[Minor Rant] How about that Index

[Cedric]

/rant on

RPG's often have terrible indices. Things are poorly referenced, there is often no such thing as cross-indexing. The index is misplaced, incomplete and confusing.

I want the index at the back of the book and I want it to be thorough. If I look up "fire" I want missile fire, all the fire related spells, starting a fire...the whole nine yards.

Go pick up any recent version of Hero (Hero 5, champions, hero 4) and look at the index. That's how I want my index.

Cedric

/rant off

edit: changed the top to be more clear

 

[alsih2o]

i will second this powerfully.

a good index makes everything smoother. it is something i have never tried to do, but i imagine it is not the easiest.

a good index won't make me buy a product, but it makes me much happier with a product i have purchased.

very good point cedric.

 

[Buttercup]

Oh yeah.

And given that any word processing program can make the job relatively painless, there really isn't any excuse for leaving the index out.

A good index is a thing of beauty.

 

[Drawmack]

Was I the only one who had to memorize the page number for the leveling chart in the PHB because I could never find it in the index?

 

[Buttercup]

Mine's marked with a post-it flag. Along with the charts for weapons & armor.

 

[Drawmack]

Six photocoppies of the alphabetized charts from the back of the dmg lay on my gaming table.

Now why weren't those included in the PHB?

 

[Herremann the Wise]

Excellent point, I think you've picked on a definite frustration of most gamers out there. Hopefully, the 3.5 books will go some way to cleaning this aspect up. However, a WOTC complete index for all their D&D products would be useful as an updated file.
I don't know why they have not thought of this before.

Best Regards
Herremann the Wise

 

[KB9JMQ]

My DMG looks like its got feathers from the Post It Flags in it.

I hate that. Please someone go to the trouble of making correct and thoughtful indexes. Gaming Life would be much easier.

Great thread btw, I didnt realize how much I hate bad indexes until I read this.

 

[Gizzard]

RPG's often have terrible indices. Things are poorly referenced, there is often no such thing as cross-indexing. The index is misplaced, incomplete and confusing.

Most publications have terrible indices. Incides actually are pretty tricky to do, especially for something specialized like D&D.

Since they are tricky and time consuming, guess which feature gets cut as the printing deadline looms. If you get an index at all, you got lucky.

 

[Cedric]

I'm telling you though...the guys who made Champions 4th and Hero 5th...they know indices.

You could almost look up the word "the" and find references in the index for where it's used in the book.

Not quite that good, but still...it rules. Best gaming index and one of the best indices period. All rpg makers could learn from them.

Cedric