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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Kaptain_Kantrip" data-source="post: 149335" data-attributes="member: 546">THG: I did not mean to be insulting, but it appeared to me that the design was unprofessional, and it still does. The three column format was an absolute eyesore. The map was bland and an irritating sepia tone, and while the blandness may be a good thing for reasons you stated, it does not get me excited about adventuring in Bluffside. Additionally, I think the city (separated into so many islands) is simply too weird to fit into my campaign. What I want in a city is one that looks like Geanavue (mapwise) and reads like Freiburg, Ruins of Zhentil Keep or Lankhmar (1e).I think Mongoose has too much white space, and I don't like the 3 column "packed" layout of Bluffside, so it's not like there are two separate camps, IMO, but rather "easy to read" should always take precedence over the amount of content. I'm not trying to hold Mongoose up as a pillar of professional design, but rather as a bare-bones minimum of what other d20 publishers should aspire to. There's a reason nobody else (to my knowledge) is doing 3 column books---they are not easy to read and a potential turn-off to customers. 3 columns are definitely not a standard or widely accepted format in professional gaming industry publications (or any other publication that I can think of), which led me to question the professionalism of your designer (who may have only been following your orders---I simply can't see an *experienced* professional not objecting to the layout you went with). I think it was a poor design choice; others may disagree, YMMV, and all that. Sorry if my comments seemed like an attack--they were just my opinion, expressed as plainly as possible, without venom or rancor. If it was an attack piece, I wouldn't have altered the title of this thread to let people know I hadn't really read Bluffside, and my complaints were from a layout/design perspective.Maybe a box set (like Freiburg) may have been in order (with anything cut for space provided as free web enhancements), with a DM and Player map, DMs guide and player's guide to the city... Freiburg was a gorgeous, detailed city set, one of the best ever made for any system. Every building was detailed with who owned it, how much it rented/sold for, who was in it, etc. Sure, the DM will always want to change some of these, but it's sure nice to have all that detail as a skeleton to build from.</blockquote>

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