(Reposted) Non-PDF Formats for RPG's

[Zzarchov]

[Starglim]

[BubbaBrown]

This is the point I chime in about my favorite personal wiki:
TiddlyWiki -

It's a self contained html document that's a javascript driven wiki. I've been using it for my material and it allows for really easy transition to the web... since you just host the html file.

Examples and shameless plugging:



It tends to work for me as I don't tend to linearize my processes.

[Rob Lang]

I must admit I'm a little behind the times. It seems that about 40% of the 110 people I have canvassed (about 30 separate gaming groups) use a laptop in play. I have tried it but I found it slowed up the game too much. I had no idea that so many people used them.

Another alternative to HTML/Wiki when publishing a game is to put links into the PDF:

Then you can have something that prints for the old fashioned people and also something that hyperlinks for the modern types.

Executables do scare me, though. As good as virus scanners are, there is a perception (supported by browser software and Microsoft) that downloading programs is inherently dangerous.

I can't say I've downloaded Piecemeal, how large is it?

[Zzarchov]

[Chainsaw Aardvark]

[Zzarchov]

So, my first long post seems to have gotten removed when I was logged out while typing. Take 2

On the matter of security

While I understand there is a perception that PDF's are safe, as a not of profesional (from my paid job) note, they are not safe. For anyone with an older reader, a third party reader, or who upgraded to Acrobat Writer, PDF's can contain viruses and there are many counts of this occuring.

On the matter of indexing

As a technophile I may have a bias here, but it is a simple fact that no print index can ever match the possibilities of a computer for cross referencing. This is similarly to how no Oral Historian can ever hope to match the possibilities for permanance of a written document.

In both cases the individual executions may be off, but technology simply offers too many new options.

No index, Icons or perfect document layout in print can match the ability to cross reference computer files. I cannot have pages 7, 37 and 72 all laid out next to each other in a book without scissors or multiple copies.

Note, that doesn't mean a computer viewer will do this right, only that it can. An amazing print layout specialist will beat a bumbling computer programmer. But assuming equal caliber of indivuals, print cannot compete.

On the matter of laptops

Laptops are becoming the norm, and as time goes by they will only become more so. You mentioned a $600 dollar laptop, when I finished highshool they were $2000, and now I picked up a work laptop (new) last year for $300.

I don't see this shrinking as time goes by.

Furthermore in PDF form one is already assuming the reader has a computer. Even if its not a laptop, its a rules program. Moving to the computer to quickly reference a rule is not a huge issue compare to digging through a pile of books and flipping through the pages. And if you do have a laptop its much quicker than a book.


On the matter of Online Gaming

PBEM is very different than Virtual Tabletop Gaming.

Virtual Tabletop gaming is identical to gaming in your basement, with the exception that no one needs to drive anywhere, people eat their own munchies and crude jokes are made over skype instead of over the kitchen table.

Virtual Dice are rolled, Virtual Miniatures are moved over the table (assuming you choose to use miniatures). I believe Maptool and RPtools have been suggested in this site (or perhaps it was the Free RPG blog) as a link. iTabletop is also free these days I believe.


On the matter of revisions

Source Code is still in the end a single document on the authors computer


On the matter of a laptop in play

I personally have no issue with it, but I use it merely as I would a book. I never played AD&D with the DMG in front of me thumbing through it, I only touched it when I needed it. So to is my use of a Laptop. But thats just me.





I find this discussion very interesting. Even If I do not agree with everyones individual views I think its very important to consider them and really ponder for a bit how I can improve the way I do things.

[Rob Lang]

Zzarchov, that's one epic argument there!

I think I still prefer a well linked PDF to an EXE.

If the game was in a PDF, how many pages are you looking at? The largest free RPG I think I have in my store is Entalis, which is more than 400 A4 at 10pt.

[Zzarchov]

You know, at one point I might have guessed.. but I really don't know. I'd have to say over a hundred. Some features exist very different as a computer program than a page as well. I keep version listings, and notes of changes and whatnot, but I don't think I've ever had in in a format that would be rational to count pages in (text in proper sizes, pictures etc)

[Chainsaw Aardvark]

I will grant you that is a decent rebuttal of my points. However, in looking over the game I've noticed a few other issues that may need to be addressed.

The text is rather small with no option to zoom in. Combined with the black on white and somewhat blocky paragraphs, its rather quickly inducing eye-strain. The fact that windows can't really be re-sized is a bit noisome as well.

While its easy to jump around, going backwards isn't quite as easy. (a back button or last window option would be nice) The ordered flow of a traditional document is quite helpful in focusing on each element as it becomes important. I don't find your program very intuitive, and the bits of information seem a bit too widely spaced. Rules are linked, but not necessarily together. Each block of data seems a bit too small.

Perhaps you need "pages" for all the basics of a category (ie the normal way for initiative/attack/armor) and then a page with the drop down menu of all the advanced combat items. Luck points should probably be in the section with fate and destiny points. Optional and Required rules are not really distanced from one another.

Its an interesting experience to try, but I think it would be better as a supplement to a more normal presentation. Your attempt to be different is to be applauded.

Being all negative is not really my way, and once past the slightly awkward layout, the game itself has may fine points.

The debate rules have some very interesting repercussions. Normally I don't like game derived speech - isn't that supposed to be the role part of role-playing? However the way a good debate/speech beforehand can cripple the enemy is quite cinematic.

How most classes can acquire items that are personally "lucky/relic/trademark etc" by preforming well is also nice.

Very few games have so many different character points (Drama/luck/fate)

The simple target 20 system (like Edens 9+ Unisystem) is fairly intuitive and easy to use.

I highly approve of the "Schrodenger's Character" concept under creation, and the "pie-pieces" multi-class creation is an amusing idea.

All in all, I like your project if not necessarily its execution.