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The Audience - Do you feel like you're the target audience?
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<blockquote data-quote="Quickleaf" data-source="post: 9178304" data-attributes="member: 20323"><p>Yeah, definitely. I forget if it was Marshall Miller who pioneered the two-page <em>"dungeon starter"</em> concept that I've seen adapted and reworked in different ways (I really like <em>Beyond the Wall's</em> adventure playbooks), but the idea is capturing an adventure on a two-page spread. Sometimes it's imperfect, like having a "floating" list of clues without guidance/knowing how or when exactly to apply them, but you can capture a lot of information on two pages.</p><p></p><p>Most of the OSR/indie products I have are shorter than the 256-page WotC hardcover adventures, though, so while a shorter product can implement just a few usability measures well, I think there's more of an onus on larger products to incorporate even more usability features really well.</p><p></p><p>Even though I find <em>Mork Borg</em> to be a disturbingly chaotic masterwork of insane layout – not something I find more usable at the table by any stretch – I can see how the layout designer was looking at print magazines as inspiration. And I think that's a great idea to look outside of the RPG-sphere for layout & usability features. Since RPG adventures/campaigns are meant to be references that are actively flipped through and used at the table, I would love to see or be involved in project where the sources of inspiration are travel guides, magazines, museum/park maps, or other forms of print that we don't usually see emulated/borrowed from in RPGs.</p><p></p><p>Physical production is an issue too... if I have a book I'm going to be opening/closing/tagging a lot, I probably want that stitch-bound and not only glue-bound, and if it's big would be nice to have some color-marking on the page edges or something to help visually navigate, an included ribbon bookmark would be nice too.</p><p></p><p>But it's an economies of scale issue – when you're smaller and need X amount to hit profit targets, you can take risks that might alienate certain folks cause your audience is smaller. At WotC's scale where you want 100,000X to hit profit targets, being conservative about the risks you take makes a lot more sense, because if you lose you lose big.</p><p></p><p>Edit: Basically, I think that when it comes to usability of print products, RPGs should be setting a silver or gold standard that <em>other</em> non-RPG fields/publishers look to as great examples.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Quickleaf, post: 9178304, member: 20323"] Yeah, definitely. I forget if it was Marshall Miller who pioneered the two-page [I]"dungeon starter"[/I] concept that I've seen adapted and reworked in different ways (I really like [I]Beyond the Wall's[/I] adventure playbooks), but the idea is capturing an adventure on a two-page spread. Sometimes it's imperfect, like having a "floating" list of clues without guidance/knowing how or when exactly to apply them, but you can capture a lot of information on two pages. Most of the OSR/indie products I have are shorter than the 256-page WotC hardcover adventures, though, so while a shorter product can implement just a few usability measures well, I think there's more of an onus on larger products to incorporate even more usability features really well. Even though I find [I]Mork Borg[/I] to be a disturbingly chaotic masterwork of insane layout – not something I find more usable at the table by any stretch – I can see how the layout designer was looking at print magazines as inspiration. And I think that's a great idea to look outside of the RPG-sphere for layout & usability features. Since RPG adventures/campaigns are meant to be references that are actively flipped through and used at the table, I would love to see or be involved in project where the sources of inspiration are travel guides, magazines, museum/park maps, or other forms of print that we don't usually see emulated/borrowed from in RPGs. Physical production is an issue too... if I have a book I'm going to be opening/closing/tagging a lot, I probably want that stitch-bound and not only glue-bound, and if it's big would be nice to have some color-marking on the page edges or something to help visually navigate, an included ribbon bookmark would be nice too. But it's an economies of scale issue – when you're smaller and need X amount to hit profit targets, you can take risks that might alienate certain folks cause your audience is smaller. At WotC's scale where you want 100,000X to hit profit targets, being conservative about the risks you take makes a lot more sense, because if you lose you lose big. Edit: Basically, I think that when it comes to usability of print products, RPGs should be setting a silver or gold standard that [I]other[/I] non-RPG fields/publishers look to as great examples. [/QUOTE]
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The Audience - Do you feel like you're the target audience?
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