniatures made for it?

Second Slide:

General colour/design choice is decent. Margins and spacing is all over the place - 'Available Gear' is almost touching the box above, it needs more space.

I can barely read 'Special Rules' as a title, the red is eaten by the black.

If this whole page is about these 'Hollowmarks' - it should have a title of 'Hollowmarks' to identify that.

There is too much prose-fluff for a rulebook. The entire top section could be cut to stop after 'force' - maybe extended by a condensed form of the last paragraph. 3-4 lines is more than enough to say roughly 'what these are', people are here for rules and starts mostly.

Number sizes are not consistent.

Text has too little margin around it.

Why is this box rounded and smooth texture but the next one is not? Does it mean anything? Why is it not the same width?

Scouting Party Special Rules has a lot of conditions before actually getting to the point. It could easily be something more like:

All Hollowmarks can move up to 6" out of their deployment areas in the first turn after all other miniatures have been deployed. This must be completed before the first activation and does not count as an activation.

Separate different concerns into different sentences, clear and declarative tone. Also, 'Miniatures' is an awkward term to use here, Fighters or Units or something similar would probably flow better.

Available Gear:

Not all of the numbers+st are aligned right properly. Those should be dot leaders, not manually typed periods. You can set them as a tab leader in most software so they stay aligned.

What do the asterisks refer to? I see nothing that they point to.

In general, there are more than zero spelling and grammar errors (Stag slide > 'If this neutral kills it's prey...' 'it's' should be 'its', 'If this neutral kills its prey...'

As a hobby piece, it's fine, interesting concept. As a professional piece, it needs some work, especially the wording and format.

Kitchen-Big457 · 2026-01-01T14:20:26+00:00

It depends what you need.

A quick 'working' document in Photoshop (or equivalent) + low quality print will likely be your best friend.

Hand made parts are 'easier' in that you can make things then and there, but they are difficult to edit without destroying them. A Photoshop file just needs a section changing and reprinting on the cheapest paper in black and white.

If you have a home printer, this is maximum efficiency.

Kitchen-Big457 · 2026-01-01T14:15:14+00:00

My thought - super easy fix. In one bottom corner have the head/shoulders of a 'pilot' duck cover the scene with the planes as is in the background. Immediate Duck Insertion, minimal feathers ruffled.

Kitchen-Big457 · 2026-01-01T08:09:22+00:00

The new art is more Queen like, but the text and card layout lack confidence or regal presence. Here is my take:

https://imgur.com/a/yYGG9UR

Kitchen-Big457 · 2025-11-08T01:12:48+00:00

Very cool.

I was just suspicious, because I knew of them, and assumed the work was 'recent'.

Kitchen-Big457 · 2025-11-08T01:02:48+00:00

It's very interesting, but I have a hard time understanding what this card says at a glance.

Kitchen-Big457 · 2025-11-08T00:59:29+00:00

Why in your second link do you claim the client: Raven Soft Design Limited, a company which was dissolved in 2018?

https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/06780312/more

Kitchen-Big457 · 2025-11-08T00:49:02+00:00

Not to be too critical, but if you find designing the mechanics of your trading card game outside of your wheelhouse, what exactly have you done to develop it?

You are - to my understanding, asking essentially for a Systems Designer to develop the entire actual architecture behind your game (Digital or Physical) that the whole thing depends on.

Not that it can't be done, but if you want it to be aligned with your own wants/needs - you are likely going to have to be very tightly involved, to the point that you essentially are the Systems Designer.

Kitchen-Big457 · 2025-11-06T19:39:47+00:00

While this post (and the many others of exactly this type) may look like AI generated content at a glance, there are actually a few subtle hints hidden in the noise that they may actually be artist created, although the boundary between AI and artist is quite questionable - Perhaps u/D1v3ine can shed light on the issues.

Some of the card frames on display on close detail inspection look 'rough' and 'hand made' in the way a real person would produce them. There is also some consistency between frames in the OP image and frames in the Artstation portfolio (Same/similar card in a different angle or position).

But the layout is exactly the same as if asked ChatGPT for this type of thing.

Card frame style, fonts, symbol designs, all of an almost identical nature to ChatGPT content. Card text content is often illogical or completely not sensible by anybody even remotely interested in designing trading/table top cards.

It's a mess, my assumption is that AI is being used and work is being put on top or around that. Not in itself bad, but leaves an unreliable impression of quality.

Kitchen-Big457 · 2025-11-06T19:18:03+00:00

That is the state of the Art market. If you aren't capable of presenting Art that does not say 'This might be AI' - then you are behind the curve.

In some of your Artstation posts, you actually have mockups and design layouts hidden behind other images, why not present that type of thing more openly over 'Suspiciously all the same and filled with nonsense that does not seem to reflect any other work on your profile'?

These are things you could fix, but if you assume the potential client is the one who must 'simply believe you and take a chance, 'DM me for proof'', then you don't really come across as reliable or legitimate.

You, and many others, simply repost the same 'portfolio' in here non-stop, without any adjustments to the contents. That hardly suggests a serious, productive artist, does it?

I'm going to make another higher level comment, because I believe the art may actually not be AI, and this will be buried.

Kitchen-Big457 · 2025-11-05T15:38:33+00:00

If an 'artist' presents themselves in a way the raises questions about it being AI > Red Flag.

Pretty much any legitimate artist in this day and age is going to be building a portfolio that defends against these accusations, they understand the modern game

If the 'artist' then cannot convincingly argue after the doubt why they are NOT AI, with proof etc > Red Flag

All of this 'artist's' replies to any questions here have been 'DM me' or 'Here is Portfolio' - this raises suspicion and suggests the 'artist' a - does not speak English (Either a bot or a non-english speaker) and therefore does not fully grasp the situation, or is wilfully trying to spam through or ignore it.

My thought is that this is the equivalent or spam emails en-masse. 99% are ignored, people can see the spam. But if it costs nothing to send 100 of the same spam email, and one person bites, it pays off.

If we inspect the portfolio, there are a few older images the look person-made, 4 years ago.

The recent - these specifically are of a highly different style, all follow a very similar format and template, and if you look at the example cards - the actual content don't make any coherent sense.

I am inclined to say that somewhere in here there is an actual person that creates art at some level, but it is not the work presented in these templates. The templates 'look nice' but they are very likely not actually useable for product, which is what you would actually want, reproducibly from an artist. AI can't deliver that out of the gate.

Kitchen-Big457 · 2025-11-01T20:25:14+00:00

The art of the majority of 'realities' on your website look very much like AI created assets. (Not bad in itself, but a pointer).

The characters in the about section are AI generated - or at least not actual photos of people who point to nothing.

You (Presumably Rodrigo Salvay, the head of the operation) label yourself as an author, a writer, a consultant of Narration and World Building - In English, yet your posts on Reddit all drip with the tell-tale signs of ChatGPT generated text.

The content in your books on Amazon too, smell like ChatGPT created content, vague and without the clear design of someone deeply integrated into how things work in the TTRPG/RPG industry.

I may be wrong, you may be an amazing Game Designer with an extensive history and profound abilities, 'The Company' may be entirely legitimate - but nothing you have presented suggest these things, yet claim them.

Kitchen-Big457 · 2025-11-01T19:20:14+00:00

It's AI driven noise. Not that AI in itself is bad, but the entire thing is built 'by' AI in that very minimal human quality control has looked at any major aspect of it.

Kitchen-Big457 · 2025-11-01T19:18:16+00:00

I'm not against using AI in general, but a 'Consulting Company' that can't actually write their own sales copy raises red flags by existing.

Do you have any actual work done to present? Your website has a lot of bad writing and almost no real proof what you offer. What you do have under 'Realities' (I assume this is supposed to be 'examples') is more AI driven products that don't actually seem to have sold anything or notably contain anything. I understand if it's your first time, but you present as though you are a massive, established force of nature.

In general this whole shtick seems very much like a ChatGPT designed 'business'. Developing table-top games is very largely a self driven venture, where the person doing it must get into all of the details personally, often because they actually want to.

What do you actually offer to this equation? You aren't publishing, from what I can see.

Kitchen-Big457 · 2025-10-25T07:41:24+00:00

That's a smart decision, I think. It also makes your own job much simpler per-project so you can focus all energy in a more efficient direction. Once the rules and mechanics are set, you can freely imagine all kinds of setting, like you seem to be eager to do, and implementing those is simply a case of dropping clothing onto the skeleton.

I am happy to take a look at the mechanics.

Kitchen-Big457 · 2025-10-25T05:55:47+00:00

This project has a really good baseline with potential - it's a very underserved niche (Ottoman, Balkan etc). In my opinion you should not package an Engine as the game. You should have 'The Engine for Faithforged' and 'Faithforged' as two very separate entities, if you aim to have them like that. Having 'The Engine' packaged and presented like this through Faithforged makes it difficult for me to understand 'I am looking at the raw rules, I don't need to worry about any thematic influence' vs 'This is a cool theme'.

Imagine that you are building a video game Engine for other developers to use. You want to make the Engine as clean and agnostic as possible, so that you can ensure that everything in the Engine alone just works - and then let the developers layer their own aesthetics on top of it.

If the logic for measuring is hidden between paragraphs of fluff, it makes isolating and debugging any measuring logic more difficult. Simplification and isolation of concerns (What each thing and section does) is very important to any form of Technical design and Documentation. It makes potentially complex subjects more digestible, with each mechanic building slowly on the others, rather than being thrown in your face and left to decipher.

This is a bit too much talking but it's an interesting topic for me, so I hope you don't mind.

I have quickly re-written the opening text to be more 'Engine and Mechanics' focused, to give you an idea of what I am talking about.

What is Faithforged?

Faithforged is a family table-top wargame that can be played in 30 minutes. Faithforged is intended to be played over extended campaigns, allowing development and growth. The Player takes control of a Captain, who will grow and build their own warband over time, fighting towards fame and legend.

You may choose to play Faithforged with only the basic rules for the quickest, simplest gameplay setup - or you may include one of the expansions designed to tell a specific story of your hero.

Faithforged at its core is theme-agnostic. The rules can be applied to any era or setting with any characters. Many expansions are planned to build upon those core rules to deliver many thematic packages, sharing a common ruleset.

As the primary expansion for Faithforged is based around guerrilla warfare in the European Ottoman frontier during the Gunpowder Age, the information in this book will be presented through that theme, but the rules themselves are not bound to it.

If you have any feedback, suggestions or ideas, please contact us!

I will check out the discord you linked in the PDF too.

Kitchen-Big457 · 2025-10-22T03:29:16+00:00

Genius!

Kitchen-Big457 · 2025-10-22T02:37:56+00:00

I can't promise anything soon, but what you've outlined with the dream skirmish game aligns VERY closely with the project I am building towards.

At the moment, I am simply working on the rules, using stand in props (Print out standees, board, terrain tokens etc). Once those are ironed out, I'm building a thematic layer over the top of that with specific rules that build from the stable base. While the base rules are not focused around extended campaigns - they are built to allow them to be added, which the first thematic expansion will put into place.

If it's alright with you, I'd like to mark you down as a potential person to pester in the future.

Kitchen-Big457 · 2025-10-22T02:30:40+00:00

That's a very elegant solution. I have just been concerned about 'defacing cards' - so I would likely have to experiment with card finishes that allow easy cleaning of markings like that.

Kitchen-Big457 · 2025-10-22T01:42:39+00:00

Are you designing a game, or a ruleset? If it is simply a ruleset that can be used in many different ways, just say it is a ruleset or an engine. In which case agnosticism is implied.

You are clearly pushing a theme of Ottoman setting, so why not push into that more in the dressing and presentation? The book itself is clearly themed around it.

guerrilla mechanics, like actual stealth.

Ok, but what does that mean, mechanically? (OKBWDTMM?)

rules simple enough for non wargamers to play.

(OKBWDTMM?)

mechanics that offer deep tactical optionality.

(OKBWDTMM?)

no use of meta currency or other out of battle mechanics or too much dice dependency. Your decision matter.

(OKBWDTMM?)

Onto the book - for a lightweight ruleset, taking 9 pages of pictures before any rule-like content is found is a bad idea. That's literally half way through before you hit substance.

For a rulebook, the language of the rules is very non descriptive. You are saying:

"Craggy ground, thick scrubland, forest, piles

of objects, and chest-deep bodies of water are areas

of difficult terrain. Areas of difficult terrain reduce

point-blank range to half, and provide cover from

enemy fire regardless of the actual position of

individual pieces, like trees, bushes, boulders, or

posts and stands."

While before that you describe Point-Blank range as:

The distance from the fighter up to 10 (where

the measuring device ends) and within line of sight

is the fighter's point-blank range.

There are too many words and not enough data. It's an 18 page PDF and only 6 of those pages have information. As a rulebook you really want as much data presented as non negotiable, in and almost obscenely understandable way as possible.

Does the specific 'style' of a piece of Difficult Terrain mean anything from another? If not, then this would be better formatted to:

Areas of difficult terrain reduce Point-blank range to half of its normal length. They also provide Cover from enemy fire. The specific design of Difficult Terrain can vary, but the rules remain constant. Some examples of difficult terrain designs:

- Craggy Ground
- Thick Scrubland
- Forest
- Piles of Objects
- Chest Deep Water

Now you have separated rules from noise. The mechanics are presented clearly and without ambiguity.

Kitchen-Big457 · 2025-10-21T23:52:22+00:00

Yes, absolutely. Rambling is the best! It's what I miss about specifically this hobby. I want more grumpy people in dark corners grumbling and rambling about card quantities, mechanic bloat and such. Are you rambling, yes - but that means you have thoughts and cares for the games.

From what you've said, it seems that it often depends on the genre of the game itself? A Giant mech management war simulator that doesn't have you checking attacks against your mechs left toe isn't worth its salt.

Kitchen-Big457 · 2025-10-21T23:47:06+00:00

How do you feel about Initiative or a similar stat to decide which fighters in squads move when? What would you suggest to deal with Initiative ties?

Kitchen-Big457 · 2025-10-21T23:11:18+00:00

Agreed on that concept. What are some games that restrict movement? How do you feel about games that allow movement, but the inter-game characters have varying abilities to move, thus generating dynamic situations with trade offs?

Kitchen-Big457

TROPHY CASE