OSR Modules with the best layout & presentation

[Gus L]

I don't really think any of the old two column TSR modules can be described as having great layout or presentation. Art tends to be sparse, text dense to the point it has trouble with readability and writing is often too dry or excessive (depending on era) - though it's the strongest part of the good ones. Of the TSR adventures I think the later BECMI ones show the best readability and usability with decent layout ... but they are dated still. It's also hit or miss with even those. Too much boxed text (itself a problem in my opinion) is a common issue.

Contemporary adventure design is often far more usable. I don't love the OSE bullet point style, and it's certainly not something everyone can write, but generally the usability, layout and design of more modern Post-OSR and OSR products tends to be far superior to the classics even when the content isn't.

 

[Simon Miles]

I just checked out the previews for your adventures The Warren and The Pit of Panzar. Those are nicely layed out and look to be good adventures. I can see what you mean by the boxed text - looks like you're using it for 2 purpose; as a means to highlight dialog/spoken text; as a way to provide location details, intros and choices in an solo adventure. Either way, as a formatting tool those work for me. I've seen the alternate approach of providing a shaded region with a different font tint for such highlights, which seems to be a formatting technique that's a bit more common.

TBH either way works equally for me. If I use a prewritten adventure, I read through and lift out what I deem the most pertinent text, then write it into bullet points or short paragraphs. My brain just seems to be wired in such a way that I never really develop an even flow while reading an adventure, let alone narrating it live to a group of players. Once read through and with my own talking bullets or short sentences, I can ad lib the gist of it. Layout can definitely help - the Necrotic Gnome adventures I mentioned in my other post contain descriptions that're short and concise enough for me to narrate live without any rewriting. It's not that they're taking a better approach, as much as they're approach is more akin to the bullet points and short paragraphs I create for my own adventures, or those I'd form from a prewritten.

[Edit] BTW - really like your maps in the Pit of Panzar preview.

Thanks - very much appreciated! I've just been reading through another thread about layout discussing "Written to be read" and "Written to be played" styles of scenarios. While there is some issue with the premise, it's a very interesting thread. There's a lot of very diverse opinions on the nature of the presentation, with proponents of the "wall of text" vibe and the "bullet-point dungeon", it makes you realise you can't please everyone all of the time. In our next product we're trying a simpler lay-out, without boxed text; short summary of the room and a stat block if required. Also monster rosters where the beasties move around their locations (we did this in the Warren but that was a bit over-the-top). We'll see how it's received...
Glad you like the maps; they're my favourite bit...

 

[Fenris-77]

I hesitate to nominate myself, but my adventures for Shadowdark have gotten some high praise from reviewers for their layout. I'm using the Johan Nohr school of layout and my stuff is designed to make adventures as easy to run at the table as I can manage. I'll just drop a layout example in favour of additional words:

 

[Celebrim]

I hesitate to nominate myself, but my adventures for Shadowdark have gotten some high praise from reviewers for their layout. I'm using the Johan Nohr school of layout and my stuff is designed to make adventures as easy to run at the table as I can manage. I'll just drop a layout example in favour of additional words:

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That's pretty good. I could run that and feel pretty comfortable and most of what I'd want to add - like access to a random junk generator or a random book title generator and a few choice bits of things that aren't valuable - isn't something I'd necessarily expect you to waste space on.

My own complaints are the font is too big. One of the complaints that I have about a lot of modern layouts is there is just too little information per page. I'd much rather smaller font and using that space to give more words to description of the room. Like Haphut's Study has a nice introduction sentence but leaves it entirely up to the GM after that to generate on the fly a description of the room as a study with a desk and bookcases. Personally, I'd rather have a full description ready to read.

But I admit those are personal preferences and opinions.

 

[Bill Zebub]

One of the complaints that I have about a lot of modern layouts is there is just too little information per page. I'd much rather smaller font and using that space to give more words to description of the room.

I'm the opposite. These eyes aren't what they used to be. And I definitely don't want more words; I like terse.

I'd rather kill more trees and have large fonts, lots of white space.

 

[Fenris-77]

That's pretty good. I could run that and feel pretty comfortable and most of what I'd want to add - like access to a random junk generator or a random book title generator and a few choice bits of things that aren't valuable - isn't something I'd necessarily expect you to waste space on.

My own complaints are the font is too big. One of the complaints that I have about a lot of modern layouts is there is just too little information per page. I'd much rather smaller font and using that space to give more words to description of the room. Like Haphut's Study has a nice introduction sentence but leaves it entirely up to the GM after that to generate on the fly a description of the room as a study with a desk and bookcases. Personally, I'd rather have a full description ready to read.

But I admit those are personal preferences and opinions.

The font size is large by design. I see a lot of complaints from people about the accessability of some RPG books. Font too small, bad contrast, overly dense layouts, etc all give people with vision issues fits. So I design with 14pt clean and readable body font. I may drop that 12pt as I have found the space restrictions a bit of a pain, but that's as low as I'll go. As for the verbiage itself, i do my best. Writing clean, evocative, useful prose for RPG applications is hard, so I just try to get a little better with each new book.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Writing clean, evocative, useful prose for RPG applications is hard, so I just try to get a little better with each new book.

I re-read the Thousand Thousand Islands zines and just marvel at the text. It feels unobtainable in its clarity and simplicity.

 

[Celebrim]

The font size is large by design. I see a lot of complaints from people about the accessibility of some RPG books. Font too small, bad contrast, overly dense layouts, etc all give people with vision issues fits.

I totally get it. There isn't a perfect layout that is going to please everyone. I knew what you were going for, but I'm a developer with a pair of 2560x1440 monitors and if I'm reading a book prefer to read it as a book.

 

[Knaves Quill]

I always thought this was the gold standard. 4e Dungeon Delve with its short adventures that had a map and each encounter on a page with statblocks to prevent the need to go anyplace else. They were short and minor quests, but the layout was great for me.

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I have been frequent use of that book for a few systems; very good design and usability.

I'll also echo the praise for anything written by Kelsey Dionne of The Arcane Library.