What is "muh format"?
- Thread starter The1True
- Start date
The1True
My my my, we just loooove to hear ourselves don't we?
Yes, muh is my. I'm not that disconnected. Although, when I describe something as "sick" it sounds like that thing is dying of AIDS rather than in any way excellent... Continuing on from that, what the hell is a subtweet?
But yes, I'm making a passive aggresive, oblique post in response to posts in the Comments sections of the Tenfoot and Prince review sites. I guess I'm alone in noticing it or wondering what it means? I mean, I'm assuming, as I wrote above, that it's something to do with people focusing on their presentation rather than their writing?
But yes, I'm making a passive aggresive, oblique post in response to posts in the Comments sections of the Tenfoot and Prince review sites. I guess I'm alone in noticing it or wondering what it means? I mean, I'm assuming, as I wrote above, that it's something to do with people focusing on their presentation rather than their writing?
Beoric
8, 8, I forget what is for
A subtweet is a tweet that comments on another tweet or series of tweets, without being a direct reply or quoting the original. So if this was on twitter it would definitely qualify.
Here is an example: Slang rocks, and anyone who disses on current slang as if they somehow grew up in a time without any slang is trippin' and needs to take a chill pill.
EOTB
So ... slow work day? Every day?
Likely because we're in an unusual place, where professional presentation is an excellent indicator the product itself - apart from art and layout - is crap.
I suspect this will be more normal going forward, with recent (and future) tech changes and AI.
The1True
My my my, we just loooove to hear ourselves don't we?
Okay, so going on the assumption that that's what we're talking about: I agree that someone putting all their points in format at the expense of writing is not great. But format is a crucial part of Usability, right?
I'm also starting to think it's a crucial part of Readability, which I guess some people don't think is important, but let's face it, the majority of these titles we're picking up are never going to see play at the table. If I can't at least get a good reading experience out of it, what's the point?
And I've got a folder full of 'The Best's and 'No Regrets' that I'll never get through. Partially because reading on a screen sucks and most of these PDF's are useless on a Kindle, but in many cases, because the two columns, unformatted, 9 Point Times New, word wall is absolutely depressing.
I'm saying it:
I would literally rather read something by someone who dicked around with AI art or paid out of their own pocket for some original artwork, and put maybe a little too much time into their precious, fancy format, but went a little long on their backstory and read-aloud (or one or two other cardinal design sins), then I would a 14 page mess, one step up from campaign notes, that is an absolute masterpiece of distilled, evocative writing.
I'm also starting to think it's a crucial part of Readability, which I guess some people don't think is important, but let's face it, the majority of these titles we're picking up are never going to see play at the table. If I can't at least get a good reading experience out of it, what's the point?
And I've got a folder full of 'The Best's and 'No Regrets' that I'll never get through. Partially because reading on a screen sucks and most of these PDF's are useless on a Kindle, but in many cases, because the two columns, unformatted, 9 Point Times New, word wall is absolutely depressing.
I'm saying it:
I would literally rather read something by someone who dicked around with AI art or paid out of their own pocket for some original artwork, and put maybe a little too much time into their precious, fancy format, but went a little long on their backstory and read-aloud (or one or two other cardinal design sins), then I would a 14 page mess, one step up from campaign notes, that is an absolute masterpiece of distilled, evocative writing.
The1True
My my my, we just loooove to hear ourselves don't we?
I get it though. The tyrany of Format is real. I'm about 3/5 through the editing pass on Irradiated Paradox and I'm experiencing something I'm calling format creep. Like I used boxes for this and highlight for that. But then another kind of thing came along, so I indented that. But then there's further exceptions and like 30 pages on I'm flipping back and forth trying to figure out the precedent for how to present the paragraph I just rewrote. It also begins to affect writing as I try to fit things into columns and not have boxed text spanning pages etc. which is ridiculous because I'm going to have to go back and throw in maps and artwork that will bugger everything up anyway.
Format imposes structure on the writer.
Format imposes structure on the writer.
squeen
8, 8, I forget what is for
Look at Hawk's work for an excellent balance of format, art and playable content. The sweet-spot does exist!
Similarly, excess in format also exists. There are many times in my personal experiences with format (and in creating software coding structures!) that I've had to take a step back, throw away the complicated monster I've assembled, and simplify. That's at the heart of the Bauhaus "Less is more." design school that gave birth to those wonderful Krupp kitchen tools, Apple's early 2000 products, and Roku's remote.
Similarly, less can also just be less. A perfect example of "less is crap" was the M$-inspired anti-skeuomorphism redesign of OS X. In that case, cheap, lazy shit was passed off as minimalism (but was really an internal Apple turf war...Ives pissing on his rival's creation and then walking away).
It's HARD to find the sweet-spot. Like with everything in life, that's why those who do create something great (and make it look easy) are praised as geniuses while most fail (or just copy...or now ask an AI to do it for them). As a society, we need to come to grips with the fact that there is no formulaic solution that is not mediocre or just a knock-off. Excellence is rare and valuable. 99 failures for every eureka!
Similarly, excess in format also exists. There are many times in my personal experiences with format (and in creating software coding structures!) that I've had to take a step back, throw away the complicated monster I've assembled, and simplify. That's at the heart of the Bauhaus "Less is more." design school that gave birth to those wonderful Krupp kitchen tools, Apple's early 2000 products, and Roku's remote.
Similarly, less can also just be less. A perfect example of "less is crap" was the M$-inspired anti-skeuomorphism redesign of OS X. In that case, cheap, lazy shit was passed off as minimalism (but was really an internal Apple turf war...Ives pissing on his rival's creation and then walking away).
It's HARD to find the sweet-spot. Like with everything in life, that's why those who do create something great (and make it look easy) are praised as geniuses while most fail (or just copy...or now ask an AI to do it for them). As a society, we need to come to grips with the fact that there is no formulaic solution that is not mediocre or just a knock-off. Excellence is rare and valuable. 99 failures for every eureka!
Beoric
8, 8, I forget what is for
Honestly, your rooms are so complicated, I think you may have to go back to paragraph format, just for the density of information. Maybe have some basic information (number of monsters, presence of traps, key things to look bout for) broken out. But there is going to be no getting around thoroughly reading your room entries, so readability is going to trump scanability. You may have to limit scanability to bolding key words.
Having a really readable font, and spaces between paragraphs, is going to help. I really like the use of whitespace to improve readability.