# Back to the Box: a few questions before we build your rulebook

Hi Chris,

Thanks for sending Back to the Box. We've read your rulebook, your card file, your table photo and the order form closely, the way a new player and a rules reviewer would. Before we lay out the book we need your call on the points below. We never invent or change a rule: where the rules are your decision, we ask, and we offer no recommendation.

Rules questions come first. Answer what you can. If you skip a question, we print your rulebook's own words for that point and list it in the Editor's notes that come with the book, so nothing is guessed. Under each question we say what happens if you skip it.

## Rules questions

**1. How many players does the game take?**
Your rulebook's opening line says "2–4 players"; the order form says 2-8.
- 2-4 players
- 2-8 players
- Something else (tell us)

*If skipped:* we print "2–4 players" from the rulebook.

**2. How long does a game take?**
The rulebook says "10–15 minutes"; the order form says 20 minutes.
- 10-15 minutes
- 20 minutes
- Something else (tell us)

*If skipped:* we print "10–15 minutes" from the rulebook.

**3. How many cards and pieces are in the game?**
The rulebook says "44 component cards" and "44 components, one matching each card", and setup says "Gather all 44 components". The card file you sent has 41 different cards.
- 44 cards and 44 pieces: three cards are missing from the file I sent. The book prints 44, and the components picture shows cards from the 41 you have.
- 41 cards and 41 pieces: the book prints 41 everywhere.
- Something else (tell us)

*If skipped:* we print 44 and show cards from the 41 we have.

**4. When your piece settles higher than the level you announced, what do you score?**
Play a card says "Announce the level you are attempting ... You are locked in before you touch anything." Scoring says "That is where the piece ends up, not what you announced. If it slides down to a lower level and nothing leaves the board, you still score it — at the level it settled on." That covers a piece that ends lower than announced, but not one that ends higher (say you announce blue, then place on top of a stack). As written, the announcement only matters when something falls, so a player could always announce blue (or announce yellow on an empty board) and lose nothing when the placement works.
- Score the level where the piece settles, higher or lower than announced. The announced level only matters if something falls (it sets which number counts against you).
- Score the level where the piece settles, but never more than the level you announced.
- Something else (tell us)

*If skipped:* we print your announcing and scoring sentences as written.

**5. May you keep hold of your piece while it touches other pieces on the board?**
You flagged this yourself: using your piece as a lever, or testing the balance before you really let go. The rulebook doesn't say when a placement starts or ends, or whether your piece may touch other pieces while you're still holding it. Please tell us the rule in your own words, and what happens to a player who breaks it when nothing falls.

*If skipped:* the book says nothing about it.

**6. Should the book say that once you let go of your piece, you can't touch it again?**
On the order form you say new players most often forget that "once they let go of their piece they can't touch it again." The rulebook doesn't say this anywhere, so the book can only teach it if you confirm it's a rule.
- Yes: the Play a card steps will say "Once you let go of your piece, you can't touch it again.", and the Commonly forgotten rules box will repeat it.
- No: the book won't mention touching your piece after you let go.
- Something else (tell us)

*If skipped:* the book won't mention it.

**7. What happens when your own piece falls off the board and nothing else falls?**
The Knocking pieces off table covers disturbing the board before you place, and "the piece lands, but something else falls". It doesn't cover the piece you just placed rolling or sliding off on its own. Please tell us the rule.

*If skipped:* your Knocking pieces off text stays as written.

**8. When a piece someone scored earlier gets knocked off later, what happens to the card they scored for it?**
The rulebook says "Anything that leaves the board is off — it goes back to the supply and it stays there. Nothing is ever put back on." It doesn't say whether the earlier card stays in its owner's scored fan. Please tell us the rule.

*If skipped:* the book says nothing about earlier scored cards.

**9. What happens to your cards when you knock something off?**
You listed this as unclear on the order form. Your rulebook already says: "Either way the card you revealed goes onto your penalty pile rather than your scored fan, turned to the level you announced — not wherever the piece ended up. Its number counts against you." Is that the whole rule, or is something missing (for example about the other cards in your hand)?
- Keep the rulebook's rule: the card you revealed goes onto your penalty fan, turned to the level you announced, and its number counts against you. Nothing else happens to your cards.
- Something else (tell us)

*If skipped:* we print the rulebook's sentence as written.

## Words for things in the game

A rulebook is easiest to learn from when each thing has one name. For these we suggest a word (the one your rulebook uses most), and that's what we'll use if you skip the question.

**10. The game pieces:** your rulebook mostly says "piece" ("Knocking pieces off", "fallen pieces") and sometimes "component" ("Take the matching component").
- **piece** (our default)
- component

**11. The cards from failed attempts:** your rulebook calls them your "penalty pile", "a second fan" and your "penalty fan". The other one is always your "scored fan".
- **penalty fan** (our default)
- penalty pile

**12. Pieces piled up on the board:** your rulebook says "stack" ("a stack of two") and "pile" ("The top of the pile", "knock a pile over").
- **stack** (our default)
- pile

**13. Blue, green, orange and yellow:** your rulebook mostly says "level" ("Announce the level you are attempting") and sometimes "color" ("Read the one on the color you earned"). The card's sides stay "edges" either way.
- **level** (our default)
- color

## 14. Smaller rules points

Each of these is small but left open. Answer as many as you like, in your own words. Any you skip stay as written and are listed in the notes.

- **14a.** Your tie rule says "If two players tie". Do the same tie-breakers apply when three or more players tie?
- **14b.** "Whoever scored the single highest-value card": is that the highest number showing on one card in the scored fan (the number on the level earned), or the card's highest printed number?
- **14c.** "Whoever placed the most pieces": only pieces scored, or also failed attempts where the piece stayed on the board?
- **14d.** If you touch or tilt the board before placing but nothing falls, is that a failed attempt, or does play simply go on?
- **14e.** How long after you let go do players wait before deciding whether anything fell, and what level the piece settled on?
- **14f.** If something falls off while nobody is touching the board (say, while the next player is choosing a card), who is responsible, and what happens?
- **14g.** Two cards are named "Castle" (Five Tribes and Castles of Burgundy) and two are named "Die" (Wingspan and Sagrada). Should the book tell players to match the piece by the picture and the game name in small print?
- **14h.** "The game ends when the deck is empty and every player is out of cards." Should it also say the market is empty, as the turn rules ("When the deck and the market are both gone...") suggest?
- **14i.** If your piece touches the board and also rests on another piece, is it blue (the fewest-pieces route reaches the board directly), or something else?
- **14j.** Longer game: "until at least one player has passed the target" and "someone over it". Does reaching exactly the target count, or must a player go above it?
- **14k.** Longer game: who starts each new game, and how is a tie on the highest running total broken?

## Art and format

**15. What should the cover show?**
No cover art came with the order. The cover will carry the title, "Rules of Play" and your name, as you chose. Your card fronts print sharp up to about 2.5 in wide, and your table photo up to about 8.3 in wide, so the photo can't fill the whole 9 x 9 in cover.
- **Three of your card fronts (Huge Baby, Knight and Dragon), each shown whole at about 2.3 in and tilted playfully, on a bright color field below the title.** (our default)
- Your table photo, cropped to the board, market and pieces, in a frame below the title on a bright color field.
- Title type only, on a bright color field in your card colors, with no picture.
- Something else (tell us)

**16. Should the book still say "Prototype rules"?**
Your opening line ends "Prototype rules". Every inside page's footer prints the game name and "Rules version 1.0" either way.
- **Keep it: the welcome page's player, time and age line ends with "Prototype rules".** (our default)
- Leave it off: the welcome page shows players, time and age only.

**17. Your page limit is 4 pages. Which book do you want?**
With your choices (9 x 9 in, a cover, a quick reference on the back cover, and the larger 11.5 pt text) your rules need about six inside pages, so 8 pages in all (booklets come in multiples of 4). We never cut rules to fit a page, so a 4-page book means giving up the cover, the back-cover quick reference and the larger text.
- **8 pages: cover, six inside pages, quick reference on the back cover, body text at the larger 11.5 pt you chose.** (our default)
- 4 pages: no separate cover (title, "Rules of Play" and your name in a band at the top of page 1), no back-cover quick reference, body text at the standard 10.5 pt instead of 11.5 pt, smaller card and setup pictures. If every word still doesn't fit, we add pages rather than cut rules, and say so in the notes.

*If skipped:* we build the 8-page book and explain in the notes why it's over your 4-page limit.

Thanks! Once we have your answers we'll build the book and send it with notes listing every change we made to your words.