Ludic Rule

A Ludic Rule is the rule form of regulation: if this constellation is present, this effect occurs. Whoever laughs is out. A pawn that reaches the last rank is promoted. Whoever has more than seven cards at the end of their turn discards.

Alongside the Ludic Specification, which sets a value, it is the second form in which regulation determines: the specification occupies a place, the rule links. Whoever changes specifications readjusts a game; whoever changes rules rebuilds it.

A rule is atomic - one constellation, one effect - and game-specific: “the pawn moves one square forward” holds for one game and is therefore not catalogable. What is transferable is the pattern it realises, the Ludic Mechanism. Brought into an order, rules form a Ludic Procedure; many also hold without a sequence, at any time.

What it is not. It is not a value: “at most seven cards” contains a specification (seven) and a rule (whoever has more discards). It is not a pattern. And it is not a bearer: it does not appear and carries no ascription; its mediation, the rule text, can appear.

In everyday language

• “mechanic” (the term is narrower): a single rule. Does not distinguish the transferable pattern from the single rule, the sequence and the domain with feedback; nor the regulation in the corpus from the action in the process. Named combinations such as Worker Placement are also called “mechanics” but are not Ludic Mechanisms.
• “rule” (the term is narrower): a rule of the form “if …, then …” (“whoever laughs is out”). Does not distinguish specification from rule: changing a value is balancing, changing a link is redesign; nor the single rule from the sequence. The term Ludic Rule reads like the everyday word in English; the prefix keeps the two apart.

Place and design access

Place on the axis: CORPUS - the rule is a determination of the corpus, the rule form of its regulation. In the pattern order it stands atomic and game-specific, next to the specification; its transferable counterpart is the mechanism.

Design access: designable - rules are constructed, rule by rule.

Relations on the axis:

• CORPUS: the rule is a special form of Ludic Regulation - regulation in the form of the rule - and inherits its edges. It determines at the bearers: at entities, actions, operations and the places of the coordinate structures. A rule links a constellation and therefore often attaches to several bearers at once - to both pieces, when in chess one captures the other. Not every bearer carries a rule: at the goal, the regulation of football sets the dimensions, a specification. The regulation of a game, too, can exist without rules, made up of specifications only. Rules realise mechanisms and organisational structures - as a standing configuration or within a sequence. Procedures consist of rules; the same rule can stand in several procedures or in none.
• FORM: whether a rule takes effect automatically is conditioned by the form - the algorithm checks the constellation itself, at the table the players check it. Compliance is controlled by a controlling instance, not by the rule.
• PROCESS: a rule takes effect when its constellation occurs in the process. It holds in a phase - initial, ongoing, terminal.
• AGENT–FORM: operations are regulated too: touch-move.
• AGENT: rules regulate the action space of agents - what they may and must do, their actions. What they want, feel and how they decide, rules do not determine.

The trias at this concept

Regulation - the rule is regulation, in its rule form. Every rule has a mode: it permits, constrains or conditions (§10).

Appearance - a rule does not appear; it is not a bearer. Its mediation can appear - the rule text, the symbol on the card, the tutorial. Whoever designs these has designed the presentation, not the rule.

Ascription - a rule carries no ascription. Whoever calls the pawn’s promotion a “coronation” ascribes something to the pawn, not to the rule.

Delimitations

Delimitation from Ludic Specification

Against the Ludic Specification: linking and occupying. The specification sets a value - the hand limit is seven. The rule sets an effect - whoever has more discards. Often both sit in one sentence of the rulebook. Whoever turns the seven into a five readjusts; whoever replaces discarding with a point penalty rebuilds.

Delimitation from Ludic Procedure

Against the Ludic Procedure: single and in sequence. A rule has no order; a procedure brings rules into the order of this game. In design it helps to ask: is this rule really one - or does a whole sequence hide in it, “first this, then that”? Then it is a procedure.

Delimitation from Ludic Mechanism

Against the Ludic Mechanism: realisation and pattern. Set collection is a pattern found in many games. In Sushi Go it is realised as a rule: “three sashimi score ten points” - with the ten as a specification. In rummy and in happy families the same collecting looks quite different. The rule holds for one game; the mechanism travels.

Examples

• Chess: the pawn moves one square forward (state → permitted). If it reaches the last rank, it is promoted (state → assignment). Whoever touches a piece must move it - a rule about the operation.
• Uno: whoever’s card matches in colour or number may play it (comparison → permitted). Whoever plays their second-to-last card must call “Uno” (event → obligation).
• Sushi Go: three sashimi score ten points (state → calculation) - the realisation of set collection.
• Werewolf: whoever the village votes for is out (event → assignment).
• Magic: The Gathering: thousands of single rules that combine - the prime example of atomicity and combinability.

Explanation

Every game rule can be broken down into small, unambiguous building blocks: “When this occurs, that happens.” These are Ludic Rules. A rule has two parts - what must be present and what then happens - and it holds for your game, not for all games.

In design it helps to separate values and rules. “At most seven cards” is really two things: the value seven and the rule that you discard if you have more. You turn the value when balancing; you change the rule when the game has to be rebuilt. To get started: take a rule from your favourite game and write it as “if … then …” - you will see how many single rules sit in one sentence of the rulebook.

Usage context

• Phase: mainly development - the formalisation of the rule system.
• Tools: no stack, because rules are game-specific. They are written out in the regulations worksheet (planned); constellation and effect from §10 serve as a grid.

Theoretical foundation

• Katie Salen, Eric Zimmerman, Rules of Play (2003): constitutive, operational and implicit rules; rules as the formal foundation of the game.
• Jesper Juul, Half-Real (2005): games as rule-based systems with a variable, valorised outcome.
• Ernest Adams, Joris Dormans, Game Mechanics (2012), and Dormans’ tool Machinations: formal modelling of rule sets as nodes and flows - a link for formalisation.

Structure of a rule

Constellation - what must be present:

• a comparison: trumps win, the higher roll wins;
• a state: the last card in hand, the piece on the last rank;
• an event: when someone laughs, when a figure enters the zone.

Effect - what then happens:

• something is permitted: play, move, trade;
• something is forbidden or limited: do not laugh, at most seven cards;
• a state changes - through a calculation (plus one point, subtract damage) or an assignment (the piece becomes a queen, the role changes).

The mode follows from the effect: a rule that permits is permitting; one that forbids or limits is constraining; one that changes a state is conditioning. This is why “constraint” is not a category of the rule but the constraining mode of regulation. Values that rules compute with are specifications.

Features: atomic (one constellation, one effect), unambiguous (for a given constellation a definite result), combinable (with other rules into procedures and standing configurations), game-specific (holds for one game).