Re: Funny post by one of the WotC D&D Devs

Allen Wessels <awessels@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
"Bradd W. Szonye" <bradd+news@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
The D&D3 books made a lot of readability sacrifices in the name of
style and page count, such as unusually small typefaces.

I don't see it that way. The major problem I see in those books and I
thumbed through all 3 is the use of italics. And the slowdown in read
when you hit those probably makes a little sense.

Stuff like that only makes it worse. But it's definitely unfair to
criticize D&D4 rulebooks for large typefaces and excessive whitespace.

I got out my college physics and calculus textbooks. Anybody care to
claim that these books are dumbed down, intended for unsophisticated or
young readers?

Both books use text spaced 6 lines to the inch, typical for textbooks
and academic papers. The D&D4 rulebooks also use text spaced 6 lines to
the inch. They have much less whitespace than the calculus textbook,
about the same as the physics textbook.

In contrast, the D&D3 rulebooks use text spaced approximately 7 lines to
the inch. If I recall correctly, they use 8.5-point text with 10-point
leading, in contrast to the textbook standard of 10-point text with
12-point leading. That's roughly a 15% reduction in size, and not really
appropriate for body text.
--
Bradd W. Szonye
http://www.szonye.com/bradd
.

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