Pricey Book Question

[Mark CMG]

I wouldn't know.

You sent me a free copy way back when as a PDF download. I don't have a local gaming store so haven't actually seen it for sale. Whats the price?

I actually read it when you sent it for me and meant to write a review for you but about that time life got really busy and I never got a chance. I will see if I can't reread it here soon and write up a review for you.

PDF only and only $5 for its 38 pages. I like to keep things at 10pt or 9pt arial font, which I think keeps it in the high-density range as most products go. I also try to be very conscious of balancing flavor with crunch in a way that benefits most potential gamers. I look forward to reading the review (if time permits you to write one) and thanks in advance for your consideration in this.

I'm happy to say that it has been doing very well at RPGNow and other reviews (here's a recent one) on it have been very good.

 

[Buttercup]

So has anyone bought this overpriced thing? Does it sit on a shelf, or how is it useful to you if you don't intend to scrap your own campaign and use their mythology?

I bought it, and I don't think it was overpriced. Steak is more expensive than hamburger, but I don't think steak is overpriced either.

This book is filled with wonderful ideas. It's well written, and presents a really impressive mythology. I've harvested several ideas from it, and I think one could port nearly all of it into a campaign setting without too much work. Page for page, it is packed with more useful stuff than 95% of all the other D20 books I own, and I own a lot. I don't begrudge a single penny I paid for it.

In fact, thanks for bringing it up. I'm trying to hammer out a few finishing touches for my game Sunday, and I think I might just find what I need in Book of the Righteous.

 

[MerricB]

Continue Hijack...

Mark, the text density, font size and suchlike for the Whispering Woodwind are excellent, especially for the (low) cost. It's readable, and that's a big plus!

Here are two or three things I noticed on the appearance (not content) side of things:

* Sidebars not distinct enough. If you can get a 25% grey shading behind them or something similar, it'd be much better. I'd be reading the adventure and suddenly I'd find myself in an NPC description area - simply the heading isn't enough; I think the background has to change as well.

* Please don't split a column into two. You do it once, as I recall, and it's not pretty.

* Trundlefolk wander into box mania! Indicating OGC is a pain, and I quite sympathise (I tried indicating OGC with the Ariel font, but the sizing then looks all wrong. ).

Hmm... must get around to writing that playtest review. Hopefully this weekend.

Cheers!

 

[Mark CMG]

Continue Hijack...

Mark, the text density, font size and suchlike for the Whispering Woodwind are excellent, especially for the (low) cost. It's readable, and that's a big plus!

Here are two or three things I noticed on the appearance (not content) side of things:

* Sidebars not distinct enough. If you can get a 25% grey shading behind them or something similar, it'd be much better. I'd be reading the adventure and suddenly I'd find myself in an NPC description area - simply the heading isn't enough; I think the background has to change as well.

* Please don't split a column into two. You do it once, as I recall, and it's not pretty.

* Trundlefolk wander into box mania! Indicating OGC is a pain, and I quite sympathise (I tried indicating OGC with the Ariel font, but the sizing then looks all wrong. ).

Hmm... must get around to writing that playtest review. Hopefully this weekend.

Cheers!

Thanks for the additional input. I was struggling with the percentage of shading to use and tried to err on the side of "less ink usage" I guess. I may have to darken that up a bit in the future. Maybe stat blocks don't even need text boxes around them but I did want to be clear on the OGC designations. I'll have to experiment with a few other options and see what might be a useful alternative. I hope the playtest went well.

 

[Buttercup]

Most of my purchases RPGwise are for ideas.

I love monster books. I read through them and get great ideas about how to use various monsters in games. Reading Hammer and Helm right now and getting wonderful ideas about dwarven clans for my games. In a role playing game like dungeons and dragons its all about the ideas IMHO. As a DM I am not sure what else I would by a book for. To me the rules are just vehicles for the ideas behind them. Take away the ideas and you might as well play chess (not that I dislike chess mind you).

Wicht, you speak for me. Except that I don't like chess all that much.

 

[Kryndal Levik]

The Book of the Righteous is probably the best d20 purchase I've made thus far (and that's saying a lot- I've got at least $1000 of books). Even if you don't use it as-is, I'd highly recommend it for mining ideas.

 

[Wicht]

Wicht, you speak for me. Except that I don't like chess all that much.

Well, nobody is perfect

 

[megamania]

I'm in the same boat. Looks great. About 20 pages look usable now but at 40.00 dollars I just stare at it. I noticed others are too. It has been at the store now for several months.

 

[Olgar Shiverstone]

Continue Hijack...

* Trundlefolk wander into box mania! Indicating OGC is a pain, and I quite sympathise (I tried indicating OGC with the Ariel font, but the sizing then looks all wrong. ).

Hijack pt. 2 -- Fonts.

If you really want to be nice to your readers, use a serified font (eg. Times New Roman) for most of you "body text", and just use the sans serif fonts (Ariel) for titles, section headings, and the like.

Studies have shown serified fonts promote readability, while sans serif fonts are better for legibility.

Guess who's studying user interface design

I now return you to your regularly scheduled thread ...