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Old 02-16-2008, 07:33 PM   #59
Kromm
GURPS Line Editor
 
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Join Date: Jul 2004
Location: Montréal, Québec
Default Re: Report To The Stakeholders

Quote:
Quote:
Originally Posted by Kromm
And PDF actually means I get to write sometimes[...]
Quote:
Originally Posted by Asta Kask
Why would this be?
Quote:
Originally Posted by philreed
Because PDFs move a lot faster through our system than hardcovers do. Shorter, more focused, and we get to remove the printing delay.
Phil hit the biggest reason. There's also the fact that I'm not Mr. Creative Writing but Mr. Rules Dweeb, as we all know. Anything I write will have minimum background, color, and fluff, and maximum crunch -- notably new abilities and structures and modifiers for existing abilities (as in Powers), but also combat options and item stats (as in Martial Arts), and of course templates and quick-and-dirty rules reductions (as in Dungeon Fantasy). Such writing demands so much cross-referencing and so much consistency checking that the time it takes is proportional to length^P, where 1.5 < P < 2. SJ Games knows, and I know, that a 240-page rulebook will take me a lot longer than 7.5 times as long as a 32-page one to write, check, and test . . . at least 20 times as long. Since I write on the clock, the economic advantages of having me write 20 PDFs are clear when contrasted with a 240-page tome.
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GURPS Line Editor, Steve Jackson Games
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