My head's going round a bit on the format to choose for Albion. I'm hoping someone will say something wise to help crystallise it!
Background: Albion is my celtic-themed fantasy game, a very long-term project - it got a partial, abortive release a few years ago and I'm aiming to do a proper, finished version. It's more like a traditional than an "indie" game, both in how the system works and in being fairly big.
I don't know what size the book will be. I did before: Letter. But things have moved on since then, and the waters are murkier due to possible choices of printer and sales route.
- I could go for Lulu but Letter is a poor choice now due to the cost.
- It isn't available, exactly, at Lightning Source. A nearly-Letter size is but not in hardback - an option I'd like to have.
- Letter would be the way to go if I approached Flaming Cobra. (Leaving aside questions about getting accepted.)
So that leads to questions about target audience, supplement schedules and other stuff. If aiming at the traditional market, accessed through stores, Flaming Cobra would be the way to go. However, expectations of supplement release would be different from the small press routes I've used till now: people would hope to see a regular flow of 128-page softbacks.
If I stick to the small press routes I've used till now, I've got a little bit of profile and the standard for supplements can be very laid-back: eg do short PDFs when you feel like it and collect them in print later. I've got to know the ropes a bit now. For format I'd probably pick 7x10in or 6x9in and print 'em at Lightning. Of course, this way I have to find the capital myself!
This is causing a particular problem for me, even at the stage I'm at, because (a) I tend to work direct in DTP, cos I'm weird, and (b) this is an overhaul of an existing book anyway. Makes it quite hard to separate the text and the layout, which gums the process up a bit with an indeterminate page size.
= = =
There's also the issue of how to separate player and GM information, as there's quite a strong element of discovering what's going on in the world so you don't want players to have that info in front of them. The lead options are to have two separate books, which was the plan way back, or to do an all-in-one plus a player's book (print or pdf), which I think is my favourite now.


Dual format
Submitted by Gregor Hutton on Sun, 17/05/2009 - 23:42.
Good questions, Tim. Have you considered dual formats?
3:16 is currently available in 8.5" x 5.5" landscape via IPR. However, I do a "Direct Edition" (facilitated by LULU) that is 9" x 7". Basically I do shorter runs of the direct edition. The layout changes were minimal.
For AD 316 I plan to us Letter for the US Market (mainly IPR) but A4 (LULU) for direct sales. The layout changes are minimal as I am designing the basic layout with this switching in mind.
For Albion I'd like to see it in Letter - given it's Trad feel and audience.
Odd Ball
Submitted by Dom Mooney on Mon, 18/05/2009 - 13:15.
With regards to the player / GM thing, you could consider something scary like the old GDW double adventures, when they had one section upside down to the other!!! (ie two front covers, no back!)
(I suspect that may break some DTP packages...)
---
Dom Mooney
http://www.bits.org.uk/
http://www.powerprojection.net/
re dual format
Submitted by Tim Gray on Fri, 22/05/2009 - 18:44.
Good questions, Tim. Have you considered dual formats?
3:16 is currently available in 8.5" x 5.5" landscape via IPR. However, I do a "Direct Edition" (facilitated by LULU) that is 9" x 7". Basically I do shorter runs of the direct edition. The layout changes were minimal.
For AD 316 I plan to us Letter for the US Market (mainly IPR) but A4 (LULU) for direct sales. The layout changes are minimal as I am designing the basic layout with this switching in mind.
For Albion I'd like to see it in Letter - given it's Trad feel and audience.
It's a thought, though I'm wincing at the thought of extra hassle.
There's also an economic side. Lulu is just a crap option for printing anything to send to IPR, due to the high cost of postage, let alone the cost of the actual books. I did Legends Walk - T&J in Letter and am currently scratching my head about what to do about restocking IPR - it seems to be working out at $10-11 a book. Lightning takes care of those issues, but two formats means two sets of set-up costs (and it does 8.25x11 rather than 8.5x11).
(Gregor, if you're planning to do A4 and Letter via Lulu I'd check it out very carefully before you get too far. Based on my experiences I can't recommend using those formats there.)
Tim Gray
Silver Branch Games
www.silverbranch.co.uk