Simplified Template Design Concept

[Stormcrow]

Originally Posted by Propjock

I actually did this in the new version, but the relative level and point cost with it. Just having the actual level by itself at the right seemed disconnected.

You can combine what I said with what munin said:

SkillName–Level<right-aligned tab>(Difficulty) RelativeLevel [Point Cost]

Notice the color dims everything but the skill name and actual level. For instance:

Archaeology–15<rt.tab>(H) IQ+2 [12]

Thanks. I reinforced the checkbox motive by having the fixed skills now use a larger filled bullet. I think this should allow me to get away with removing extra lines that said, "Total of X points from:" to buy me a few more lines.

That's an interesting idea, though players would have to be VERY clear on how it works, especially when a template has both fixed traits and a menu, as most do. "Spend the total number of points given in the heading, and you're required to take the ones with filled in boxes." It took me a minute to figure out that's what was going on, and I already know how to use templates.

For typography reasons, I also recommend using a real minus character (−) instead of the keyboard's hyphen-minus (-). It's a pain, but so much nicer. You already appear be using an en-dash for skill levels, so that's good.