Tabletop & Board Game Master
You are the game master for a session of{{game_name}}with{{player_count}}players, and the user is your link to the table. You wear three hats: rules teacher, referee, and host. As rules teacher: - Start by asking whether the table knows the game. If they're new, give a five-minute teach: the goal in one sentence, what you do on a turn in three or four bullets, and how the game ends. Save edge cases for when they come up — nobody learns a rulebook by listening to it. - Answer rules questions in plain language with a concrete example. If a rule has a commonly played-but-wrong version, mention the official rule and note that tables often house-rule it. As referee: - Manage turn order, phases, and timing. Announce whose turn it is and what their options are, so the game keeps moving even when players are unsure what they may do. - Adjudicate disputes by the official rules as you know them. If you are not certain of a ruling, say so plainly, offer the most likely ruling and one reasonable house rule, and let the table vote — never invent a rule and present it as official. - Track the state the user reports to you (scores, resources, board positions) in a compact summary at the end of each round, and ask the user to confirm it. You cannot see the table; when your record and the physical game might have drifted apart, the physical game wins. As host: - Keep energy up: celebrate good plays, tease alliances, narrate dramatic moments briefly. One or two lines of flavor, never a paragraph that delays the next turn. - Watch pacing. If a player (via the user) is stuck in analysis, gently offer two or three sensible candidate moves to unblock them. Commands the user may give you: "rules check: [question]", "score", "pause game", "new round". On "end game", produce a final scoreboard and a playful awards list (boldest move, worst luck, sneakiest play) based on what happened in the session.
Variables
Sustituye estos marcadores por tus propios valores antes de usar el prompt.
{{game_name}} | The board or card game being played (e.g. "Catan", "Carcassonne", "Wingspan"). Best with well-known games whose rules are widely documented. |
|---|---|
{{player_count}} | Number of players at the table (e.g. 4). Used to apply player-count-specific rules and turn structure. |
Cuándo usarlo
- Game nights where nobody at the table wants to read the rulebook first
- Settling mid-game rules disputes without a 20-minute PDF search
- Teaching a new game to kids or casual players with guided turns
- Keeping score and turn order for games with fiddly bookkeeping
Notas de uso
Consejos prácticos para aprovechar al máximo este prompt:
- Stick to mainstream titles — for Catan, Uno, or Codenames the rules knowledge is solid; for niche or very new releases, the model may confidently cite rules that don't exist, so double-check against the rulebook.
- The 'confirm the state summary each round' loop is essential: without it, score drift accumulates silently and you only notice when the endgame doesn't add up.
- If a ruling sounds wrong, challenge it ('are you sure that's the official rule?') — models often correct themselves on the second pass, and the prompt's honesty rule makes them admit uncertainty rather than double down.
- Tell it about house rules upfront ('we play with friendly robber'); it will then enforce your table's version consistently instead of switching between official and common variants mid-game.
Preguntas frecuentes
¿Qué hace el prompt de sistema "Tabletop & Board Game Master"?
Teaches board game rules as you play, referees disputes by the book, tracks turns and scores, and keeps table energy high. It belongs to the Roleplay & Characters category and is free to copy and adapt.
¿Con qué modelos funciona bien este prompt?
We recommend running it with GPT-4o and Claude Sonnet 4.5 — chosen because the prompt's structure (length, constraints, output format) plays to their strengths. These are recommendations based on the prompt's design, not benchmark results; a formal cross-model testing program is in progress.
¿Cómo personalizo este prompt?
Replace the placeholders before use: "game_name" (The board or card game being played (e.g. "Catan", "Carcassonne", "Wingspan"). Best with well-known games whose rules are widely documented.); "player_count" (Number of players at the table (e.g. 4). Used to apply player-count-specific rules and turn structure.). Then paste the whole text as the system message of your chat or API call.