SRD 3.5 Competition

[Dimwhit]

Well, I have about 8 judges, so I'm not hurting for them. But I think the more, the better. Also, they're not all judging each category. But there are probably 4-5 for each category.

As for submissions, I couldn't even venture a guess. I may get 2 or 3 for each category, or I may get 20. I just don't know. I maybe have gotten in over my head on this one.

Don't feel you need to, but you're welcome to join. You could just judge one category that you're interested in, or all of them. I haven't decided how long I'll allow for judging. It will depend on how many entries. But there will at least be a few days, if not a week or more.

 

[woodelf]

I do hope that whatever the winner turns out to be it isn't just something that apes the look or style of the exisiting D&D/d20 books. I am getting pretty bored with the bog-standard "image border down the outside edge of the page" thing. It was something fresh when the 3e books did it, and SSS as pretty much the first 3rd-party d20 publisher put their own spin on it, but now every damn d20 product looks virtually identical.

Well, i don't like non-functional borders (wanna put cool, useful content down the border? great! wanna add eye-candy? no thanks.). And, while i've seen quite a few of the D20 books out there, i honestly don't pay much attention to the layout on a flip-through unless it's exceptional (good or bad), and i don't own any D20 books ('cept 2--neither from WotC, and neither using an outside-edge eye-candy border). So *i'm* not going to be making my work look like the WotC books (which i think are very ugly and hard to use for a number of reasons). But my version is intentionally a fairly straightforward layout, with no bells and whistles, and no art--that's how i like my reference works (and besides, i've got access to no appropriate art), so if the judges prefer flashy to functional, or somebody else makes a flashy-yet-functional version, i won't win. The strength of my version is (1) getting the page count down (woohoo, small type!) while still having good readability (woohoo, quality, readable typefaces!), (2) clean organization, with a clear hierarchy of headings (i hope), and (3) organization--that's, i hope, my strength. I've significantly reorganized the content from the RTFs, in the hopes of bringing some order to their mess, and minimizing duplication of content. I've done what i can to reorganize the content to have some sensible flow --without actually rewriting vast gobs of stuff (basically just cut'n'paste).

That said, what do people think about landscape vs. portrait for book layout? My preference is to go with landscape (8.5x11), because then a page basically fits perfectly on screen, and fits perfectly on the paper. But most people seem to dislike this, so i'm currently working on a portrait-orientation version. Less useful on-screen, but seems to upset fewer people when printed. Opinions?

 

[seasong]

That said, what do people think about landscape vs. portrait for book layout?

Portrait is the most readable for me on a screen. Landscape fits width perfectly, but the font is usually so small at that point that I can't read the gorgeous full-screen layout I'm looking at.

Maybe if I had a huge monitor, but I don't.

For print, I also prefer portrait, but I'm more flexible on the issue - I like the feel of a tall book better than a wide one, but I'll read either one .

-seasong

 

[Arc]

stephenh: Great work. I was just surfing through, and found a few things that would be nice if you added them.

• Magic items: Many wonderous items, rings, wands, staves and whatnot cast spells or replicate spell effects. If those linked back to the spell in question, it make the magic items tables 10x easier to use.
• Classes: It's minor, but if classes that have spell lists would link to those spell lists, that would be great. Some prestige classes also gain spell like abilities, those should link to the spell in question.
• Spells in general need to be cross-referenced to each other, especially those in chains.
• Summon Monster should link to the monsters being summoned.

That's about it, really. Good work.

 

[Sage]

[*]Spells in general need to be cross-referenced to each other, especially those in chains.
[*]Summon Monster should link to the monsters being summoned.
[/list]

Actually, 3.5 takes care of this. For example first you would have Planar Binding, then directly after that spell would be PB, greater, and then PB, lesser.
They even changed a few names to make it more consistent. TWE to greater teleport (I'll never forgive them for that), is one example.

 

[Sage]

To submit your entry for the contest, .zip it all up and put is somewhere I (and the other judges) can download it. Then email me at srd@dimwhit.com and give me the download url. If that won't work (you're doing an SQL database or something) just email me the url.

When the entries are all done and sent, can you post the URLs so people can pick their own favorite, if they don't like the one the judges pick?

Maybe first post the URLs a few days after the entries are up, so the bandwith doesn't get overloaded before the judges get a copy.

 

[Poster Bard]

Then there's of course the Plexus version as well:

Plexus - SRD Revised Bundle

There's a review available for this one, but it's not very positive. Apparently, the formatting is fairly basic.

There's a Demo now available at RPGNow for this. The Plexus - SRD Revised - Basics, Spells, and Magic Items has been updated. We've cleaned up a few minor errors, added dozens of additional (precision) bookmarks, replaced a missing page, as well as compressed the file down to a third of the original size to increase speed during reference usage. More updates and revisions to come but buy the "Bundle" now at the same low, sale price!

 

[Drawmack]

maybe a couple days before the deadline dimwhit could start an official submissions thread. Only for posting your submission and no submission not in that thread will be accepted.

 

[Drawmack]

Real life kept me from working on this for nearly two weeks I hope that i can have it finished by the deadline but I am no longer sure. I will have the PHB converted and should have most of the DMG converted. I am not sure if I'll have the monster manual converted. Also a virus, or more appropriately my virus scanner, ate my list of people who volunteered to beta test for me so I'll just be posting a zip file here once I get the phb completly converted.

OH an before someone says it yes I'm only converting the SRD I'm just refering to the section as per the books they originally appeared in.

 

[Dimwhit]

maybe a couple days before the deadline dimwhit could start an official submissions thread. Only for posting your submission and no submission not in that thread will be accepted.

Actually, that's a good idea. I'll probably do that, too. People can email them to me, or post it in the submissions.

When the entries are all done and sent, can you post the URLs so people can pick their own favorite, if they don't like the one the judges pick?

Absolutely! I know the winners will get hosting with FluidDragon (did I get that right?), and I believe Morrus offered some hosting space, so we'll figure it out so everyone can choose their own favorite.

Drawmack, bummer about the time constraint. I hope you get most of it done!