Please stand by.
(This is already giving me flashbacks to January earlier this year. I swear we'll have something big next week if it is the last thing I do.)
Jul 20, 2014
I was going to make a big post this week
But then I realized I wasn't going to have everything ready in time.
I was going to make a post about the many unexpected issues you can run into while preparing a pdf.
But then I realized it would be a better idea to just fix those issues and make sure I have something for next week.
So that's that.
I was going to make a post about the many unexpected issues you can run into while preparing a pdf.
But then I realized it would be a better idea to just fix those issues and make sure I have something for next week.
So that's that.
Jul 13, 2014
Spicing up the Appetizer
The game's focus and its biggest draw are the giant robot battles, so the rules for the rest of the game are rather simplistic and underdesigned to not distract from the things that matter. And yet the Character creation chapter is already longer than the Mecha construction one, even when I'm trying to deliberately keep it simpler. There's just too many things you could reasonably want your PCs to do during Intermissions for a 'universal' system to ignore. It would be a disservice to not have, say, Miracles or Deathblows just because they fit some but not all types of games.
It is tough to strike the balance between 'too much stuff' and 'not enough stuff' for Characters. A game revolving entirely around soldiers fighting in and out of giant robots then you'll want more Equipment and Deathblows, while a game about psychic monster hunters wants more Miracles and Anomalies. A PC that puts enough of a focus on combat can already defeat some Grunt Mecha without their own giant robot. I think that is cool and that it should continue to be possible, but if I were to give them even more tools to work with it might do more harm for the game than good.
My approach is to have just enough of everything that a GM who wants more of something can have an idea of how to write it themselves, without risking overcomplicating things for everyone else. But that does not mean I'm not always on the look for things I can add or tweak without going too far.
For example, Matches were tweaked to be more like Operations. There's more Actions to choose from, and moving 1 Zone is a thing that comes with anything else instead of taking a whole Action on its own - there's also a 'Run' Action to move 2 Zones instead of one. I figure humans can have the equivalent of 1 Speed for free. They won't be outrunning Mecha anytime soon, but making it easier to move around means you can do more things with Zones and could even downsize the Operation Terrain rules.
I tweaked some combat-oriented Traits to work better this way too. And wrote a little something that was long overdue:
Range Booster (Specialist)
Equipment Trait (10)
Effect: Choose a Skill you can use to make Offensive Tests when you take this Trait. You can now make Offensive Tests against targets up to two Zones away from you. If you have another piece of Equipment to boost the corresponding Skill, both are combined into a single item.
Bringing a gun to a knifefight might tarnish your reputation but it might also save your life.
Possible Specializations: Sniper Scope (Combat), Drone Control System (Vehicles),Psychowave Amplifier (Miracles)
Originally all PCs were supposed to have to be in the same Zone to engage each other, but the idea of attacking enemies from longer range kept coming up. I wrote a Deathblow for it, to keep it as a rare thing, but if I'm going to allow for free attacks like this I might as well make it a passive item that is 'always on' and leave it at that. This also makes it easier to be on equal terms with Grunt Mecha, but won't outgun them.
There's a few other tweaks like this one, but there's also brand new abilities as well. This includes at least one Miracle that treads ground previously only available to Bosses. A few simple additions here and there can spice things up while leaving the meat of the game unchanged, and that's what I'm going for here.
It is tough to strike the balance between 'too much stuff' and 'not enough stuff' for Characters. A game revolving entirely around soldiers fighting in and out of giant robots then you'll want more Equipment and Deathblows, while a game about psychic monster hunters wants more Miracles and Anomalies. A PC that puts enough of a focus on combat can already defeat some Grunt Mecha without their own giant robot. I think that is cool and that it should continue to be possible, but if I were to give them even more tools to work with it might do more harm for the game than good.
Yes, this is a thing you can already do. And the world is a better place for it.
Well, okay, you can't summon mountains and skate in space... Yet.
My approach is to have just enough of everything that a GM who wants more of something can have an idea of how to write it themselves, without risking overcomplicating things for everyone else. But that does not mean I'm not always on the look for things I can add or tweak without going too far.
For example, Matches were tweaked to be more like Operations. There's more Actions to choose from, and moving 1 Zone is a thing that comes with anything else instead of taking a whole Action on its own - there's also a 'Run' Action to move 2 Zones instead of one. I figure humans can have the equivalent of 1 Speed for free. They won't be outrunning Mecha anytime soon, but making it easier to move around means you can do more things with Zones and could even downsize the Operation Terrain rules.
I tweaked some combat-oriented Traits to work better this way too. And wrote a little something that was long overdue:
Range Booster (Specialist)
Equipment Trait (10)
Effect: Choose a Skill you can use to make Offensive Tests when you take this Trait. You can now make Offensive Tests against targets up to two Zones away from you. If you have another piece of Equipment to boost the corresponding Skill, both are combined into a single item.
Bringing a gun to a knifefight might tarnish your reputation but it might also save your life.
Possible Specializations: Sniper Scope (Combat), Drone Control System (Vehicles),Psychowave Amplifier (Miracles)
Originally all PCs were supposed to have to be in the same Zone to engage each other, but the idea of attacking enemies from longer range kept coming up. I wrote a Deathblow for it, to keep it as a rare thing, but if I'm going to allow for free attacks like this I might as well make it a passive item that is 'always on' and leave it at that. This also makes it easier to be on equal terms with Grunt Mecha, but won't outgun them.
 |
| Don't be Yoko. Get your own Mecha before the final battle. Also get clothes too. |
Jul 6, 2014
An Appetizer
I'm touching up the manual with more general advice to make games run smoother and to answer some recurring questions that seem to come up often. The biggest problem I always run into is that I could always do more, but the pagecount is already over 200 pages of intimidating content, so I have to be very selective with anything that isn't absolutely indispensable.
The other thing I've been doing is integrating the Experimental pdf into the game after all these months of testing it out. It was a good experiment and showing what was on my workbench unfiltered worked pretty well and I'd love to repeat it in the future. I'm pressed for time at the moment and can only make one pdf in the near future, so I'll add the two or three new ideas I had in the meantime to the core and we'll see how it goes.
By far the most important of these changes (albeit one of the least exciting) is the one concerning starting XP and Attributes. Starting PCs have 100 XP to use in whatever they want and we're keeping the current Attribute progression rules. The Houseruling section also has an alternative method to Attribute XP Costs, keeping all costs to multiples of 5. It takes a bit more effort to memorize but works very well.
A slightly less important (and far more interesting) change is what happened to the weapon specialization line.
Melee Specialization.
Duels are a cool thing. You single out a baddie (or a baddie singles you out!) and you both are now in your own little war that other people can't easily butt into until only one of you is left standing. You can also use it as a way to draw the attention of key targets and force them to fight you instead of someone else. Well, you can't force them to attack you, but you can make trying to ignore you a really bad idea.
Duelist Model
Internal Upgrade (15)
Effect: When an Enemy uses the Disengage Action to get away from you, you get a free Offensive Action against them. Your Melee Weapons gain an Advantage to Might Tests.
Your Mecha was engineered to corner foes and force them to face you, punishing all that dare turn their backs on you with extreme prejudice.
Notice that the free attack works with any kind of Weapon, in case you have a gun you'd rather use in that situation. The attack happens before your opponent moves away, so you can whack them with your sword or equivalent of choice. Slippery Chassis will still get around this though, but that one is getting more expensive to compensate for being much better now.
Shooting Specialization
Sniping is also cool. In the context of interactive fiction it is problematic to handle because good snipers will assassinate their target before they even know the sniper is out there. The closest we can give to snipers is a ton of bonus range with their guns, so that they get one or two free attacks before they're in the sights of midrange or close range opponents.
Sniper Model
Internal Upgrade (15)
Effect: Increase the Maximum Range of your Long Range Weapons by twice your Systems instead of just your Systems. All your Shooting Weapons gain an Advantage to Might Tests.
Equipped with very expensive and sensitive targeting systems, your Mecha could hit a moving target beyond the horizon with enough force to be considered a weapon of mass destruction.
Well that certainly helps in making that free shot not just happen, but also in making it count. The bonus range needs an investment in Systems, but boy that's a lot of range. There's not a lot that you'll need to hit from 20 Zones away, but just the fact that you can do it could be a world of difference when it comes up. The bonus range applies to Melee Weapons too, basically in case you want to use Finger Net with it.
Beam Specialization
The thought of having to remove the beam spammer archetype from the game due to not knowing how to balance it always bothered me. But energy weapons are already stronger than their equivalents and being able to make them extra stronger ran the risk of turning combat into a game of rocket tag. If they were going to get another Advantage to their Tests, it had to be expensive to preempt low-level instakill megacannons, but that also meant they'd need a nice something extra on top. It was a complicated scenario and for the longest time I thought it would be best to leave it for later.
Experimental Reactor
Internal Upgrade (20)
Effect: Your Beam Weapons cost 1 less Energy to Boost and gain an additional Advantage to the Might Test.
Your Mecha has a greater energy output, maximizing the efficiency of Element G for maximum destructive power.
This is essentially a +2 bonus to Might and a +1 to Energy, though they are immune to stat halving. It won't do much for you if your stats are below average, but if they're around 6 this is cheaper than getting flat Attribute bonuses. It is not the build-defining monster that it once was, but just by existing again it helps bring some diversity to the game.
Blast Specialization
Artillery Frame stays as is. It is kind of a hard sell between the high cost, the drawbacks to most Blasts, and the necessity of Expert Support to stop it from blowing up your allies, but it is also crazy strong and annihilates Grunts like nobody's business. Moving on!
Default Specialization
Lastly you have the weapons that you are not supposed to use unless you have no other choice. Who needs fancy schmancy swords and guns when you have the raw power of kung fu and throwing buildings at enemies?
The Beast
Internal Upgrade (20)
Effect: Your Default Weapons don’t suffer an innate Disadvantage to their use and gain an Advantage to Might Tests for each Level of Threshold you are missing. After attacking with a Default Weapon, you might spend 2 Energy to make your attack immune to the effects of Active Defenses.
In place of giant robots, some organizations chose to tame giant monsters. They eschew most equipment, relying on their natural weapons instead, and are at their fiercest when cornered.
It remains more or less as you know it, yes. It offers a very different playstyle compared to most other options and saves you a ton of points in Weapons and protection from Maims. The feeling of playing a miniboss is pretty cool and this works pretty well even if it requires getting beat up a little.
Two New Powers
This is nice and all but now we're missing a way to punch through the barriers of tank builds. I've made a Power to fill that niche, but because I don't want said tanks to completely get the shaft they also get a little something else:
I’m Breaking Through
Reaction Power
Effect: Your current Offensive Action is immune to the effects of Active Defenses.
Mahzun thrust his G-Lance one more time against the giant monster’s Gravagne Field. Just like last time, his strike was stopped cold against a wall of repulsive force, but now he was prepared. “Take this! Mahzun Special!” he overloaded the weapon, redirecting more power to it than it was made to hold. The tip of the weapon exploded inside the field, scorching the face of the Cryptid with green flames.
I Cannot be Defeated
Reaction Power
Effect: The next time that you would be destroyed during this Operation, you remain functional with a Threshold of 1 instead. You can use this Power once per Round.
The Sunbuster got hit by several kilotons worth in missiles, but mere seconds after the blast, the Gear was walking through the flames like nothing happened. “I told you, you cannot touch the sun!” Sunbuster was engulfed in fire once again, but this time by its own power creating a blazing pillar reaching all the way to the clouds. “My burning flames of justice shall purge the world of your evil!”
The other thing I've been doing is integrating the Experimental pdf into the game after all these months of testing it out. It was a good experiment and showing what was on my workbench unfiltered worked pretty well and I'd love to repeat it in the future. I'm pressed for time at the moment and can only make one pdf in the near future, so I'll add the two or three new ideas I had in the meantime to the core and we'll see how it goes.
By far the most important of these changes (albeit one of the least exciting) is the one concerning starting XP and Attributes. Starting PCs have 100 XP to use in whatever they want and we're keeping the current Attribute progression rules. The Houseruling section also has an alternative method to Attribute XP Costs, keeping all costs to multiples of 5. It takes a bit more effort to memorize but works very well.
A slightly less important (and far more interesting) change is what happened to the weapon specialization line.
Melee Specialization.
Duels are a cool thing. You single out a baddie (or a baddie singles you out!) and you both are now in your own little war that other people can't easily butt into until only one of you is left standing. You can also use it as a way to draw the attention of key targets and force them to fight you instead of someone else. Well, you can't force them to attack you, but you can make trying to ignore you a really bad idea.
 |
| Like this. |
Duelist Model
Internal Upgrade (15)
Effect: When an Enemy uses the Disengage Action to get away from you, you get a free Offensive Action against them. Your Melee Weapons gain an Advantage to Might Tests.
Your Mecha was engineered to corner foes and force them to face you, punishing all that dare turn their backs on you with extreme prejudice.
Notice that the free attack works with any kind of Weapon, in case you have a gun you'd rather use in that situation. The attack happens before your opponent moves away, so you can whack them with your sword or equivalent of choice. Slippery Chassis will still get around this though, but that one is getting more expensive to compensate for being much better now.
Shooting Specialization
Sniping is also cool. In the context of interactive fiction it is problematic to handle because good snipers will assassinate their target before they even know the sniper is out there. The closest we can give to snipers is a ton of bonus range with their guns, so that they get one or two free attacks before they're in the sights of midrange or close range opponents.
.png) |
| Preferably without ironically turning them into sitting ducks. |
Internal Upgrade (15)
Effect: Increase the Maximum Range of your Long Range Weapons by twice your Systems instead of just your Systems. All your Shooting Weapons gain an Advantage to Might Tests.
Equipped with very expensive and sensitive targeting systems, your Mecha could hit a moving target beyond the horizon with enough force to be considered a weapon of mass destruction.
Well that certainly helps in making that free shot not just happen, but also in making it count. The bonus range needs an investment in Systems, but boy that's a lot of range. There's not a lot that you'll need to hit from 20 Zones away, but just the fact that you can do it could be a world of difference when it comes up. The bonus range applies to Melee Weapons too, basically in case you want to use Finger Net with it.
Beam Specialization
The thought of having to remove the beam spammer archetype from the game due to not knowing how to balance it always bothered me. But energy weapons are already stronger than their equivalents and being able to make them extra stronger ran the risk of turning combat into a game of rocket tag. If they were going to get another Advantage to their Tests, it had to be expensive to preempt low-level instakill megacannons, but that also meant they'd need a nice something extra on top. It was a complicated scenario and for the longest time I thought it would be best to leave it for later.
 |
| Replicating Zeorymer is not necessarily a good thing. |
Experimental Reactor
Internal Upgrade (20)
Effect: Your Beam Weapons cost 1 less Energy to Boost and gain an additional Advantage to the Might Test.
Your Mecha has a greater energy output, maximizing the efficiency of Element G for maximum destructive power.
This is essentially a +2 bonus to Might and a +1 to Energy, though they are immune to stat halving. It won't do much for you if your stats are below average, but if they're around 6 this is cheaper than getting flat Attribute bonuses. It is not the build-defining monster that it once was, but just by existing again it helps bring some diversity to the game.
Blast Specialization
Artillery Frame stays as is. It is kind of a hard sell between the high cost, the drawbacks to most Blasts, and the necessity of Expert Support to stop it from blowing up your allies, but it is also crazy strong and annihilates Grunts like nobody's business. Moving on!
Default Specialization
Lastly you have the weapons that you are not supposed to use unless you have no other choice. Who needs fancy schmancy swords and guns when you have the raw power of kung fu and throwing buildings at enemies?
 |
| Not this guy. |
Internal Upgrade (20)
Effect: Your Default Weapons don’t suffer an innate Disadvantage to their use and gain an Advantage to Might Tests for each Level of Threshold you are missing. After attacking with a Default Weapon, you might spend 2 Energy to make your attack immune to the effects of Active Defenses.
In place of giant robots, some organizations chose to tame giant monsters. They eschew most equipment, relying on their natural weapons instead, and are at their fiercest when cornered.
It remains more or less as you know it, yes. It offers a very different playstyle compared to most other options and saves you a ton of points in Weapons and protection from Maims. The feeling of playing a miniboss is pretty cool and this works pretty well even if it requires getting beat up a little.
Two New Powers
This is nice and all but now we're missing a way to punch through the barriers of tank builds. I've made a Power to fill that niche, but because I don't want said tanks to completely get the shaft they also get a little something else:
I’m Breaking Through
Reaction Power
Effect: Your current Offensive Action is immune to the effects of Active Defenses.
Mahzun thrust his G-Lance one more time against the giant monster’s Gravagne Field. Just like last time, his strike was stopped cold against a wall of repulsive force, but now he was prepared. “Take this! Mahzun Special!” he overloaded the weapon, redirecting more power to it than it was made to hold. The tip of the weapon exploded inside the field, scorching the face of the Cryptid with green flames.
I Cannot be Defeated
Reaction Power
Effect: The next time that you would be destroyed during this Operation, you remain functional with a Threshold of 1 instead. You can use this Power once per Round.
The Sunbuster got hit by several kilotons worth in missiles, but mere seconds after the blast, the Gear was walking through the flames like nothing happened. “I told you, you cannot touch the sun!” Sunbuster was engulfed in fire once again, but this time by its own power creating a blazing pillar reaching all the way to the clouds. “My burning flames of justice shall purge the world of your evil!”
"Pierce the Heavens" and "Who the Hell do you Think I Am?"
were strong contenders for names.
The first is not as powerful as Signature Weapon, but can be used in response to seeing the result of a roll and that makes it more useful than you'd think. Plus, it can be repeated. The second on the other hand is just plain super strong and makes the user invincible 1v1 provided the opponent does not have weapons that do bonus Damage on hit, cause Extreme Terrain, or another similar ability. Of course, you're still three Levels down so you're going to need a way to be effective with most of your stuff gone.
I've been really busy these days (and still am!) but I'll have some good news this month. Stay tuned for the main course!
Jun 29, 2014
Here Comes the Cavalry
Mass combat is one of the toughest things to do in RPGs. The idea of having huge armies fight each other is cool, more so in a game about giant robots. Just upscaling the regular rules for smaller skirmishes doesn't work in most games. If you have a hundred NPCs on each side, plus the PCs, the GM would basically be playing solitaire. Not the best of ideas to spend your roleplaying time. BCG has a few ways to help you with this.
On the side of the bad guys you have Squadrons to multiply mook numbers by four, and you could even make a Colossal boss that represents a huge mob of enemies. You're not supposed to be throwing Superbosses with Capstones all over the place, and a Colossus-type wouldn't represent more than a couple dozen enemies anyway, but if you want your PCs to face overwhelming numbers you have the tools to make it work. Just stick to fifty baddies per big battle instead of a hundred.
Allied NPCs are done mostly through Supports and Reinforcements, depending on whether the PCs can give them orders or not. Because of this, Reinforcements are essentially independent Support Upgrades with a few Genre Powers thrown in for good measure. They help the PCs carry the battle without taking up multiple turns to do so. They mostly have offensive buffs and enemy debuffs though, plus a few direct damage abilities, so they are completely useless at keeping the PCs alive. If Reinforcements had their own set of special abilities instead of repurposing Supports and Genre Powers, they would do a much better job of being... Well, Reinforcements.
So we'll make some of those. And while we are at it, maybe we could also give them a way to simulate NPC on NPC combat too. Nothing intricate, but at least have something in case Enemies would like to fire at them instead of the PCs and we don't have to curse those useless NPC allies for losing by default if the PCs have to retreat.
We'll keep the Reinforcement Points and Level system, but we'll touch it up a little. We'll be replacing Support Upgrades and Genre Powers with Reinforcement Powers. Reinforcements would know one Power per Level, having 3 Reinforcement Points to use them per Level. They also recover one spent Reinforcement Point back each Turn, so they can help through the course of the whole fight if they stick to the cheap ones.
Enemies can attack Reinforcements to remove some of their Points. Grunts remove PL+1, Rivals PL+2, and Bosses PL+4. If Reinforcements ever hit 0 RP, they're defeated.
What would Reinforcement Powers do? Well, they'd cover the kind of things you'd expect from friendly NPCs that those two don't get and we can't really give them. The rest would mimic the best Supports and Genre Powers for the purpose of Reinforcements: Granting Aim or Suppression bonuses, dealing flat Damage and restoring Threshold.
For example, here is a thing that wouldn't work for PCs but NPCs should be able to do:
I’ll Grant you Power
Reinforcement Power (1 RP)
Effect: One Ally gains a single Genre Point.
An experimental Overcharger variant with several experimental modes of function to suit potentially any purpose.
This kind of ability is way too situational to be worth GP or MP, but as a bonus given by NPCs it is perfect. These Reinforced Reinforcements solve the current problems with allied NPCs, and they make great buffs to give ad-hoc as Plot Powerups. There's enough variety in Reinforcement Powers that you could theoretically even have a Mecha-less PC to commandeer all the allied forces. It is obviously not as deep as having your own giant robot, but now it is a possible option, and that wasn't really the case before.
On the side of the bad guys you have Squadrons to multiply mook numbers by four, and you could even make a Colossal boss that represents a huge mob of enemies. You're not supposed to be throwing Superbosses with Capstones all over the place, and a Colossus-type wouldn't represent more than a couple dozen enemies anyway, but if you want your PCs to face overwhelming numbers you have the tools to make it work. Just stick to fifty baddies per big battle instead of a hundred.
Allied NPCs are done mostly through Supports and Reinforcements, depending on whether the PCs can give them orders or not. Because of this, Reinforcements are essentially independent Support Upgrades with a few Genre Powers thrown in for good measure. They help the PCs carry the battle without taking up multiple turns to do so. They mostly have offensive buffs and enemy debuffs though, plus a few direct damage abilities, so they are completely useless at keeping the PCs alive. If Reinforcements had their own set of special abilities instead of repurposing Supports and Genre Powers, they would do a much better job of being... Well, Reinforcements.
So we'll make some of those. And while we are at it, maybe we could also give them a way to simulate NPC on NPC combat too. Nothing intricate, but at least have something in case Enemies would like to fire at them instead of the PCs and we don't have to curse those useless NPC allies for losing by default if the PCs have to retreat.
We'll keep the Reinforcement Points and Level system, but we'll touch it up a little. We'll be replacing Support Upgrades and Genre Powers with Reinforcement Powers. Reinforcements would know one Power per Level, having 3 Reinforcement Points to use them per Level. They also recover one spent Reinforcement Point back each Turn, so they can help through the course of the whole fight if they stick to the cheap ones.
Enemies can attack Reinforcements to remove some of their Points. Grunts remove PL+1, Rivals PL+2, and Bosses PL+4. If Reinforcements ever hit 0 RP, they're defeated.
What would Reinforcement Powers do? Well, they'd cover the kind of things you'd expect from friendly NPCs that those two don't get and we can't really give them. The rest would mimic the best Supports and Genre Powers for the purpose of Reinforcements: Granting Aim or Suppression bonuses, dealing flat Damage and restoring Threshold.
For example, here is a thing that wouldn't work for PCs but NPCs should be able to do:
I’ll Grant you Power
Reinforcement Power (1 RP)
Effect: One Ally gains a single Genre Point.
An experimental Overcharger variant with several experimental modes of function to suit potentially any purpose.
This kind of ability is way too situational to be worth GP or MP, but as a bonus given by NPCs it is perfect. These Reinforced Reinforcements solve the current problems with allied NPCs, and they make great buffs to give ad-hoc as Plot Powerups. There's enough variety in Reinforcement Powers that you could theoretically even have a Mecha-less PC to commandeer all the allied forces. It is obviously not as deep as having your own giant robot, but now it is a possible option, and that wasn't really the case before.
Jun 22, 2014
The Long Road to Printing
A big chunk of game design does not actually involve designing any game parts, but rather the best way of presenting it. Some of it needs other people to step in (illustrators and editors, mostly) but there's another element that is crucial and you need to work it out: Text presentation. By that I don't mean choosing the right words to express something (that's for your editor to worry about) but rather choosing the right look for your words.
This is relevant because I spent several days fixing issues that came up when I talked with a local printer. The issue is more complex than it seems, even though I was already familiar with a lot of prerequisites, I still missed some. You don't see a lot of discussion about this aspect of game design so I figured I'd offer my experience and thoughts on the subject.
Put on a Happy Typeface
Characters (the symbols, not the fictional people) are the atoms of writing. And one of the most subtly important steps of proper presentation is to choose the right typefaces and fonts for your text. But first a clarification: A typeface is not the same thing as a font, rather, fonts are individual styles of typeface. Verdana is a Typeface, but Verdana Bold is a font. I call typefaces fonts all the time in everyday talk, but this is one of those instances where the difference matters. And now that we all have learned something of mild usefulness we can move on.
Your typefaces must fit your style. Sometimes the best way to explain something quickly is with an example, and I am going to use a controversial one: Comic Sans is actually a pretty decent typeface, it just doesn't go well with anything you want to be taken seriously. It looks super goofy and cartoony and yet people use it for their Linkin Park AMVs made with Windows Movie Maker and I have no idea what they're thinking. There are hundreds of thousands of typefaces out there for pretty much any style you can think of, you have to find one that works. Don't just use Times New Roman and Arial for everything, because you are missing out.
Your typefaces must be comfortable to read. Times New Roman and Arial work with eveything partly because they are solid typefaces and partly because we are so used to seeing them everywhere our brains already recognize the words written with them automatically. Point is: The more distinctive and unique your typeface is, the harder it is to read and the slower the text is to digest. Fancy fonts make cool headers and titles, but are terrible for reading full sentences.
Balance serif typefaces with sans serif typefaces. There is some research indicating that typefaces with the pointy ends (the serifs) to be easier to read on printed paper, while the reverse is true for sans serif typefaces and text on a screen. Honestly a lot of it is ambiguous and highly subjective so I don't particularly subscribe to the idea, but it bears keeping in mind. I personally find serif typefaces to be an overdesigned blight on my eyes, but sans serif fonts annoy a lot of other people so I try not to go overboard with them. What I get out of this is that you need to use them both. My method of choice is to use headers in sans serif and body text with small serifs.
The less typefaces, the merrier. Good design is as little design as possible, and that extends to the number of typefaces you should use. All your headers should have the same typeface, as should all your tables, and basically everything you can think of. You do this because you want readers to recognize the parts of the text that interest them the most immediately, and also because you don't want your text to read like a ransom letter. Distinctive, unique sections can have their own typefaces if you want them to stand out, but for the most part you want to have no more than three or at most four typefaces per page: Chapter Header, Paragraph Header, Body Text and Table Text.
Get the Layout of the Land
Ease of use beats fancy visuals. If you can fit a whole section of rules text in one page or can split it into two pages with some art in the middle, you should do the former. Games are meant to be played. I'm going to care a lot less about how pretty your book is when you make me flip back and forth between 10 pages just to check out the descriptions of the weapons in your huge weapons table.
Mind your Margins. Margins are not a problem as long as you are working with just .pdf files, but they become very important if you want to print things out. You don't want to accidentally have large chunks of text missing, after all. The amount varies depending on page size and publication type, which is why you ought to figure out both of those before you commit to writing anything. Hardcovers need more inner margin space, color books need a sizable gutter and bleed. There are too many variables to list, really.
Backgrounds are nice but they should be unobtrusive. People have been reading black text on white backgrounds for hours at a time since forever without any significant problems, but now there's this trend where RPGs need to have the text on a background with pretty colors and give their sidebars ornate borders and so on and so forth. Sometimes this is helpful, but the grand majority of the time it doesn't add anything and only gets in the way.
Don't be afraid of splitting text into columns. If you need to write many short text blocks with short sentences in your page, you should split it into columns because you can fit more text in one page that way. I could fit 10 weapons in one page by using two columns, or I could fit six without columns. It is a matter of practicality. Don't use them if you don't need them though, and you should not have more than two, or text will be too small to read at a glance. Newspapers get away with it because you're supposed to take your time with them.
In my case I had to change the body text typeface and make a few extra milimeters of space in each margin. This may not sound like much, but I had to basically go over every page readjusting the columns and making sure the text still fit within its borders, because the same characters have different lengths depending on their typefaces.
It got so troublesome that I decided the book interior will only be in black and white. I already have some things in color but the requisites to do something good in color would require me to cut on text or increase pagecount considerably. The positive side of this is that it'll be cheaper for everyone involved.
It basically took two weeks and the better half of a third but that hurdle has now been solved.
This is relevant because I spent several days fixing issues that came up when I talked with a local printer. The issue is more complex than it seems, even though I was already familiar with a lot of prerequisites, I still missed some. You don't see a lot of discussion about this aspect of game design so I figured I'd offer my experience and thoughts on the subject.
Put on a Happy Typeface
Characters (the symbols, not the fictional people) are the atoms of writing. And one of the most subtly important steps of proper presentation is to choose the right typefaces and fonts for your text. But first a clarification: A typeface is not the same thing as a font, rather, fonts are individual styles of typeface. Verdana is a Typeface, but Verdana Bold is a font. I call typefaces fonts all the time in everyday talk, but this is one of those instances where the difference matters. And now that we all have learned something of mild usefulness we can move on.
Your typefaces must fit your style. Sometimes the best way to explain something quickly is with an example, and I am going to use a controversial one: Comic Sans is actually a pretty decent typeface, it just doesn't go well with anything you want to be taken seriously. It looks super goofy and cartoony and yet people use it for their Linkin Park AMVs made with Windows Movie Maker and I have no idea what they're thinking. There are hundreds of thousands of typefaces out there for pretty much any style you can think of, you have to find one that works. Don't just use Times New Roman and Arial for everything, because you are missing out.
Your typefaces must be comfortable to read. Times New Roman and Arial work with eveything partly because they are solid typefaces and partly because we are so used to seeing them everywhere our brains already recognize the words written with them automatically. Point is: The more distinctive and unique your typeface is, the harder it is to read and the slower the text is to digest. Fancy fonts make cool headers and titles, but are terrible for reading full sentences.
Balance serif typefaces with sans serif typefaces. There is some research indicating that typefaces with the pointy ends (the serifs) to be easier to read on printed paper, while the reverse is true for sans serif typefaces and text on a screen. Honestly a lot of it is ambiguous and highly subjective so I don't particularly subscribe to the idea, but it bears keeping in mind. I personally find serif typefaces to be an overdesigned blight on my eyes, but sans serif fonts annoy a lot of other people so I try not to go overboard with them. What I get out of this is that you need to use them both. My method of choice is to use headers in sans serif and body text with small serifs.
The less typefaces, the merrier. Good design is as little design as possible, and that extends to the number of typefaces you should use. All your headers should have the same typeface, as should all your tables, and basically everything you can think of. You do this because you want readers to recognize the parts of the text that interest them the most immediately, and also because you don't want your text to read like a ransom letter. Distinctive, unique sections can have their own typefaces if you want them to stand out, but for the most part you want to have no more than three or at most four typefaces per page: Chapter Header, Paragraph Header, Body Text and Table Text.
Get the Layout of the Land
Ease of use beats fancy visuals. If you can fit a whole section of rules text in one page or can split it into two pages with some art in the middle, you should do the former. Games are meant to be played. I'm going to care a lot less about how pretty your book is when you make me flip back and forth between 10 pages just to check out the descriptions of the weapons in your huge weapons table.
Mind your Margins. Margins are not a problem as long as you are working with just .pdf files, but they become very important if you want to print things out. You don't want to accidentally have large chunks of text missing, after all. The amount varies depending on page size and publication type, which is why you ought to figure out both of those before you commit to writing anything. Hardcovers need more inner margin space, color books need a sizable gutter and bleed. There are too many variables to list, really.
Backgrounds are nice but they should be unobtrusive. People have been reading black text on white backgrounds for hours at a time since forever without any significant problems, but now there's this trend where RPGs need to have the text on a background with pretty colors and give their sidebars ornate borders and so on and so forth. Sometimes this is helpful, but the grand majority of the time it doesn't add anything and only gets in the way.
Don't be afraid of splitting text into columns. If you need to write many short text blocks with short sentences in your page, you should split it into columns because you can fit more text in one page that way. I could fit 10 weapons in one page by using two columns, or I could fit six without columns. It is a matter of practicality. Don't use them if you don't need them though, and you should not have more than two, or text will be too small to read at a glance. Newspapers get away with it because you're supposed to take your time with them.
In my case I had to change the body text typeface and make a few extra milimeters of space in each margin. This may not sound like much, but I had to basically go over every page readjusting the columns and making sure the text still fit within its borders, because the same characters have different lengths depending on their typefaces.
It got so troublesome that I decided the book interior will only be in black and white. I already have some things in color but the requisites to do something good in color would require me to cut on text or increase pagecount considerably. The positive side of this is that it'll be cheaper for everyone involved.
It basically took two weeks and the better half of a third but that hurdle has now been solved.
Jun 15, 2014
June 15 is Father's Day
I'm going to be out of the house for a good chunk of the day so I won't have time to write anything.
Yes, that makes it two weeks in a row without a post. What is the world coming to?
Yes, that makes it two weeks in a row without a post. What is the world coming to?
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