Core Books [3.5] - Background Lines

[Ranger REG]

Personally, I really do not care for the background line. I also do not care for the background artwork one the beginning of every chapter page, as they also prove to be distracting and marred the rules text.

So, remove the lines, and ensure there are no artwork behind the body text of every chapters' first page during layout design.

Also distracting, the artworks that appears on the middle of the page. It is hard to determine if one paragraph ends and a new one begins on the second (or right) column.

So, either make the paragraph indentation more noticeable or avoid placing artworks in the middle.

I also like the idea of adding "Starting Feats" section at the beginning of "Class Features" like in Star Wars and d20 Modern.

 

[Melriken]

I like the lines...

made the books look more vintage, and less like a technical manual

 

[Ranger REG]

Vintage, perhaps, but as a previous poster have pointed out, lined sheets have not been in use during the medieval period, the common backdrop for any fantasy role-playing games.

 

[trancejeremy]

I hated them. Made it harder for me to read.

 

[Gez]

They will not be here.

Have you seen background line in any book published after the 3 cores ? Do you think if there was no background lines in the Psionics Handbook, the Monster Compendium (Monsters of Faerûn), the Manual of the Planes, Deities & Demigods, Monster Manual 2, Oriental Adventure, Book of Vile Darkness, Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting, Tome & Blood and other splatbooks, etc., it was only as a gimmick to differentiate them from core rulebooks and not because complaining about these rules started on Day 1 of availability of the PH ?

Also, have you remarked that, some times before the release of MM2, they published an enquiry about a 4-page extract from the MM, with a new layout and no background lines, and they merely asked if you prefered it this way or the current printed MM way.

 

[Destil]

I loved the lines, but I know I'm in the minority and that the're already gone in the second printing.

 

[Mark]

i don't mind the lines but they would be more helpful if there were only half of them. If they fell only where every other line currently is, they'd be a boon for those wider tables that they like to use. *shrug*

 

[Zappo]

I liked the lines!

 

[Kahuna Burger]

KILL THE LINES!!!!!!! Kill them ALL!!!!!!!!!

But that could be just me.

Kahuna Burger

 

[Scarogoth]

Another plea for the lines to be kept

I, too, really liked the lines. Good to know that there are others like me out there. I felt they added a certain je-ne-sais-quoi to the distinctiveness of the books, and they certainly didn't distract my eye at all.

However, I do appreciate that their presence may well cause trouble for the visually challenged or dyslexic reader so understand why they disappeared in subsequent books. I, too, suspect that we've seen the last of the lines, but hey! Who said by buying 3.5 you immediately need to go out and burn your copies of 3E original?

... Oh wait... They did say that? ... Bugger...