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Old 01-16-2018, 01:21 PM   #294
JLV
 
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Join Date: Nov 2010
Location: Arizona
Default Re: December 26, 2017: The Fantasy Trip Returns Home

Quote:
Originally Posted by DouglasCole View Post
Are you familiar with Symbaroum? It uses a VERY unusual 3-column layout. Two of the columns are wider than the third, by quite a bit. Out of maybe 6.75" of total written page width, with 0.5" of that being column margin, you're left with 6.25" of text.

Two of the columns might have thus been about 2 5/8" wide, the third being about an inch (I'd need to go back and re-measure the hardcopy A4 I bought at GenCon).

[Edit. Here's an example. It's got two wide-text columns, and white space where the third thin column is. Another example shows the thin column in the middle of both pages of a two-page spread. One is italicised aside-text, the other is a graphic of dice.]

The third column is NOT always on the outside like in early GURPS 3e books with sidebars. Sometimes it is, sometimes it's in the middle, sometimes it's on the inside of the page.

That little floating column is perfect for statblocks if the blocks are very terse. No way you could put a 5e or GURPS character block in there, you might be able to with the DFRPG, which is focused enough that "Sword: (18) 1d+3 cut" is enough to give the gist of fodder monsters' attacks, and the four GURPSy stats could just be done as

ST 14
DX 12
IQ 8
HT 11

Sword (18/12) 1d+3 cut
Grapple (13/9)

Anyway, for Swords and Wizardry and other basic DnD stuff, a roughly 1" statblock (maybe a bit more, maybe a bit less) column that floated per layout needs would be spiffy (it also does GREAT things for a variety of art placement).

For TFT, even a character like Brett Slocum's Sir Trevor of Cumbria looks like it would fit well into a column.

Were I doing a multi-genre adventure, I might write it using the two main columns for systemless information, with some combinations for full-system statblocks. But mostly, you'd use the little column to throw in details for what you do using the simple systems.

Ever since I saw the big-big-small column concept as implemented in Symbaroum I've wanted to find an excuse to try it out. Moving "basic system" information from parentheticals within the main text into this small-column format seems a good use of that layout.
I have Symbaroum in PDF, but I picked it up more for the inspirational art work than anything else, so now I'll have to go back an read it again...

Thanks for sharing!
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