New game: Epaulette

I am far from an expert designer, but I do have plenty of experience as a gamer. In that vein, I do think your game suffers from an identity problem. Without even commenting on the mechanics of the game (I'll leave that to the people more expert than I), I spent 5 minutes looking at your BDGF post, your game board, and your rule book and I still didn't have any idea what your game is about, and what we're trying to do other than "score" something.

I didn't scour every line of the rulebook, but I did note that the introduction was not helpful. It gave me some information about the mechanics that the game features (cards...dice...moving tokens on a board...actions) but no hint of what the game is about and why I would enjoy playing it. This is where a lack of a clear theme becomes a real challenge. When you have a theme-weak game with an ambiguous name and a game board short of visual cues, my opinion is that you want the instruction book to QUICKLY give you something to sink your teeth into. Otherwise, you are really asking your intended audience to take a leap of faith by demanding that they sort through a long rule book just to figure out if this game is even for them.

Then, your rules start referring to terms like "Handler", "Recruit", "Captain" and "Deputy" without any real context for what those terms mean and why they matter. Captain of what? Recruit for what? Handler of who/what? I would strongly recommend trying to incorporate a stronger theme. Are these guys part of a steam punk gang looking for new members to fight a rival gang? Are you an alien military recruiters trying to recruit a neutral planet while stopping your enemy counter-part? Give us a story to give the game context.

I think your set up instructions and game play diagrams are well-crafted. But it's just so hard to understand them without some form of more remedial orientation. This could easily be improved with a punchier, more informative introduction.

Just my .02.

Henry Flower: It's not that your rules weren't clear in terms of each sentence being specific and concise. That part was very good as far as it goes, and I certainly appreciate that it is hard to make clear instructions and you put in a ton of effort to accomplish that task. The problem is that this is the instructions for board game, not the manual for a power washer or an IKEA bookshelf. Instructions to a game need to balance efficient information delivery with fun, intrigue, and familiar references. People aren't opening your instructions because they NEED to learn your game to accomplish an important life task. Rather, they're learning your game to have a good time. In my opinion, the best game instructions get you excited to read them. And there are many paths you can take to accomplish that. You don't need to have A+ artwork, for example. But you need something. Art, theme, story, a strong summary presentation of an original mechanic, etc.

The good news is that, in many respects, you've done the hard part. You've mapped out your rules at a granular level, and put them on paper in a solid presentation. Now just some more work to do....