Free PDF download - "Locus - Jalston"

[Cergorach]

<<<<<3.7Mp deleted by SysOp>>>>>
Anyway, I'm sure that goes beyond the scope of your question but I was on a roll. I hope it wasn't over-explaining (as usual?).

Not really, this gives me some insights into your design decisions (which is a good thing!) and gives me some further ideas. Also there are some good reference sites out there for creating 'accurate' towns (such as giving hard numbers for things like amount of farming land needed per person, etc.), i don't have the links handy at the moment (hate it when my pc blows up), if your interested i'll take a look if i can recover those links...

Glad you like the links. I'm hoping that as things continue over the next five years, or so, the PDF format becomes more widely accepted and that the use of laptops around the gaming table makes that sort of linking handy during game play.

Have you tried using Acrobat Articles, that might be usefull as well. Just take a look in the Acrobat Help and look for Articles in the index. Also you might want to consider putting an A4 (different paper format) version out for your european customers.

I personally already use a laptop at the gaming table (as a DM), i don't see my players using one though (as this is a player's book). They might use a PocketPC or a PalmTop, i believe WindowsCE has an Acrobat Reader version, have you tested your pdf on something like that (i haven't had the oppertunity to test AR yet on a CE machine)?

 

[Maldur]

Looks nice after just skimming. Ill look foreward to the DM-version.

Keep it up

 

[Mark]

It may take some time to implement anything that becomes time intensive since the writing and layout is occupying most of the project resources. They look like very worthwhile suggestions, though, so I'll look into those links and format alternatives.

Feel free to give me more feedback as you become even more familiar with the supplement. I haven't had the chance to really examine how it would work for different printing outputs, or for handheld mediums. Do you have any specific ideas along those lines that you think I should address first?

There will be some references to the areas surrounding Jalston in the Focus, but just where necessary. It will be the sort of information that makes it easier to integrate it into other settings and point out where some choices may have to be made to accomplish that.

Pretty, eh? Thanks , James!

I'll keep the shoulder to the wheel and get the DM's version done quickly. Thanks very much for the kind words and feedback!

 

[drnuncheon]

Re: Re: Hihihihihi

...or "Nova" in Mexico, eh?

You know, the Chevy Nova sold poorly in English-speaking nations because "nova" is English for "exploding star".

The "Nova" = "no va" (does not go) story is an old urban legend.

(So's the Pajero one - although it is a slang term, Mitsubishi apparently never marketed under that name in Spanish-spaking countries - they called it Montero instead.)


J
amateur UL buster

 

[Mark]

Re: Re: Re: Hihihihihi

You know, the Chevy Nova sold poorly in English-speaking nations because "nova" is English for "exploding star".

The "Nova" = "no va" (does not go) story is an old urban legend.

(So's the Pajero one - although it is a slang term, Mitsubishi apparently never marketed under that name in Spanish-spaking countries - they called it Montero instead.)


J
amateur UL buster

Well played! I'd heard that was merely an urban legend but had never researched it beyond that. Thanks for the link!

 

[Cergorach]

It may take some time to implement anything that becomes time intensive since the writing and layout is occupying most of the project resources. They look like very worthwhile suggestions, though, so I'll look into those links and format alternatives.

Feel free to give me more feedback as you become even more familiar with the supplement. I haven't had the chance to really examine how it would work for different printing outputs, or for handheld mediums. Do you have any specific ideas along those lines that you think I should address first?

There will be some references to the areas surrounding Jalston in the Focus, but just where necessary. It will be the sort of information that makes it easier to integrate it into other settings and point out where some choices may have to be made to accomplish that.

What kind o program are you using for layout?

Changing the papersize shouldn't be a real problem, just make a copy of the file in whatever layout program your using and change the paper size to A4. (i'll take a look at the file this weekend and see if i can manipulate the file to A4 from the Letter file).

My 'little' brother has an I-Paq, i'll ask if i can borrow that and see if i can install Acrobat Reader for WinCE. I'll let you know how that went...

I think that of the two, the papersize is the more important, but as i've mentioned i'll try to do that one for you. If at all possible, concentrate on writing Focus first, that'll draw in more people. You can always issue version 1.1

 

[Upper_Krust]

How big should we expect the Jalston Focus to be (roughly) in pages?

 

[Mark]

What kind o program are you using for layout?

Changing the papersize shouldn't be a real problem, just make a copy of the file in whatever layout program your using and change the paper size to A4. (i'll take a look at the file this weekend and see if i can manipulate the file to A4 from the Letter file).

My 'little' brother has an I-Paq, i'll ask if i can borrow that and see if i can install Acrobat Reader for WinCE. I'll let you know how that went...

I think that of the two, the papersize is the more important, but as i've mentioned i'll try to do that one for you. If at all possible, concentrate on writing Focus first, that'll draw in more people. You can always issue version 1.1

Thank you and let me know how that comes out.

I use Adobe InDesign and haven't really explored all of the options for output yet.

One of the benefits of releasing PDFs sure is the possiblity of issuing additional versions that have added features.

Feel free to Email me or post the results in this thread after you've had the chance to check out your brother's system.

Thanks again!

 

[Mark]

How big should we expect the Jalston Focus to be (roughly) in pages?

It looks now like it will be in the vicinity of 200 pages that includes "individual location maps". PDFs, not being bound by the restrictions put on printed products, have a lot of flexibility in the "page count department".

Best estimates right now would suggest the following:

• Roughly 100 NPCs complete with stat blocks
  Approximately 100 individual location maps
  Dozens of Hooks and Rumors (to use as springboards for adventures)
  Several "Questettes" involving Jalston NPCs
  Many dark secrets revealed

I think DMs will find it an extremely useful source book to use as a "ready setting" or even as a simple "bits and pieces" books to supplement their ongoing campaigns...

 

[mythusmage]

Mark, overall I like it. But...

(Don't you hate those "buts"?)

English composition was not your strong suit in school, was it? Your sentence structure is not quite as mangled as some of the postings I've seen on Usenet, but 'tis a close run thing. There were places where I couldn't figure out what you were trying to say, and I used to translate Gygax.

It needs a re-write. A thorough re-write. You have a good start, but it aint done yet. Let me put it this way, I'd wear out at least three red pencils on the thing and have about ten pages of notes on it.

That's not good.

To put it another way, if you had sent it out as a text file I'd be sending it back 'bout now with tons of revisions and corrections. At least it's not in Zapf Chancery (beautiful font, but a royal pain if you want to do some serious reading).

So re-write, clarify, tighten up. It can be so much better.

BTW, did I mention it needs a re-write?