Post Mortem & Results

Beoric said:
Ok, how do you not see that indicating you are offended by the "fact" that someone else's preferred edition is "twisted" is, erm, a tad unwelcoming? At least an unpleasant rejection, although the violence of the rejection may be in the eye of the beholder.
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It's sort like walking into a pub and telling them their local team "sucks" as a conversation starter. Most folks will take that mild provocation in stride, and are self-assured enough in their "brand" to take that as a friendly (but real) rivalry.

In my opinion (and in this case I think I am on the old-school non-geeky/normal side), anyone who gets seriously offended is more than a bit socially maladjusted. Folks who are that easily "triggered" are not mature adults and just large infants. Society makes a big mistake trying to coddling the most easily offended in the crowd (by silencing the majority) instead of telling them to just deal with the fact that not everyone agrees with them in the big, bad world. Thicker skins. Sticks and stones...etc.

Fight me.
 
The1True said:
I guess if you establish a happy little echo chamber like say K&K, then interlopers shouldn't feel butthurt when they don't like the language that's going around. I was duly warned while signing up, and stopped immediately. No harm done.

So what's the difference here? I mean reviewers like Bryce and Prince are pretty clear about their predilections. But for some reason I'm more prickly about edition warring here. Like, cool bro, enjoy your oldschool. I like it too. But, liking what you like doesn't require rejecting other editions in ways that are guaranteed to either start a fight or drive people away from these open forums.
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Well...there is edition warring, but that doesn't hold a flame to candle compared to the Paladin Wars.....


Bawahaha
 
Alright, question for the peanut gallery: I'm skipping POD for now, so this isn't formatted in a realistic sense, I just want to know if this cover is still appropriate/factual six years after it's gimmicky creation for a goofy contest:

1781099079710.png

@bryce0lynch do you want me to scrape off the "Adventure Design&Reviews" header? Maybe you don't want your IP to be associated with this monstrosity, unsanctioned or not? No hard feelings if so. It just looked very awesomely 1985 up there, is all.

I've already been told that the faux ISBN has to go (although, I swear I got a website to generate a unique one for me...)

Ummm. I guess I need a blurb for the back.

I'm still on the fence about real name vs forum handle.

No idea why I ID'd it "IP 1-6". Did it ever have 6 chapters? There's between 7 and 9 unique activities at this point. VW for Vanished Wastes (und Volkswagen)? Does it even matter?

The 2009 is a total mystery to me as well. We've been here forever, but surely not THAT long...

Also, looking forward to getting my 3D art nonsense from a million years ago accused of AI witchcraft...
 
Oooh, the finish line is in sight! I appreciate that you've kept the GTC logo on there - even though it's not really a thing anymore it does lend a certain credulity to the project, and if I ever release anything myself, I'll include it too.

As to the art - I get what you're going for and admire the craft of it, but it could stand to be a little more enticing. It looks like a flumph just hanging out over a lake, which doesn't exactly scream "oh my god, I've got to check out what this is all about!". If the jellyfish were visibly larger (like, clearly building-sized as it is in the adventure), it would draw more attention. This could be a matter of a small tweak like adding some trees in there to give it a better sense of scale (I know the setting isn't very tree-heavy, but maybe dead trees?).

Not sure where the "1-6" came from either, but I do note that you call it a "Campaign Adventure", so perhaps that's your way of stating that there are roughly 6 adventures in this campaign? Assuming Bull's Run is also in the same "campaign" somewhere, you might need to rethink the numbering schema to align with the expected inclusion of Bull's Run too.

If you are wary about having your real name on it, and on the fence about using your forum name, might I suggest going the middle route and using a pen name or pseudonym? Or if you want MORE recognition, maybe the opposite route by combining the two with something like John "The1True" Smith (obviously I don't know your real name).

I'm actually very excited to see you finally pushing this thing through. Good job man!
 
DangerousPuhson said:
(obviously I don't know your real name).
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Yeah you do, lol. I'm just moving some page spreads around (turns out pages go even-odd in books...) and then I'll send you a copy.

I guilted Sketchy into coming back and painting a new cover for me. It might happen? Trees are a bitch in 3D.
 
Looks like its shaping up nicely! Excited for it to be released. I'd maybe put 1-2 sentences on the bottom of the front cover to 'sell the adventure'...then on the back it can go into more depth with a paragraph or 2. Maybe what ruleset it can be used with as well.
 
One point I'll bring up again in a more detailed critique is user-friendliness. It could stand to be finessed, layout-wise. This obviously depends on the capabilities of whatever program you've done your layout in, but even Google Docs can accommodate more than you'd expect. More cross-references, clearer section delineation, and labels for tables/maps would go a long way. Pagination is going to need a final pass too - lots of references to the wrong page (it doesn't help that there are no page numbers on the pages themselves). The content I've seen is solid, it's just that the layout could definitely be more intuitive.

Honestly, something as simple as including a little shape or colored bar somewhere in the margins to keep the sections linked and obvious would go a long way. Like green bar/triangle is your background material, red bar/circle is your first dungeon, yellow bar/square is your overland or sandbox section, black bar or oval is your setting annex, etc.
 
Yeah man, I'd love to hire an artist and a layout guy...

I am currently adding bookmarks and hyperlinks to the PDFs. I'm also adding page numbers, but they match the PDF page count. If people want to print their copies of the PDF at home, or the office, or whatever, they're going to have to remove a page from the PDF to keep the page spreads, at which point the page count will be technically incorrect. The dream is to stir up enough interest to farm some cash into a POD version. I could spend another year or two, and a couple of grand myself, but Shia LaBeouf got really mad last time I waffled, and frankly, he scares me.

Thanks for the feedback!!!

Hey, anyone out there got a minute to check my 1e/2e conversions?
 
The1True said:
I am currently adding bookmarks and hyperlinks to the PDFs. I'm also adding page numbers, but they match the PDF page count. If people want to print their copies of the PDF at home, or the office, or whatever, they're going to have to remove a page from the PDF to keep the page spreads, at which point the page count will be technically incorrect.
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Are you counting the cover as page 1 or something? Because that is fixable. Or is it that you need a blank page somewhere to make the numbering work?
 
I actually think I fixed the page count problem. The page numbers don't match the PDF pages, but the page references ("see pg 34") match the page numbers for people who want to blow a whole cartridge printing this monsterpiece, and PDF users can just click on the hyperlink which will take them to the correct page. Win-win.


DangerousPuhson said:
I mean, the layout guy is you
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Okay, but you saw the quality of the DIY Word layout, right?... I have renewed respect for the graphic design nerds out there.
I spent 9 years in game dev. Couldn't design UI to save my life. Same deal.
Anyway, I sent you a pre-pagination copy, hopefully I've allayed that concern. The otherwise scattered nature of the product is beyond my ADD to fix at this point. Hopefully the hyperlinks bring it all together as intended?
 
I'm going to be a total ass and say you should consider another title. It's clunky and not particularly enticing. Also, I don't love the cover art --- too "air brushy"?
 
The1True said:
The otherwise scattered nature of the product is beyond my ADD to fix at this point. Hopefully the hyperlinks bring it all together as intended?
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The only real issue with the organization is that the different sections aren't differentiated enough to tell apart visually. Usually this is a pretty easy fix - you just add a design element that ties the sections together, like a unique header or something. Personally I use colored bars in my (admittedly half-finished) designs because adding a rectangle to a page is as easy as "Insert > Shape", and it's easy to see. "Oh I'm still looking at the red dungeon section when the info I need is in the blue stat block section", kind of easy visual identification. The only other real issue I've noticed with cross-referencing is that your maps and tables could use labels (i.e. "Table 3.2 - Random Encounters" or "Map 17 - Lower Levels"), just so it's easier to direct readers towards specific page elements. Again, should be an easy fix - you're just adding a line of text above the element.
 
squeen said:
I'm going to be a total ass and say you should consider another title. It's clunky and not particularly enticing. Also, I don't love the cover art --- too "air brushy"?
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T1T was already talking about a new cover.

Re: the name, there are certain parts of the OSR (or maybe post-OSR) that would love that title. I'm not sure if they are the target market, though.

The1True said:
... The page numbers don't match the PDF pages ...
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Also an easy fix. I have to look it up every time, but I know it is easy once I know which menu to look for in Acrobat. I think it is Edit >> Header & Footer >> Update. Then use the Page Range Options button to set the page range, and the Page Number and Date Format button to set the starting page number. Both those buttons are in tiny blue print on the right side of the Header and Footer menu.

It shouldn't mess up your links, but maybe try it on a copy.
 
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