So I started running a campaign with my friends using the Tales of the Yawning Portal.
Something I noticed yesterday night is that it's very hard to figure out what's in a room on the spot. I think that if the content of your adventures were re-styled just a little, it would help DMs figure out what the players can interact with and keep the pace of the game super smooth.
For example:
In the Sunless Citadel adventure, I injected a little script to replaces some titles and words with icons:
I can glance at the page and and figure out right away if it's trapped, if it has creatures in it, if something is locked, etc. I'm by no means a web designer, so what I have done is probably flawed design-wise, but I've done it for myself and also to illustrate my idea.
Anyway, I really think that a talented designer could increase the value of the content of all your adventures this way.
DDB presents the media exactly as it appears in the books (which I believe is part of their licensing agreement) so this is unlikely to ever be implemented.
Additionally, my personal opinion is that it makes the text look a little messy with icons futzing with the line spacing.
Yeah, I started reading other threads after my post and I read that DDB can't change the content.That is unfortunate. I still think a designer would have done a good job making the sections much clearer. What I did fixes my personal issue and I'm not going to miss a locked door ever again, so I'm pretty happy about that.
Does this also apply to maps though? I thought those player maps were made in-house.
Do you know any way of knowing if maps are missing before buying a product other than looking at a pirated pdf before-hand? Because that's kind of a big deal for me, I'm running a tabletop simulator campaign and a missing player map means I'll have to figure out how to erase the secrets and numbers everywhere with photoshop.
Nope, there's no legitimate way to know what maps are and are not present in an adventure. The books generally only include DM maps, so the player maps on beyond are actually a bonus
So I started running a campaign with my friends using the Tales of the Yawning Portal.
Something I noticed yesterday night is that it's very hard to figure out what's in a room on the spot.
I think that if the content of your adventures were re-styled just a little, it would help DMs figure out
what the players can interact with and keep the pace of the game super smooth.
For example:
In the Sunless Citadel adventure, I injected a little script to replaces some titles and words with icons:
I can glance at the page and and figure out right away if it's trapped, if it has creatures in it, if something is locked, etc.
I'm by no means a web designer, so what I have done is probably flawed design-wise, but I've done it for myself and also to illustrate my idea.
Anyway, I really think that a talented designer could increase the value of the content of all your adventures this way.
Hope you you like it. :)
DDB presents the media exactly as it appears in the books (which I believe is part of their licensing agreement) so this is unlikely to ever be implemented.
Additionally, my personal opinion is that it makes the text look a little messy with icons futzing with the line spacing.
Find my D&D Beyond articles here
Yeah, I started reading other threads after my post and I read that DDB can't change the content.That is unfortunate.
I still think a designer would have done a good job making the sections much clearer.
What I did fixes my personal issue and I'm not going to miss a locked door ever again, so I'm pretty happy about that.
Does this also apply to maps though? I thought those player maps were made in-house.
Nope, all maps are provided as-is by WotC. That's why Against the Giants is missing player maps, WotC doesn't have any to provide.
Find my D&D Beyond articles here
yikes...
Do you know any way of knowing if maps are missing before buying a product other than looking at a pirated pdf before-hand?
Because that's kind of a big deal for me, I'm running a tabletop simulator campaign and a missing player map means
I'll have to figure out how to erase the secrets and numbers everywhere with photoshop.
Nope, there's no legitimate way to know what maps are and are not present in an adventure. The books generally only include DM maps, so the player maps on beyond are actually a bonus
Find my D&D Beyond articles here