Feedback on Layout #1

[AEIOU]

Critique me! What would YOU do differently? What would YOU add or remove? What was most helpful for you as a GM? What would be most helpful for your players? Would you re-categorize anything? Thanks in advance for the criticism -- both good and...constructive.

If anyone else wants to dive in with a similar post, I'd love to see your work.

I've cut 2/3 of the info as this is a published encounter and I'm seeking feedback on the layout and presentation so the actual text isn't necessary but seeing some of it provided context.

Background: This is part 2 of a 3 part encounter. The players have come across a bandit camp after witnessing some chaos on the road and they will then go on to a final encounter with the leader.

Bandit Camp.jpg

[Parody]

For the information items I'd move the check and DC to GM directions. It's not something the players care about and if the GM needs to adjust it for his/her group the skills and numbers may not match up anyway. Also, if a piece of information is discoverable with multiple skills, you only have to have one entry for that piece of information.

[Vargr]

I am impressed by the layout and the amount of work that (I assume) went into it.

If I had to GM somebody else's work this would probably work well.

My own layout is not nearly as fancy or organised - but then again, I write for myself ensuring I can reveal what the player (singular, only one of my players have RW) should know.

[Parody]

Originally Posted by Vargr

My own layout is not nearly as fancy or organised - but then again, I write for myself....

I'm the same way: I'd want to write everything in the order of the expected flow of the encounter, but that doesn't work for published adventures that have an expected encounter layout. In this example, I'd probably want to put the info about the body after the fight, with the expectation that the fight is going to happen before the PCs get to investigate the body.

[MNBlockHead]

Is there anyway to view the attached image in the OP to better see and read it? Do you all just have better eyesight than me?

[Parody]

As-is, on this monitor I can read it well enough to get the idea. You could always open the image in a new tab/window or an image editor and zoom in on it. If it helps, it's pretty standard Pathfinder stuff.

[Farling]

You appear to be avoiding the RW default layout entirely.

The "Overview" sections seems way too long. I would expect most of this information to be in the "Description" and/or "Story" and/or "Background" section. The RW default layout also suggests "Read Aloud" sections appear in the Setup not the Overview section.

The DC checks should be GM notes, so that the discovered information can be revealed as snippets of information.

The "4 rounds after the fight ends" (and general "After-effects"/Development topics) don't have a general section in the default RW layout; however I would expect to see it somewhere near the bottom of the article, either in the "Rewards" or "Additional Details" section.

You appear to have in-line stat blocks, rather than using the available Stat Block snippet type.

[MNBlockHead]

Originally Posted by Farling

You appear to have in-line stat blocks, rather than using the available Stat Block snippet type.

I do inline as well. I'm guessing that the current statblock is designed with supporting third-party software in mind. I don't use Hero Labs, so I don't know if the Hero Labs Portfolio would be something different from a statblock or if you would link to a separate Hero Labs file from the statblock than from the HL Portfolio snippet.

I run D&D 5e and currently do no use VTT or other software, so I want my statblock to be viewable in the topic myself. I'm not sure what else I would be expected to do, have the statblock in a PDF or Word document that I load into RW. Seems like a waste of time, both to create and to load in game.

I just use a generic text snippet under whatever section seems logical for the topic I'm using to put my statblocks. There are easy to navigate to using the Table of Contents section in the content-links pane or just scrolling up or down.

Just wondering if I'm missing some use for the statblock snippet other than for loading data into a VTT or HL.

[salcor]

I like your layout for RW. Tactics, I think, is a very important block if.you are planning of other GMs to run your adventure. I also use inline statblocks, I would prefer if RW could multi-pane its info so.you could see different information at the same time like statblocks and encounter text.

Salcor

[MNBlockHead]

Originally Posted by salcor

I like your layout for RW. Tactics, I think, is a very important block if.you are planning of other GMs to run your adventure. I also use inline statblocks, I would prefer if RW could multi-pane its info so.you could see different information at the same time like statblocks and encounter text.

Salcor

Do have to be careful as the GUI is already heavy with panes, tabs, ribbons, and icons. But for those of us with multiple monitors it would be nice to have the ability to drop and drag various elements so they can be docked where we like them or left as stand alone windows. A lot of software I use now has this ability where you can drag a section from a panel and then blue arrows appear indicating docking options, some offering not only the option to keep as a floating window or docked in a panel to be to be docked as a new tab in a panel. You can also save multiple layouts. So you may have one way you like everything laid out when creating content and another when running a game, you could save and toggle among both.

This is not something that is a priority for me for RW...there are many other things I want to see finished first. But it would be nice to have that kind of flexibility with the layout.