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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Kaptain_Kantrip" data-source="post: 149714" data-attributes="member: 546">Sadly, content is not nearly as important as packaging (ask anyone in Hollywood). I pick up things based on covers first, then flip through them, looking for maps, pictures and any interesting tidbits that may pop out at me.Bad Cover = Product is never even picked up, except to poke fun at it ("Hey, get a load out of this crap!").Good Cover = Product is immediately snatched up and brandished about wildly ("OMG! This is so cool!").Bad Interior Art and/or Bad Layout = Product is put down immediately and I shake my head in disgust at what the hell the publisher was thinking.Good Interior Art and/or Layout = Product is then either bought on impulse or given over to further reading.Bad Text = If a product passes the first two checks, it's got me intrigued enough to sit down and read it, or I just freak out and buy it without thoroughly reading it (impulse buy based on the initial "coolness factor"--especially likely to occur if I'm in a hurry or its received great advance publicity).Good Text = Product is bought. Gamer goes home happy (but probably later than they wanted)!So here is my take on Bluffside from a purely *cosmetic* point of view (which naturally does not factor in your writing skills):1) Bluffside's cover = Acceptable, but not exciting.2) Bluffside Interior Art: Same as above.3) Bluffside's Layout: 3 column format too cluttered/busy, causes eyestrain, can't focus on anything.4) Bluffside's Map: Sepia tone (to imply age?) irritating. City (hand?) drawn in brownish/red not detailed enough to arouse my interest. By contrast, I bought Geanavue almost entirely because of its ingenious, dual-sided full color map.5) Bluffside's Text: Haven't been able to get into it because of the way too busy 3 column format. Might be good, might not. There is certainly a LOT of information given, which clearly shows how much work was put into it. The problem is it would require a lot of time to sit down and read the book in any detail, trying to adapt my brain to the busy 3 column format. Time is a luxury few of us have--as is money. I don't impulse buy things that don't blow me away with their cosmetic coolness factor right off the bat. So I have to read 'em--if I think they might be worthwhile, if I have the time, and if I don't devote my gaming dollars to cooler looking products in the meantime. $25 is generally too steep for an impulse buy.6) Bluffside's Originality: I think the 6 island "cities with a city" idea is very creative but its strangeness might make it hard to fit into existing campaigns, at least for me. I am nervous about buying anything TOO different from "normal." Normal places I can recycle and reuse elsewhere, but offbeat places have much less recycle value, as every player immediately knows where they are and it kills some of the "magic." I am also nervous about "Carl the Gray Ooze" and the polymorphed Frost Dragon getting sloshed at the bar... These kinds of things, to me, smack of irreverant, "Hackmaster" type humor or High Fantasy stereotypes. I run grittier, edgier, darker games where such frivolousness has no place (not that we don't have a sense of humor, just that we prefer to impose ours on the game rather than the designers impose theirs on us). With Freeport due out this week, I will probably buy it... If I don't, you'll hear me tell you why on these boards (unless its merely a matter of too much good d20 stuff out at once to buy it all)! <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /></blockquote>

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