A compact SRD?

[Ferret]

Ok, long story, short: I'm making a box to hold D&D stuff, the box is about A4 size, but the MM and PHB I own are bigger then that.

So, as proposed by my tech* teacher, I could make a much smaller, compacked version. I immediatly thought of the SRD. Would the SRD be small enough (Number of pages wise) to make this applicable, or would it have to be cut down? Is there a supper small version of the SRD for game running perposes only, i.e no description of races just mechanical stuff, just the things need to make the game run. Like a larger version of a DMs shield....

Also has this been done? How would I start cutting down the SRD (in what program?) Also has anyone got ideas for binding? I don't want to uses treasury clips as they rip/tear/suck, and Staples won't work on such a large file.

*It gets called RMT here, Resistant materials Technology, but I wanted to avoid confusion.

 

[Crothian]

Mongoose's Pocket Players Handbooks sounds sort of like what you seem to be askign about.

 

[Staffan]

Would the SRD be small enough (Number of pages wise) to make this applicable, or would it have to be cut down?

Before I could afford the 3.5e core books, I made my own from the SRD. The rules bits came to about 130 pages, the spells to about 100, and the magic items to something like 70. I also made a file for monsters, trying to keep to one monster per page with illustration - that was about 400 pages when including the monster rules as well. That was using A4 format, with a pretty small font (8 points). I used Word to do it, pretty much just importing the SRD RTF files and polishing them up a bit (using proper headers and making the tables look better).

As for binding, I used flexible plastic binders - two for the monsters, and one each for the other three files. If you wanted to keep bigger things bound together, you could go to the local printshop and have them glue the pages to a backing of some sort, that's what I've done with some of the things I've printed out from PDFs.

 

[William_2]

It kind of seems like a larger box might be the best solution (if that isn’t thinking outside of the box). Maybe you aren’t making a box for D&D stuff…
Anyway, versions of the SRD materials might end up being quite large, as well. If you have the books, they seem more worthy of a storage box, to me. Best of luck, either way.

 

[William_2]

Of all the things to double post, it has to be a stupid, stupid joke.

Cheers

 

[Kid Charlemagne]

You could reduce the font size (significantly), make it two columns, and format it in landscape - that could cut the page count nearly in two. Then Staples or Kinko's could bind it for you.

 

[jmucchiello]

Is there a supper small version of the SRD for game running perposes only, i.e no description of races just mechanical stuff, just the things need to make the game run.

You would be well served to just download the SRD and read it yourself. If you did you would know that the SRD already does not contain descriptions of races. For example, this is the entry on elves:

ELVES
• +2 Dexterity, –2 Constitution.
• Medium: As Medium creatures, elves have no special bonuses or penalties due to their size.
• Elf base land speed is 30 feet.
• Immunity to magic sleep effects, and a +2 racial saving throw bonus against enchantment spells or effects.
• Low-Light Vision: An elf can see twice as far as a human in starlight, moonlight, torchlight, and similar conditions of poor illumination. She retains the ability to distinguish color and detail under these conditions.
• Weapon Proficiency: Elves receive the Martial Weapon Proficiency feats for the longsword, rapier, longbow (including composite longbow), and shortbow (including composite shortbow) as bonus feats.
• +2 racial bonus on Listen, Search, and Spot checks. An elf who merely passes within 5 feet of a secret or concealed door is entitled to a Search check to notice it as if she were actively looking for it.
• Automatic Languages: Common and Elven. Bonus Languages: Draconic, Gnoll, Gnome, Goblin, Orc, and Sylvan.
• Favored Class: Wizard. A multiclass elf ’s wizard class does not count when determining whether she takes an experience point penalty for multiclassing.


That's the whole thing from Races.RTF.

You might want to purchase various SRD compilations and look into printing them off. (Or downloading free compilations if you prefer.) A lot of what you think you would have to do has been done for you (and may even be in A4 format already).

 

[Ferret]

I think that what I'll do next. Look the SRD over. Staffan have you still got the files? How thick was it all?

 

[Gez]

When I print things for myself I set the printer to print four pages per sheet (actually eight pages per sheet, since I make it work recto/verso).

Even if you just scan and print the whole core rules rather than use the SRD, using this, you'd have 240 pages instead of 3*320.

 

[Staffan]

I think that what I'll do next. Look the SRD over. Staffan have you still got the files? How thick was it all?

I still have the rulebook and the spellbook, and a not-quite-finished version of the monster book. The rulebook and spellbook take up a little over one meg when zipped. The monster book is a bit bigger (about 10 megs), because I've included pictures of the monsters from WOTC's site. I'll see about removing those, it ought to cut down the size significantly.

As for thickness, about 5 cm for the whole thing (rules, spells, items, monsters). That's using double-sided printing, and a pretty small font for the most part. It does not include the psionics stuff either.