A Role Playing Games Blog
Advice
Ask The Stargazer: “Would you be willing to provide some insight into your thoughts on layout for free RPG PDFs?”
4January 24, 2012
A couple of days ago Stargazer Games fan and fellow amateur game designer Michael M. contacted me via email and asked me to share a few tricks on doing the layout for free RPGs. Here’s what I came up with:
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Get a desktop publishing software
When you try your hand at layout using word processors like MS Word or Open Office etc. don’t be surprised when it looks like crap. It’s extremely hard to create a good-looking layout with a software that’s not created for that purpose.
I prefer Adobe InDesign but it’s an extremely expensive software. Microsoft’s Publisher is AFAIK still included in some versions of their Office suite and it’s pretty easy to use. If you prefer open source there’s Scribus.
I haven’t had much luck using Scribus, but I know that some people have created pretty cool looking stuff with it. I am sure there are many more DTP solutions for various platforms. -
Look at what other people have done
That’s what I did a lot. I looked at the layouts I’ve seen in books I like and tried my hand at imitating them. That’s actually easier said then done, especially when you use another software (with less features) and when you have no idea how certain things are done. I am still pretty much an amateur but people seem to like my stuff, but I still learn something new every day. That’s actually a good segue to my next tip. -
Practice, practice, practice
The only way to get better at doing layout is by doing layout. Period. Ok, when you get someone else to show you some tricks, this may also help. -
Make use of textures and artwork
Everything looks better with textures and artwork. Luckily there’s are a lot of textures on the net that you can use royalty-free. Often textures are released in the public domain or are licensed under Creative Commons. When it comes to Fantasy/SF artwork you usually have to pay for that stuff. But there’s a lot of pretty inexpensive stock art at sites like RPGNow.
Sometimes artists allow you to use their art for free as long as your project is non-commercial. If you find a nice piece of art at DeviantArt or somewhere else, do the right thing and ask the artist for permission if you want to use it. You might be surprised how many artists are actually willing to let you use it for free. -
Get feedback
Ask people for feedback. Show them a few pages and ask them how they like the layout. I actually print the layout drafts on paper so that you can better judge how the final product is going to look like. Sometimes your layout looks great on the screen but doesn’t work that well on paper.
It also helps to have a few friends who aren’t afraid to tell you the truth when your layout sucks. And it’s even better if they can point out what they don’t like and more importantly why they don’t like it.
Please don’t forget that I am an amateur myself, so take my advice with a grain of salt. If you have some layout experience of your own, feel free to post your thoughts below!
Sandbox games: A collection of links
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When I had the idea of running a sandbox game I did some research first. Especially when you try a new game or a new style of GMing things can go terribly wrong when you’re unprepared. So in order to avoid that I got some help from people who’ve run sandbox games before.
Recently I had a rather lengthy chat with Joshua Macy, who has also written a couple of extremely helpful posts on the subject of sandbox games:
Aside from that I also found a few more recent posts on the topic:
Of course there are probably thousands of posts out there on running sandbox games. Do you know interesting posts that should be added to that list? Or perhaps you have some of your own experiences to share. Feel free to do so in the comments below!
mashupforge
3Have you ever dreamed about creating a Google Maps style map of your campaign world? My friend and fellow RPG blogger Zakharov Sawyer recently told me about mashupforge, a new service that allows you to do just that. You can even add markers with descriptions about the various places on the map. This can be a very handy tool, especially when you use a laptop or tablet PC at the game table. Below you see a map created by Zak:
If you want to check out the map in all its interactive glory, follow this link. Mashupforge is currently in beta, and they’ll probably add more features in the future but if you look for an easy and free way to turn your campaign map into an interactive map in the style of Google Maps, mashupforge is definitely worth a look.
Learning is good for you! And gaming too…
1December 14, 2011
To say that role-playing games have been good for me is an understatement. Besides the countless hours of fun they’ve provided, the lasting friendships that have been forged and the way it has opened my eyes to a global community I am thankful to belong to, gaming has had other benefits in my life.
Let’s look at the most obvious ones. I read a whole lot more because of gaming. I was already an avid reader before discovering rpgs, but the games introduced me to all sorts of different authors and influences I might not have discovered where it not for the game. I became a better storyteller and developed both my oral and written communication skills due to the game, during face to face interactions as part of the game or when I sat down to write a handout or other game related document.
I can’t say I learned English because of games, I already had a pretty decent grasp of the language, but I know many friends who improved their language skills thanks to gaming. On a recent discussion in the Puerto Rico Role Players group we were talking about how being a good Game Master had much in common with being a good teacher and how that has helped me in my line of work. I really believe that my interpersonal skills, something I rely on daily in my line of work, are better because of the game.
Then there is the ongoing learning… I find myself researching ideas and concepts for my writing (game related and otherwise) all the time. My creative endeavors (and role-playing games is a big chunk of that) mean I am constantly searching for ways to learn more, and more effectively. Readying articles on Wikipedia still seems odd to some people (probably the same ones who thought it was odd to read the encyclopedia for fun!), but recently I have been using the Kahn Academy more and more.
The Kahn Academy is a non-for profit that has existed for a while now (and you can read all about it on this Wikipedia page), and while I knew about it, I had not really used it that much. Then I ended up going to it to look at the Brain Teasers videos thinking I could use some of them for my games, but ended up watching many more videos, and it the process learning about many new things, some I had little interest before.
There are a lot of math and science videos, but even those can be useful for a gamer, specially if you are working on a sci-fi game, I particularly like their History section, great for giving context for historical games for your history-challenged player who might know the timeline of Krynn but might not know if the Wall Street Crash of 1929 happened before or after the Vietnam War. And that anecdotes my friends really happened!
So that’s a recent tool I’ve used to brush up my knowledge, much being applied to my current and future campaigns, such as the Cosmology and Astronomy area for my upcoming sci-fi game. What tools do you use for research when you game?
My take on “unfinished business”
2December 6, 2011
In his latest post Roberto (aka Sunglar) shared his thoughts about “unfinished business”, campaigns that never came to a proper end. I have to admit I know this all too well. When it comes to finishing campaigns that I’ve started I am terrible. I’ve written about what I call “Game Designer Attention Deficit Disorder” before and as you can imagine I have the same issue when I am running games. Instead of seeing things through to the end I usually switch from game to game, campaign to campaign with random one-shots thrown in.
Luckily my players are very patient with me and haven’t run away yet. Sometimes they share my excitement for the shiny new game I want to try out and so everything is fine, but I often get the nagging feeling that I never actually ran a great campaign. So what do I consider a “great campaign”? It’s the one campaign you remember for many years, that you and your friends always reminisce about when you meet. A friend of mine ran a Rolemaster campaign for us, back when we were still at the university. Even though we met an unfortunate end and the campaign didn’t end as the GM anticipated we had a blast.
So why is it that I can’t seem to see a campaign from start to finish? I think one of the reasons is that while I love to create worlds, characters and rules, my stories are usually not so well thought out. When it comes to adventures I am often sloppy and only my talent at improvising and acting out characters saves the day. The other reason is definitely the aforementioned GM attention deficit disorder that makes me want to run new games every other day.
I recently had some ideas for a fantasy setting I would love to use as a basis for a campaign. One part of me thinks it should go through with it, flesh it out, think about adventure ideas or perhaps turn it into a sandbox game. But another part of me fears that it might be another failure – a game that I start to abandon as soon as the next idea comes along. Of course I could start working on it either way. Even if I never run the game myself, perhaps my notes are useful for someone else.
The end of the year is approaching and this is often a time when people look back on what they did in the year that lies behind them. But you also make plans for the new year. And when it comes to gaming, I am not that happy with how 2011 turned out. I had great plans that fell flat for the most part. That’s why I would love to start something great in 2012. After all if the world is truly ending next year, it’s the last chance I got, isn’t it. 
Unfinished business
0December 2, 2011
I think as a whole we human beings are completists. We want to complete what we began; we want the whole story. We crave to know the conclusion, and when we don’t get closure we often resent it. From famous court cases to cancelled TV series, we just don’t like it when we don’t know the end of the story.
No wonder hardcore fan-folk (and I use the term meaning no disrespect) often take this to the next level when it comes to the things they are passionate about. Be it the TV series they were really invested in and the networked axed, or the endless novel series whose author passed away before completing it. There can be righteous indignation in such occasions.
WordPress Dice Roller
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Recently I was made aware of some pretty cool dice roller widgets created by Awesome Dice for WordPress. There’s a D&D Dice Roller Widget created with D&D or Pathfinder in mind. As you can see to the right, you can customize the title of the widget and also choose if you want to allow the use of modifiers. When included in the widget area of your site, it shows a Roll button and a list of results. When a natural 20 is rolled you get alerted by a big red CRIT notice. Nice.
The second available dice roller widget was created for White Wolf’s World of Darkness. Again you can choose the title of the widget. But in addition to that the widget lets you set the needed target number, if 10s are allowed to explode, you can toggle whether 1s cancel successes or not, and you can even colorize results. Very nice indeed.
My blog’s widget area is already a bit overcrowded, so I doubt I will include these dice rollers on my own blog, but they could come in handy for anyone interested in running or playing games online.
And if you need an all-encompassing solution, Awesome Dice has something for you, too. The Gaming Dice Roller let’s you roll any number of dice from d4s to d%. It doesn’t have the added functionality of the WoD Dice Roller, but is probably your best choice if you play neither D&D nor WoD.
All three widgets are available as plugins from WordPress.org (I included the links in the text above).
If you want to see the widgets in action, check out the Awesome Dice blog.
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