I’ve just finished reading Every Day I Read, a collection of essays by Korean author Hwang Bo-Reum where she breaks down the joy and approaches she has to reading fiction and non-fiction. Most of my reading tends to be TTRPG books, and it occurs to me that I think we have a really different approach to reading game texts than other non-fiction. 

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This is pretty idiosyncratic to individuals, I think, but these are the kinds of game reading that I do. None of them, I should say, involves reading the whole book from back to front – I don’t think I do that except for the very shortest of TTRPGs. There’s probably loads that I’ve missed! Do you do this? What are your reading habits?

The Daydream Skim

This is the first stage – and often the most pleasurable! From taking the new book (or .pdf) home, I’ll browse it – looking at options and content, jumping back and forth through bits that interest me – or just trying to find things that interest me. This random discovery stage, for some games, is probably as far as they get – and that’s not always a good thing. 

Particularly with Kickstarters, they can sometimes arrive just when I don’t have any time to read them, and if I don’t do this stage I can guarantee they’ll go back on a shelf, and I might miss some gems from them.

The Proper Read

This is, often, when I’ve got a real motivation to get a game to the table – usually as a ref, sometimes as a player. I’ll pick out the bits I need to really know, and work through them. Anything particularly complex, I’ll make a note of or put a bookmark in

At this stage, if it’s a new game to me, I’ll write up a “One-Sheet” of rules references to help at the table. I rarely need to refer to these except for spot rules; it’s the process of doing it that helps, as it makes sure I don’t miss anything, because I’m still jumping backwards and forwards with my reading.

The Prep Reference

This is where we really get into it. I’ve decided what I want to do with a game, and I’m reading carefully to translate that into the table. With a rule book or sourcebook I’ll probably be parsing the content into quick scene notes for play. 

With an actual adventure, I usually do read the whole thing first – just to check there aren’t any big plot holes or bits that won’t sit well at the table. Then, I’ll read again more carefully, writing bullet point notes to make running easier. I do this for nearly everything I run – even really nicely presented adventures like Winter’s Daughter – and as with the rules one-sheet,  it’s the process rather than the notes sheet that works. I know what I tend to forget at the table, so names of NPCs and any clues involving proper nouns get copied down in an obvious place on these notes – and, if I remember, a few stock names in case I need to invent an NPC during play.

So, how do you read TTRPGs? Does anyone actually read them cover to cover? Let me know in the comments!