D&D 5E DM's Guild: What caught your eye, and why did you buy it?

What has wowed me is simply the amount of stuff up already - it feels like a new age of D&D to me. That being said I also picked up the "Epic Level Handbook" and "Archons." Both because I am working on similar projects. I would give both a 3 out of 5.

The epic level handbook was fairly simple and had a strong 5e feel to me, but I'm not sure about balance issues or who you would fight. And the PDF

The archons where just stat blocks, but seemed well done. I haven't verified if they follow the DMG guidelines

Connorsrpg said:

Just on all of this, there is an Adventure Template, but are there other templates being used, or are authors 'dressing up' their own PDFs? Or are they modifying the Adventure one to use for archetypes etc.

Basically, I have a LOT I want to add, but not the know how on making a good looking PDF - which seems to be important in grabbing attention.

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I'm assuming you're talking about the fancy parchment-looking backgrounds and oldstyle fonts. This sort of thing:



If so, let me talk about those for a second, because I have a beef with that mentality. In my experience, those "good looking PDFs" can actually detract from the value of the product. Good presentation is about efficient communication, not looking impressive at a glance. These are not paintings to hang on a wall, they are basically technical manuals. Textured backgrounds make it harder to read on a computer screen (for me, at least), and more costly to print. Helvetica on a white background is perfectly appropriate for DM's Guild content.

I disagree that a "good looking PDF" will grab attention. Potential buyers don't see anything except the title, the blurb, and the cover. Those three things (but especially the blurb, which should include a detailed description of the contents) are what grab attention. The graphical quality of the interior pages doesn't matter much, because by that point the poor sucker has already bought it. All they care about at that point is reading the damn thing and seeing if it's any good.

So, I wouldn't put too much effort into making the graphics all shiny. It's far more important (and more impressive) to efficiently and clearly convey the information to the reader, who may have to interpret this text in unfavorable conditions (e.g. reading from an outdated tablet in the middle of running a D&D game).

Not to say that aesthetics aren't important, but I think a lot of DMsG contributors over-value it. Yes, you should make your product look nice. Formatting and layout are very important. But I don't expect professional-looking graphic design from DMsG content. I just want stuff I can use in my game. My favorite purchase so far has been Hex Crawling by neuronphaser -- it doesn't look fancy, but I was looking for hexcrawling rules, and these ones are well thought out and useful. I gave it 5 stars.


/imho

/rant

/this is not necessarily directed at you, but was an important point I wanted to bring up in this thread

/put something up already so i can give you my money

GX.Sigma said:

I'm assuming you're talking about the fancy parchment-looking backgrounds and oldstyle fonts. This sort of thing:

If so, let me talk about those for a second, because I have a beef with that mentality. In my experience, those "good looking PDFs" can actually detract from the value of the product. Good presentation is about efficient communication, not looking impressive at a glance. These are not paintings to hang on a wall, they are basically technical manuals. Textured backgrounds make it harder to read on a computer screen (for me, at least), and more costly to print. Helvetica on a white background is perfectly appropriate for DM's Guild content.

I disagree that a "good looking PDF" will grab attention. Potential buyers don't see anything except the title, the blurb, and the cover. Those three things (but especially the blurb, which should include a detailed description of the contents) are what grab attention. The graphical quality of the interior pages doesn't matter much, because by that point the poor sucker has already bought it. All they care about at that point is reading the damn thing and seeing if it's any good.

So, I wouldn't put too much effort into making the graphics all shiny. It's far more important (and more impressive) to efficiently and clearly convey the information to the reader, who may have to interpret this text in unfavorable conditions (e.g. reading from an outdated tablet in the middle of running a D&D game).

Not to say that aesthetics aren't important, but I think a lot of DMsG contributors over-value it. Yes, you should make your product look nice. Formatting and layout are very important. But I don't expect professional-looking graphic design from DMsG content. I just want stuff I can use in my game. My favorite purchase so far has been Hex Crawling by neuronphaser -- it doesn't look fancy, but I was looking for hexcrawling rules, and these ones are well thought out and useful. I gave it 5 stars.


/imho

/rant

/this is not necessarily directed at you, but was an important point I wanted to bring up in this thread

/put something up already so i can give you my money

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I disagree to a point. I will rate a publisher higher and/or give them a better reviews if they have better graphics and that may move sales. As a design professional I like to look at quality design (of course opinion on what is quality design vary). However, I agree that the content is what is most important.

Hey folks -

I'm no design major or anything, but I've been playing with cover art options and interior layout choices. I've found that I'm initially pulled to projects with artwork or imagery that is iconic for (or strongly indicative of) the included content, though overall I'm of the mindset that content outweighs art immensely. The interior art isn't very important to me, and I realize that this comes across in my own offerings - though popular comments are goading me into changing this stance.

There's a lot of interesting content in the DM's Guild already, and some of it is even really good - though there's a fair chunk that's just not all that great. As we're getting started with it, we need to be ready to realize that we're gonna see some stinkers and we're gonna see some rockstars, but we also need to challenge ourselves to post feedback on those product pages and in locations like this. Seeing specific product feedback is *awesome* in open forums, on Facebook, through Twitter, and so on. Please, keep it up!

I'll be spooking into this thread every so often, and plan on checking out a pile of content after Winter Fantasy. I've got a couple up and will be posting a third shortly, but once that's done it's crunch time for the convention. Keep posting suggestions, folks!

dave2008 said:

I disagree to a point. I will rate a publisher higher and/or give them a better reviews if they have better graphics and that may move sales. As a design professional I like to look at quality design (of course opinion on what is quality design vary). However, I agree that the content is what is most important.

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It is also worth noting that many RPG products, long and short alike, are consumed primarily as reading material. That goes not just for "fluff" too. James Jacobs has stated numerous times that APs are designed the way they are because they are primarily purchased by people that read them, not run them. Your audience wants an enjoyable reading experience and that includes the visual design of a product.

I have paid for two things. Both weren't good at all.

I left comments / reviews on both. One being a Duskblade, which I honestly couldn't finish reading because it was so bad, and the second being a Rune Scribe, which seemed somehow both lazy and unnecessarily complex.

So, in my experience, the better stuff has been things which you don't have to pay for. I try to leave comments on "pay what you want" items, and have been making notes to go back to "purchase" them again based on if changes are made based on criticisms and feedback.

Honestly, since we have little idea of the quality before purchasing, I've kept myself to "Free" and "Pay What You Want".

For the "Pay What You Want" titles I've been paying $.25 a title. If I really like it, I'll go back and pay more.

Matthew Mercer is the only author that I recognized, and his Gunslinger and Bloodhunter titles were the first things I downloaded.

GX.Sigma said:

Textured backgrounds make it harder to read on a computer screen (for me, at least), and more costly to print.

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This is why the product I have up there, Adventurers of Kara-Tur (subclassess and a race), have both the 5e standard parchment background, and a printable white background b/w art version.

Awesome Adam said:

Honestly, since we have little idea of the quality before purchasing, I've kept myself to "Free" and "Pay What You Want".
.

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It's a shame that everyone doesn't take advantage of both the flash and full pdf preview options. Those address your concerns before you spend any money. I always do that. It's a win win, in my opinion. It allows people who might not like what you have from spending money and giving you a bad review, and it allows those who do like what you're offering to see exactly what they want.

Sacrosanct said:

It's a shame that everyone doesn't take advantage of both the flash and full pdf preview options. Those address your concerns before you spend any money. I always do that. It's a win win, in my opinion. It allows people who might not like what you have from spending money and giving you a bad review, and it allows those who do like what you're offering to see exactly what they want.

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I'm unaware of such an option, where might I find it?