How to Read

There are three complementary routes through the Rulebook.

Guided reading uses four reading paths—Capacity, Coordination, Competition, and Duration. Each path explains why one page follows the next and works well on a phone or for a first visit.

Systemic reading begins with the ten system maps. Choose the governing question closest to your own: settlement, cities, infrastructure, knowledge, government, culture, networks, conflict, diplomacy, or long-run change.

Networked reading follows links, backlinks, search, tags, and the graph. Mechanism-kind tags let a reader compare threshold behavior, path dependence, diffusion, maintenance, or externalities across several systems.

On every mechanic page, keep four layers separate: Rule in the game is a sourced paraphrase; Model describes causal structure; Analytical translation asks what the structure might illuminate; Limits of the analogy explains why it is not yet a historical claim.