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.

 

[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]

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.

 

[AEIOU]

Thanks for the feedback. Lots of good observations and suggestions. Very much appreciated!

Adding DC rolls to the player text is an experiment. We roll in the open. The more I game the more I realize that players need appropriate feedback so they can play their PCs accordingly. If they don't know OOC that they made a tough roll IC, they can't roleplay it. It may or may not work out and it's easy to add a few CTRL-D's to change. As for fudging, it's easy to adjust the DC before clicking the reveal.

Maps will likely move to Points of Interest section. That puts them after the Story and closer to the Challenges. That improves flow.

The hint text in RW for the Overview Description, Profile and Story sections are overly broad and exceedingly vague by design. My goal is to create an entry that makes gameplay flow more smoothly than a PDF. Perhaps Intro, Body, Action, Reward, Conclusion would be more useful for my line of thought but the more I stray from RW standard the more difficult it will be to import or export cleanly. Given the default headings, currently my Overview sets up the encounter and my Story resolves it.

Encounter, trap, hazard info is all towards the end because it can take up a lot of space and make parsing the text difficult. It's also the least useful info after combat is complete.

Tactics are a section I add to all encounters now. It's usually muddled up in the module text and this provides me with a quick reference. If it's not there already, I sketch out a few likely items.

In-line stat blocks work well for my game flow and speed play. I can scroll up and down quickly as needed. I can always click on the HeroLab icon for a detailed stat block or I can open it in HeroLab.

I've gone back and forth several times the last two years on how to present NPCs within encounters. For me, the less clicking I do, the smoother the play, so I don't find the Stat Block snippets to be terribly useful. Links to Individual entries or bestiary have the same clicking limitation. For me, the in-line blocks act in a similar manner to the larger thumbnails for images -- they are a visual cue -- and hiding them would make them unlikely to be viewed in the thick of things.

 

[MNBlockHead]

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]

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.

 

[Exmortis]

Extremely well done. Only thing I find questionable is the text info on the encounter mobs when you have the .POR files? Unless this is for peeps with or with out HL? Then it makes more sense.

It is hard to tell from the snippet, but one of my key factors for an encounter topic is flow.

I organize the info not by topic headings (hence created my own topics for this) but by the flow of an encounter. With exception to the .por files, the information is provided in order of:

What GMs need to before PCs approach
What PCs see/need to do to enter area
What GMs need to know before PCs enter
What PCs see in area
What happens right after PCs enter
What GM now need to know/do
Encounter if applicable
What GMs needs to know after encounter
What PCs will find exploring
What GMs need to know about that PCs find

I do my best to have info flow just like this.

this does means sometimes info can be in the topic twice, i.e. the GM snippet for what they need to know before PCs approach may mention trap just inside door. In the Snippets What GMs need to know after the PCS enter, will have all the trap info.