The Gaming Outpost

Ive had a revelation. A moment of clarity. A divine vision. Athena came down to this lil mudball, touched my forehead and gave me wisdom. And strangely enough, it even ties in to this weeks conversation. Its a windy road, folks. But trust me, theres candy at the end. A big, fat candy cottage. And the witch is already in the oven.

(My wife is gonna kill me for that line.)

This week, were gonna talk about layout. But before we begin, Id like to show you two reviews from RPG.net. Both are reviews of Matt Forbecks Brave New World. What Id like you to pay attention to are the comments about layout:

(from Josh Harrison)

This is the core book for the game. It is a hard-cover book with high quality paper, and a large number of glossy, full-color pages. This book looks slick. The production values for PEG are up to their usual standards, and the layout is in a clear, easy to read format.

(from Joe G. Kushner)

How does it compare with other games though? Instead of Novas, we have Deltas. Instead of material crammed into every inch of the book like Aberrant, we have large margins. Here’s the space waster test. Take Aberrant, or Trinity. Lift up Brave New World next to it. Overlay it. Notice that the text of Brave New World goes the same length as the smaller Aberrant or Trinity book. Not a good sign.

Josh likes the layout. Joe hates it.

(Coincidentally, Josh appears to be a fan of Pinnacles work while Joe seems to be a White Wolf fan. Think it shows?)

You can find the same kind of conflicting comments for just about any game over at RPG.net. So what does that mean to us?

Simple. It means you cant please all the people all the time. If you have a simple, open layout with typeface thats 11 or 12 point, some people will like it and others will hate it. If you make your book look like an encyclopedia, youll end up with the exact same results.

I have my own biases. Theyve faced the fires. And despite criticisms, Im not changing my ways.

I like a book thats easy to read. I dont like reading encyclopedias. And I dont believe that books with bigger word counts are necessarily better books. I believe in the Bard when he says that bit about brevity and wit. I believe theres more in the quality of the writing in some books than the quantity of writing in others.

Let me be perfectly clear on this. One of the best RPGs published last year was The Adventures of Baron Munchaussen. That little book cant be more than 32 pages long (memory tells me its 16, but Im too lazy to get up and get my copy right now). A lot of people are very fond of Chaosium games. So am I. As a matter of fact, I think Im one of Chaosiums most devoted fans: I buy everything they publish. But, I have to say that I hate-hate-hate the layout they use. Chaosium books are difficult to read. They use a tiny font in a tiny typesize and employ even smaller leading. Its like& well, I hate to say this again& but its like trying to read an encyclopedia.

Blue Planet is another example. It, too, was one of the best games published in the last few years (and I thought for sure L5R was gonna lose the Origins Award to that game), but it took me a long time to find that fact out for myself. Why? Because the damn thing is so hard to read.

I could say the same thing about Delta Green, Countdown, and a whole mess of other books. I love the game. Im not so enthusiastic about the way the books are laid out.

Brave New World I read on the way home from Gen-Con. And I loved every second of it.

(Ill go on the record right now. If 7th Sea beats Brave New World for Best RPG, Im buying for Matt at the bar.)

BNWs layout makes it easy to read. Its written in an entertaining voice, which doesnt hurt, either. Which brings us to another point, and thats the Quality.

Some of my favorite game companies have a reputation for producing dry products. That is, despite the fact theyre filled to the brim with information, theyre about as fun to read as VCR instructions. I cant deny or confirm this reputation, nor will I go naming names. Kiss and tell aint in my credo.

Despite this fact, I still have entire bookshelves devoted to their products. Ill blindly buy just about anything with certain company (or author) names on the cover, knowing that Im getting myself into a long, lonely read.

On the other hand, theres guys like Matt Forbeck (Hi Matt!) who has the ability to take a ten thousand word essay and slam all that information into just ten words. Whats more, the emotional impact of those words hits harder than a mac truck (driven by a mad cultist with combat boots – and just when is John Tynes gonna do another edition of Creatures & Cultists?). In short, Matts writing is powerful. He knows how to summon emotions and communicate with wit, candor and – most importantly – brevity.

A lot of people have told me they learned more about Rokugan in my fiction than in the essays on culture. That makes me all giddy inside, because thats the whole point. I believe in the oldest storytelling rule in the world:

SHOW DONT TELL

And I believe if more RPG authors followed that simple rule, books would not only be shorter, but would be much more powerful.

At Gen-Con last year, I watched the Pinnacle booth hold a mock execution. Those ten minutes made me want to buy the book. Not because of what was said, but because of what was happening. I could have watched the whole scene on mute and known I wanted to buy their book. The fact the government was holding a public execution of a superhero was worth about one hundred thousand words. They showed me they knew the kind of superhero game I like to run. They showed me they understood the kind of heroism I like in my protagonists. They showed me I needed to buy that book right there and then.

(Okay, so I traded for it. Shoot me.)

(Wait. Forget I said that.)

Show. Show. Show.

Thats the rule I follow. And youll see the consequences, whether you like them or not, soon enough.

Were almost at the end here. At the end of part one. Ill be showing you the layout for Orkworld next week. But before I go, I want to share something with you.

Thats right, its time for a moment of clarity.

Ever meet someone who was die-hard into asking people about their religion? Ever meet someone who liked pointing out the logic loopholes in other peoples religion? Ever wanna have lunch with this guy?

Roleplaying games are a lot like religion. We all have our favorite one. We practice our favorite religion about one day a week. We carry talismans of our favorite religion around with us (usually in little leather pouches). And, like religion, there are devotees and then there are fanatics.

The devotees know the logic loops of their religion and recognize most of it as allegory, symbol and folklore. Its the fanatics who make all the trouble. They memorize every last word of scripture and they know that its all literal and true. They condemn those who dont follow the true path and call them blasphemers and heretics at the drop of a hat.

Sound familiar?

I really dont have the time to pull this analogy out further, but then again, I dont think I need to, do I? (And that brevity and wit thing comes to mind again.)

So, Ill leave you with this thought.

Ill ignore my gods warts, Ill ignore yours. Sound fair?

Right then. Ill see you next week.

And dont skip church! God is watching&