This is how I finally learned all of the correct rules for Scythe 
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I got started with a game of Dead Men Tell No Tales this morning, having read the rules last night. I went in confident that I had understood well how to run the game, and here I am an hour later—interrupting said game no less!—only just finishing my third round. I’m taking a breather, to use the game’s terminology, because it struck me that this was a case of three rulebook situations really clashing.
Firstly, it’s clear they desperately wanted the game to be four folded pages (8 total). The rules themselves are quite simple, but there is an awful lot going on between board fiddle, a long list of actions, chain reactions and game state interrupts. There really isn’t an awful lot of space needed to explain each individual component, but you can probably guess all that guff adds up to complicated situations fast.
The rulebook makes only the most cursory notes of a few edge cases. There are next to no examples (with or without edge cases demonstrated). These are the second and third issues coming together to really make this a mess of a first play. I think we should let a game off the hook if a proper edge case is found which isn’t explicitly covered in the manual, provided they were as airtight as possible in the first place. If your “edge cases” are just the way the game operates, you have poorly explained your mechanisms and their most common interactions.
This is 8 pages that needed to be 16, with a reference card that needed to be a sheet. This wasn’t efficient, it was cheap. Anyway thankfully there’s a comprehensive FAQ and the game is pretty fun. This stuff will iron out easily after a play or two, so not the end of the world in the long term.
[EDIT] Does anyone know how many pages original Pandemic is? This is pandemic-like in the extreme and from memory it might have been even fewer pages? I don’t have particularly fond memories of reading through that one but I also never had any questions that couldn’t be resolved with it. Might make for a fine counterpoint.
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The rule book for the current edition of Pandemic appears to be 8 pages long. It is available as a pdf from Z-Man Games’ website if it is of interest.
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It is not. Heheh. But that 8 pages confirmation was, for sure! If nothing else I can confirm I played Pandemic long before I got into BGG and I sure never felt compelled to get any clarification online. The FAQ for Dead Men Tell No Tales is essential reading.
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My 2011 Pandemic rule book is also 8 pages. That will be the “2011 English second edition reprint” following English first and second editions in 2008, and prior to the newer design which seems to have happened 2012 (to my surprise… I thought that was later). A BGG comment for the 2008 second-edition says “A second printing, nearly identical to the first Z-Man edition.” so I suspect my rule book is representative of the original one, and maybe they didn’t see any need to change it much if at all for the newer revisions? (IIRC it’s a pretty good rule book).
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I played Pax Pamir 2E yesterday and was reminded how much I dislike that rulebook. I seem to end up skimming through the entire thing anytime I want to look anything up, so it’s a good job it’s short!
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