Hello DD people!
It has been another big weekend of work on Alpha-6, doing all the mechanical work necessary apply a hundred fixes and finally get it uploaded to Lulu. So, what's changed since my last post (and since Alpha‑5)? Here's the flyby (some of this was in my last post, but this is everything I can think of since alpha-5):
Look and feel improvements:
- Full‑colour cover art at 300 dpi. Figured out how to provide full 300 dpi input to Lulu's cover renderer, so the alpha-5 blurry cover image is history.
- Larger type. Body text increased to 9.5 pt from (9 pt); same size as the V4 compendium.
- Better page geometry; expanded type box and reduced margins make better use of the A5 real estate.
- Focus on the 2‑up layout. Facing pages now (mostly) contain related rules and tables sitting together across a 2-page spread.
- Illustrations — alpha-6 now includes four pieces of section heading interior art to test Lulu's output.
Clearer prose
- Mega‑sentences simplified throughout. Roughly twenty of the most complex sentences split and rewritten.
- Improved glossary entries for terms including Tier, Fights As, Man‑Equivalent, Meleed, and others.
- Voice and pronoun consistency updated throughout (several times, as the goal posts shift).
Clearer rules
- "Melee round" vs "round" is clarified. Explicitly split the in‑game combat period and the real‑world go‑around‑the‑gaming-table.
- Fighting Capability is defined more clearly. Hangover word conflicts cleaned up.
-The deterministic initiative section (arguably the most challenging part of V5) is as clear as it has ever been!
Consistency and correctness
- A full line‑by‑line proofread of Books 1 and 2, and a compendium-wide copy‑edit. Roughly 30 conflicts/ambiguities corrected, US spelling and terminology more consistent, headings (Title case) and typography (proper plus and minus signs) cleaned up. Handful of broken cross‑references fixed.
- In all, over 300 lines altered/improved. Bam.
What will happen next?
My valued coffee club members and supporters will get early access to alpha-6 on Lulu (coming real soon), followed by general public access once I've confirmed there are no major issues with it.
Almost time for V5 to swing into full flight; pretty happy with that :)