Sanity Test for The Road to Ruin

Structure is good and follows a logical pattern. The "Survivors" section is a bit awkward both in placement and in contents (it seems to be a miscellany of important general rules, and things that didn't fit anywhere else), but it is short enough, and the points listed are straight-forward enough that it is not a great distraction.

On box and first rules panel

Short, but effectively communicates the nature of the game

Also good, although some editing might be appropriate--the first sentence, for example has a lot of 'and's to sort out. In the final paragraph, the second 'by' is unneeded.

Very good. All components are listed with clear thematic names; a supplementary section provides additional explanation of what the card types represent. It would be nicer if the order of the supplementary section matched the order of the short list.

Several examples of the main types of cards are shown. No card backs are shown (they may be all the same?). Not pictured: Wound cards, survivor tokens, marker cards (also, the dice, but I'm not worried about them). It would be nice if there were a diagram pointing out various types of information to be found on each type of card.

Step by step instructions are generally clear and accompanied by helpful illustrations. Mention of dice deck and dice cards in Step 2 is out of place--some folks may guess what this means, but many won't. A few minor details are missed or slightly oblique, but easily filled in (what to do with the combat dice, how to select the subset of cards needed for the Location Events).

Accompanying pictures are generally clear and helpful. Details on the cards are too small to be read, but this only feels like a problem for the marker cards.

Overall, main rules are well-explained and easy to follow. In a just few spots, language is unclear, ambiguous, or misleading: "Laterally adjacent" isn't the best descriptor for this concept--"orthogonal" would be the standard word to use. When moving, is the "current location" the one I'm leaving or the one I'm moving to? As written, the Discarding Cards section suggests that if I use an equipped weapon to re-roll a combat die, I discard it, but I don't think this is what is intended. I assume that dying means the player is out of the game, which is logical but not explicitly stated.

No specific play examples are illustrated, but there is a picture showing a game in progress. While not strictly needed, its presence helps to visualize the flow of the game. (Player markers aren't shown in either the setup or the game in progress).

Clear and concise. It's possible that specific scenarios' win conditions could be muddled, but this is not the case for the scenarios in the book.

I wouldn't expect to have any trouble playing at this point, although understanding the text on the cards will be critical to successful play, and this has not been reviewed.

Language is generally precise and well-tuned throughout. A few minor issues are noted under Game Play.

Bleak border effects and vintage (but easily readable) font contribute nicely to the feel of the game. Clear headers and well-integrated pictures round out the appeal.

The stylized text logo is eye-catching, but I think not as compelling as something more pictorial might be. The blurb is good thematically, but doesn't say much about how the game works. At least mentioning the cooperative aspect will pique some buyers' interests.

Marginal. That text logo starts to seem overused at some point. On narrower windows, the ends of the text may get cut off. The background visuals are what I want to see more of, but they are too washed out to get a good look at.

Looks good here (especially if the duplicate logo is removed from the backdrop). Blends nicely into the backdrop image.

Good variety of shots that include the important views: sample components, everything in the box, and game in progress. That said, the overall set includes a number of shots that feel repetitious (the second shot of cards in hand, the many low-angle shots of cards on the table). Consider weeding out a few of these. Survivor tokens don't seem to appear in any of the photos.

Short, well-written, and highlights a good selection of core interest points.

Two videos available--one solo playthrough and one unboxing video. Both are well-produced with clear video and sound. However, at 45 minutes, the playthrough video is longer than most people will be prepared to sit through, and feels at times a bit disorganized. The unboxing video is more reasonable (about 7 minutes), but includes a number of references to previous versions of the game that a new buyer wouldn't be interested in. Jump cuts in both videos are occasionally distracting, but the benefit of keeping the time down is probably an overall benefit. I'm doubtful that either video delivers what potential new buyers would want to know in a timeframe that they would be willing to spend watching.