What's your favorite format?
I've been thinking and there seems to be a kind of clear divide between "mainstream", "AAA" or whatever you want to call it, and indie, OSR games when it comes to formats. Most bigger companies make their books closer to a letter/A4 format, while us indie folk stick mostly to the digest/A5 format. This is not a rule of thumb, but it's mostly the case. I tend to think this is due to the indie products having their roots in zine formats, but I don't really know why this is the case. I myself have stuck to smaller formats without really giving it a second though, just because it's what everyone else does. Certain books I've released where in a traditional book-size format deliberately, like the deluxe editions of Warlock or Disciples of Bone & Shadow, but lately I'm publishing a lot via Amazon and DrivethruRPG's Print on Demand services and I'm still sticking to the smaller formats. And I'm realizing that maybe zine-sized books maybe aren't the right fit for me. At least not always.
Let's take Riftbreakers as an example: it's digest size (5.5x8.5"), and 300 pages long. This is one game that I think would benefit from a larger format, closer to letter size. It has cool art, and a lot of content, so having larger illustrations and a smaller page count would be positive things, or at least I think so. The same would probably be true about my upcoming dungeon crawler Ker Nethalas: Into the Midnight Throne, but that one's completely done and it's too late to change the layout. Smaller games, such as Broken Shores or Sacrifice, work well in zine sizes, but I'm starting to think that any future games I write that go over the 200 pages mark should be published in larger formats.
So my question for you today is: which size do you usually prefer for your RPGs?
And no, I'm not adding an "I don't care" option because that's the one I'd pick and I know a lot of you would as well. I want to know which one you'd rather have.
Comments (10)
Went ahead and chose A5. I have a few A4 games and love them (probably because I grew up with that size if game books), but A5 feels better in my hands while reading and easier to travel with. I alway gravitate to my A5 games.
Good to know, thanks for the feedback!
Hi! I chose A4, but basically, I am fine if it is A* as that is my paper format. And more importantly, no pamphlets, and please single-sided. Yours, Deathworks
Yeah, I don't like pamphlets either, they limit my creativity too much. I hate cutting stuff just because it doesn't fit into the format... Thanks for the feedback!
I agree that page count and content should be major factors in deciding on print size! but in a vacuum I think I also gravitate towards the A5 size!
Seems like we all agree, then! Thanks for the feedback!
I "prefer" smaller formats for the most part. When we get into a lot of tables though, I like the larger format especially when it comes to summary pages that lump together all the most commonly used tables. Also, if you have large stat blocks in the game, especially in a bestiary, the larger format makes it nicer to see multiple creatures/items/whatevers at once.
Agreed, thanks for the feedback!
"I don't care" is not quite right. it's whatever is best for the game. Just to pick a random number, say under 200, go A5, and over use A4 to make it thinner. But I voted A5 because it matches most of the published stuff on my bookshelf.
Yeah, that's basically the conclusion I arrived to as well. I'd love to release a large format, deluxe edition of Riftbreakers... Thanks for the reply!