Dynamo

Re: Super Names Woo, '08 and '09 were busy years. A year of night classes, which led to a year of working at Microsoft Game Studios. I'm between contracts now and have some time to burn until January. Looks like we've had plenty of new suggestions. Let's see if I can't fit in a Round Up. Um... Step 1: Find my old Excel file. Watch this space.

Re: PS238 Roleplaying Game

Re: PDFs on Kindle There may not be a more conservative industry than printing. Some printers have moved past PDFs to better, but some have yet to enter the digital age. The place I worked at the turn of the century HATED change. Both the management and the union fought technology improvements tooth and nail. (It's worth noting that they are long gone to the tar pits.)

Re: PDFs on Kindle I did not know that. Coolness.

Re: PDFs on Kindle I don't know what Andy's process is. There are dozens of ways to approach document design, even within one application. Thus, I don't know how trivially his process could be modified. I am saying that the tagging process itself is trivial. It takes more effort to determine the order and insertion points of the floating elements than the tagging process takes. That sort of design decision is where a professional like Andy earns his kibbles. The tagging itself could be handled by a temp except it would take just as long to communicate said design decisions as to just do it. Anyway, I've said my bit. Not getting 6e tagged for reflow won't make me not buy the PDFs; Hero is still the line I've decided to take 100% digital, though sufficiently attractive 6e books may see me buying both. A tagged 6e would be nice, and I think it would be advisable, but in the end I'm just one consumer, no matter how much I think I know. I don't see it as my role to convince anyone of my PoV; I just try to publish info as I see it. /threadjack

Re: PDFs on Kindle

Re: PDFs on Kindle Going back through a document would be a pain in the butt, no argument there. However, tagging as you go really is trivial. I believe Andy is using InDesign, which makes it super simple as of CS3, but I'll admit I don't know about prior versions. Afterthought: I wouldn't suggest going back through the PDF archive to tag for reflow. Not with 6e on the distant horizon. But 6e would be a nice place to start. I believe PDFs are the industry standard for file formats sent to a printer (my last job dealing with print publishing ended in 2000), not the relatively low fidelity files we consumers use, but massive files with very high resolution pics and other graphical data. InDesign and Quark, the industry standards for print document creation, output both from a master native file. That native file is where the tagging is done. Even if the printer uses something other than PDF, InDesign and Quark would still output the file format called for, either including or leaving out the reflow tagging, since the print version should be 100% unaffected. The reason to do this is that print media, while nowhere near dead, has only a limited remaining reign as the King of mass publishing. Portable display devices are the future. I currently read my Hero books on a 4" 480x640 PDA screen using PocketXpdf, which at least can re-render a PDF page into plaintext, though it's a little hit or miss about where to place floating elements that aren't reflow tagged. It would be great to read it with the floating elements logically placed and pictures appearing at all.

Re: PDFs on Kindle Sorta... Last I checked, you had to submit your material over the Internet to be queued for conversion and either download them via the normal Kindle process for a small fee (very small) or download them over a wired Internet connection into the device via USB. Due to the vagarities of my computing situation, I don't always have immediate Internet access. I want these particular file formats natively supported, and I want to transfer them directly to the device. I'm not saying the Kindle is trash for not having this feature. In fact, I'm still strongly considering its acquisition. Expanded file support and a color display are merely aspects of my dream eBook reader.

Re: PDFs on Kindle Not precisely. The reflow tags don't affect the way the PDF prints. They are followed when a display interpreter wants to reflow the content to a simpler format, such as a small screen that really only display a single column, or a text reader for the visually impaired, essentially anything that needs to read the content in a strictly linear fashion. The tags specify the order that sidebars, pullouts, textboxes, tables, pictures, and the like should be interspersed into the text. Hero's books are exactly the kind of document that benefit most from reflow tagging. Afterthought: Hero-type books are considered to not reflow well, because without tagging the reader's attempt at default reflowing will phail horribly.

Re: PDFs on Kindle

Re: PDFs on Kindle It's not that much more work. Adobe publishes a how-to document (as a PDF of course) that covers the internal tagging necessary to allow a document to be reflowed by the reader to "accessible" layouts as well as easier use by text readers for the visually impaired, etc... There really isn't much excuse not to do the work as the document is being created.

Re: PDFs on Kindle

Re: PDFs on Kindle The Kindle can hold hundred of books at a time. Hero PDFs tailored for the Kindle would definitely tip the final scales both on getting a Kindle and going all electronic for my Champions collection.

Re: Quantum Powers

Re: Quantum Powers Why does realism even come up in threads like this? I generally veto Power Pools except when the system lacks the ability to replicate the power concept, as in the case of power copying. Gadget pools with appropriate Limitations are my only regular exception to this rule. I consider the point cost of Multipower slots to represent the time and effort invested in learning a new power stunt. In fact, I'll normally permit a player with points saved up to come up with power stunts on the fly.