3skullsmattDec 27, 2024
Hey all, what's your favourite digest-format #ttrpg specifically when it comes to layout, and why? Asking for inspiration for my own project.
Show threadLexTenebrisDec 27, 2024

@mattkay #Starforged (https://tomkinpress.com/pages/ironsworn-starforged), no question, bar none. In fairness, since it takes the crown from #Ironsworn (https://tomkinpress.com/pages/ironsworn), which is designed and laid out by the same person - maybe that's not as hard as it sounds. The text is extremely clear. The use of illustration is absolutely on point. And unlike many other games, both in standard 8.5 by 11 and 6x9, it has an appropriate use of white space.

Just because you're in a smaller digest size does not mean that you can get away with making the text and image density something north of depleted uranium. Starforged is probably the best example of that layout I can think of.

#TTRPG

Ironsworn: Starforged RPG

This standalone, sci-fi evolution of the Ironsworn RPG takes your sworn quests to an exciting new frontier. With story-driven mechanics and a vast array of inspirational generators for planets, people, creatures, factions, and more — Starforged is your gateway to a universe of adventure. Suitable for solo, co-op, and guided play.

Tomkin Press
Show thread3skullsmattDec 27, 2024

@lextenebris Starforged is a great example! In fact, a handful of examples sprang instantly to mind when formulating this question - and Starforged was one!

I have had the pleasure of playing a co-op game of Ironsworn with the author @shawntomkin and have run a Starforged campaign on my YT channel.

It might not be on the same "artistic" level as games like Mörk Borg, Thousand Year Old Vampire, or Eat the Reich, but it is one of the best examples of graphical user-friendliness in our hobby.

Show threadLexTenebris

@mattkay @shawntomkin I'm going to say something heretical: the “artistic” stylings of Mork Borg, Thousand Year Old Vampire, and Eat the Reich get in the way of them being a useful technical document for the execution of playing a game.

At a certain point, you have to accept that style over substance means that you are getting less substance. Of those three, Thousand Year Old Vampire is the most playable, but it also has the most straightforward mechanics that don't require very much in the way of explication.

Mork Borg is the worst of them. Absolutely horrific in terms of actually producing a usable document that's playable and readable.

(And don't even get me started on how bad that book in specific is for people with visual impairments. I have an entire multi-hour rant which is made up of 80% profanity taking on that particular subject.)

Another good layout and design source to check out would be Five Parsecs from Home, Five Leagues from the Borderlands, or Ivan's latest book, Forgotten Ruin (https://modiphius.net/en-us/products/forgotten-ruin-the-adventure-wargame) — perhaps the last one best of all because it is deliberately structured as a newcomer's introduction to “adventure wargaming.” Beautiful stuff, though Parsecs and Leagues are both pretty dense and complicated in places.

#FiveParsecs #FiveLeagues #ForgottenRuin #TTRPG #AdventureWargame

Forgotten Ruin - The Adventure Wargame

Dec 27, 2024 at 10:19pmWeb
Show thread3skullsmattDec 28, 2024
@lextenebris you're not the first person who I've heard this from. But I will say that I've played Mörk Borg and don't find that the layout gets in the way - on the contrary it inspires me. But I totally get the issue. For my own projects, I prefer to create cleaner, user-friendly layouts, too.
Show threadLexTenebrisDec 28, 2024

@mattkay There are games that take visual inspiration from Mork Borg and do a far better job of actually being a readable, playable game. #Infaernum (https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/481960/infaernum-extreme-role-playing-game-core-retail-version) clearly takes that style of design and actually goes through the trouble of making it readable, in part by increasing font sizes, and by decreasing some of the crazy layout twists, and for the most part, bringing the color palette down to something somewhat sane.

I'm not saying perfectly sane, but it becomes far more usable.

Contrast with Death in Space (https://deathinspace.com), which clearly got the Mork Borg vibe, and then cut away every single thing except what was absolutely necessary at a visual level, turning it into a stark and yet strangely beautiful text which is completely and utterly functional.

(cont)

#TTRPG

DriveThruRPG

Show threadLexTenebrisDec 28, 2024

@mattkay Likewise #Mothership (https://www.tuesdayknightgames.com/pages/mothership-rpg) which goes hyper-minimalist and thus is utterly readable and playable immediately.

But if you want to see something that goes super stylish, bordering into the psychedelic, you have to check out #Warpland (https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/358971/warpland). It definitely has a little of that MB influence going along, but it goes its own way to its great and abiding advantage. As I've said about it in other contexts, “You may not be high enough to play this game.” It remains a beautifully hyper-stylized piece of work that is nevertheless extremely accessible for play.

#TTRPG

Mothership RPG

Looking to buy awesome tabletop board games like Two Rooms and a Boom, That's Not Lemonade!, World Championship Russian Roulette? Or maybe you're looking for our sci-fi horror RPG (roleplaying game) Mothership and modules like Dead Planet, A Pound of Flesh, Gradient Descent? Then you're in the right place!

Tuesday Knight Games
Show threadcybergothsDec 28, 2024

@lextenebris @mattkay @shawntomkin
Let me do a “Yes, but…” based on reading Mörk Borg, Pirate Borg and running CY_BORG. The layout is both stunning, makes your eyes bleed and a disaster for legibility. However, they do provide a plain text version of the Mörk Borg rules and my experience in play was all I needed was the reference sheet.

Mörk Borg Plaintext and ref here- https://morkborg.com/preview/

MÖRK BORG — MÖRK BORG

MÖRK BORG is a pitch-black apocalyptic RPG by Ockult Örtmästare Games and Stockholm Kartell. It's published by Free League Publishing and available in English and Swedish.

MÖRK BORG
Show threadcybergothsDec 28, 2024

@lextenebris @mattkay @shawntomkin

These are less useful than the plain text but sharing for completeness

CY_BORG reference and generators (bypassing the neeed for a lot of the rules) here: https://cy-borg.io/2/

Pirate Borg reference and assets here: https://www.limithron.com/pirateborg

CY_BORG — CY_BORG

CY_BORG is a Nano-infested doomsday RPG about cybernetic misfits and punks raging against a relentless corporate hell. Made by Stockholm Kartell. Published by Free League Publishing.

CY_BORG
Show threadLexTenebrisDec 28, 2024

@cybergoths @mattkay @shawntomkin If your core book needs additional supplementation in order to be playable, or even readable, perhaps the problem is the core book isn't that great. Otherwise, they would just be selling the text, and that would carry the game.

#TTRPG

Show threadcybergothsDec 29, 2024
@lextenebris @mattkay @shawntomkin I don’t disagree but there are a lot of people of there who love what they’ve done. I know it put me off reading it. Then again, I look back at some of the older games out there with unexciting B&W layouts and think they did it better. For example, RQ2 or Classic Traveller.
Show threadLexTenebrisDec 29, 2024

@cybergoths @mattkay @shawntomkin This rapidly goes over into “If your friends jumped off a bridge, would that make bridge jumping a good idea?”

There are a lot of people out there who love a lot of stupid things. There have been some really horrendous fads in both RPG mechanical design and visual design over the decades (complex shaded and lined backgrounds behind text, anyone? Early World of Darkness? Just me then?).

“People loved them,” but not most people, and for good reason.

That's not to say that bad design hasn't been with us since the beginning and sometimes was much worse than others. But the one thing you can say about the old black and white layouts with minimal art and no backgrounds is that visually they were quite readable.

When we get there, we have to start critiquing the actual writing, and some of that was borderline impenetrable. (I'm looking at you, Traveller, in many incarnations.)

The modern six by nine with plenty of white space, a large comfortable font, and well-chosen illustrative art very well may be the pinnacle of design in the RPG space. I'm definitely not hating it.

#TTRPG