This is a site for discussing roleplaying games. Have fun doing so, but there is one major rule: do not discuss political issues that aren't directly and uniquely related to the subject of the thread and about gaming. While this site is dedicated to free speech, the following will not be tolerated: devolving a thread into unrelated political discussion, sockpuppeting (using multiple and/or bogus accounts), disrupting topics without contributing to them, and posting images that could get someone fired in the workplace (an external link is OK, but clearly mark it as Not Safe For Work, or NSFW). If you receive a warning, please take it seriously and either move on to another topic or steer the discussion back to its original RPG-related theme.

Author Topic: Index in the book  (Read 784 times)

rway218

  • Lead Troll of Games
  • Full Member
  • ***
  • Posts: 249
    • https://www.facebook.com/218games
Index in the book
« on: April 20, 2020, 11:19:31 AM »
If you were to purchase a Player's Handbook, how important is it to have an index or table of contents?  From a design prospective they are extra print pages, but I know they are a help from a reader's perspective.

VisionStorm

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 2184
Index in the book
« Reply #1 on: April 20, 2020, 02:32:28 PM »
Quote from: rway218;1127347
If you were to purchase a Player's Handbook, how important is it to have an index or table of contents?


Extremely important. The old WoD books only had a vague, lazy kinda table of contents listings only the three main sections in their fluff-filled manuals where divided into, and I absolutely despised them. A good table of contents listing each chapter and sections within each chapter is crucial to finding information in a tabletop RPG, especially when referencing rules or spell descriptions in the middle of a game session.

Vladar

  • Jr. Member
  • **
  • Posts: 99
Index in the book
« Reply #2 on: April 21, 2020, 04:31:17 PM »
Index and ToC are pretty important, and the importance is proportional to the book size.

This is one of the main reasons I use LaTeX for my own projects. It does ToC and Index (or even a couple of different ones!) automatically, so I don't have to worry about keeping page numbers right and such.
Into the Dungeon: Revived — a lightweight fantasy-themed role-playing ruleset designed for a streamlined gameplay.
My blog

Nobby-W

  • Order of the Red Tabard
  • Newbie
  • *
  • Posts: 24
Index in the book
« Reply #3 on: April 28, 2020, 09:45:45 AM »
Quote from: rway218;1127347
If you were to purchase a Player's Handbook, how important is it to have an index or table of contents?  From a design prospective they are extra print pages, but I know they are a help from a reader's perspective.

Very important for reference as you will need them to look stuff up.  Not having them would be a major impediment.  In practice, they are only a few pages long, so you really are shooting yourself in the foot if you omit them.  If you really have to cram the book into a specific page count, drop the text size by half a point, the leading by 1 point, and adjust the tracking to -5 or -10.  Then get ruthless about re-writing paragraphs with orphans, which will pull a bit of space out.  Then re-write some of your more verbose content to be more concise, cutting down the word count.  Pull out artwork if you need to.

On a shorter works of (say) 50 pages or less you might be able to omit the index, but anything bigger than that really needs indexing.  Never omit the table of contents.
My imaginary component makes me complex.  This also means I'm allowed to eat quiche.