A request regarding adventure formatting
Posted: Tue Jan 26, 2021 5:05 am
Please consider changing these two things in Goodman adventures:
I see two things common in the formatting of DCC adventures, which leads to be believe they are a house style. I understand the benefit of having a house style, but I would urge Goodman to consider a change to their format.
1) Use of italics
Italics is best used in very short occurrences, a few words or a phrase. Goodman seems to use italics in their products for read-aloud, to hi-light that it IS readaloud text. Long section of italics like this take more cognitive load to read and comprehend. It's true! There are actually research papers that have been published stating this. For ease of use purposes I would suggest using nother method to call attention to the read-aloud. A shaded box, indents, something other than long sections of italics.
2) Encounter Formatting
The typical encounter seems to be formatted by putting the read-aloud first, then some general DM text, and then a section offset for the treasure and the monsters. This is generally good, however, in some instances the DM text can get a little long. In these cases I would suggest you consider a change to the house style. Sub-headings do wonders to call attention to relevant sections of the DM text. IE: if you have a paragraph about beheading the statue then start it with a section heading called "beheading the statue" or" killing the statue" or some such, before other room text is introduced. (Or after, whatever) Just something to let us orient ourselves to this section of text. There's no need to go overboard here and label everything with a section heading, that has it's own problems, but some better/more section headings would help out in those longer rooms.
I see two things common in the formatting of DCC adventures, which leads to be believe they are a house style. I understand the benefit of having a house style, but I would urge Goodman to consider a change to their format.
1) Use of italics
Italics is best used in very short occurrences, a few words or a phrase. Goodman seems to use italics in their products for read-aloud, to hi-light that it IS readaloud text. Long section of italics like this take more cognitive load to read and comprehend. It's true! There are actually research papers that have been published stating this. For ease of use purposes I would suggest using nother method to call attention to the read-aloud. A shaded box, indents, something other than long sections of italics.
2) Encounter Formatting
The typical encounter seems to be formatted by putting the read-aloud first, then some general DM text, and then a section offset for the treasure and the monsters. This is generally good, however, in some instances the DM text can get a little long. In these cases I would suggest you consider a change to the house style. Sub-headings do wonders to call attention to relevant sections of the DM text. IE: if you have a paragraph about beheading the statue then start it with a section heading called "beheading the statue" or" killing the statue" or some such, before other room text is introduced. (Or after, whatever) Just something to let us orient ourselves to this section of text. There's no need to go overboard here and label everything with a section heading, that has it's own problems, but some better/more section headings would help out in those longer rooms.