[GR] Preview Week, Day 1: Skull & Bones

[Pramas]

We've got so much stuff in the pipeline right now that we're running previews of our upcoming books and games all week at greenronin.com. We're kicking off Preview Week with some of our trademark piratey goodness. Head on over to www.greenronin.com to check out a preview of Skull & Bones. You'll get a sample of backgrounds and fortunes, two unique character features in the Skull & Bones setting.

More tomorrow!

 

[Cergorach]

Well, eww!

I do like the backgrounds mechanic and fortunes, it's a good way of adding depth to a character and a good alternative to use skillpoints.

I also dig the header font used and the skull logo.

Well, that's it for the good points...

Every page has a big as side bar that's sometimes used to add a paragraph or two of text. And only using one column for the rest of the page creates a big ass amount of white space, which doesn't help but give me the impression that each page doesn't have a lot of text on it.

Next is the art on page 28, Ack!!! That looks like a (bad) etching from something around 1780, i can appreciate the idea behind it, but i don't really want that kind of artwork in a game book, this kind of art belongs in a history book as an example on how 'art' was done a couple of centuries ago, not on how to do art now!

The Elven sourcebook preview was a lot more impressive and that was a title i wasn't looking particulary forward to, no i am certainly looking differently at both books. Good for Bow&Blade, bad for Skulls&Bones...

 

[righteousfist]

I wanted to take a moment to address your comments. Thanks for the positive ones. As to the negatives...

It may LOOK like we are wasting space in the layout, but let me assure you that the text density is exactly the same as most standard books that Green Ronin has published.

As to the piece of art, this is a piece done in "period" style by a VERY talented artist named Richard Becker. It's the only piece in the book he has done in this "etching" style. I'm sorry you don't find it attractive (that's a matter of taste, as I happen to like it). However I might suggest that part of your problem with it might be because the preview is only at 150 DPI, not full print resolution. The screen version of the art is, in fact, not very flattering to Richard's skills.

We'll be doing a more extensive art preview over at greenronin.com next week. I think if nothing else, when you pick the book up and get a chance to look at more than just that one page, you'll be more than satisfied with the way the book looks.

Hal Mangold
Art & Production Director
Green Ronin Publishing

 

[Pramas]

Every page has a big as side bar that's sometimes used to add a paragraph or two of text. And only using one column for the rest of the page creates a big ass amount of white space, which doesn't help but give me the impression that each page doesn't have a lot of text on it

I hope the reviewers are paying attention, so I only have to say this once.

Looks can be deceiving. Skull & Bones has as much text as any of our other books, it's just designed differently. We use a standard of 20,000 words per 32 pages, give or take 5%. The core text (not including the index, appendix, and so on) of Skull & Bones is roughly 117,000 words, putting it pretty much right on its target of 120,000 words. You'll notice the font used is small, so the average words per page is in keeping with our other books.

Skull & Bones is 192 pages and $27.95. Considering that other companies are selling 96 page books for $24.95, I think it's well worth the money.

 

[TSL]

Skull & Bones is 192 pages and $27.95. Considering that other companies are selling 96 page books for $24.95, I think it's well worth the money.

And the writing is brilliant I tell you! Brilliant!

Oh, hell... this thing we'll show my name/isp. Drat.

Well, the boys have already had their say, so I'll just throw in that I'd honestly love to know what you think of the actual product, once you've had a chance to peruse it, oh laughing one.

Also, in answer to an e-mail from a young fan, yes, there are a lot more Fortunes then the two you see in the brief preview.

 

[Cergorach]

*tries to ward off the mob of angry green ronins* ;-)

Guys, i just called it as i saw it. It's true that there's only a 3-page preview, i just 'judged' those three pages.

The 'etched' image was the only image shown (except the cover), i didn't like it and said so. If it's the only one of it's kind in the book, i'm a happy person. I think one of the 'low' quality of the image is that it's a 150dpi image in B&W, 150dpi in grey tones is high enough quality for screen viewing, for B&W 300dpi is used for screen viewing (it seems that acrobat reader creates some antialiasing at that resolution).

As for the text density, i thought that the font size was a bit smaller than usual, but wasn't sure. I printed it on A4 paper and the printer setting was set to fit image on paper, thus it was smaller than usual and i couldn't tell if it was the resize or the font size itself. Although the pages may hold the same amount of text as other GRR products, it just looks as if there's a lot of wasted space, although the impression might not be correct, the impression is there.

 

[righteousfist]

although the impression might not be correct, the impression is there.

And that's fair enough. We just wanted the record set straight on the actual word density. We hope you enjoy the book!

Hal Mangold
Production & Art Director
Green Ronin Publishing