TTRPG Layout Expectations or Learning to Know When it’s Good Enough
The original Street Wolves (left) vs Turbo Street Wolves (right).
While I worked on the Street Wolves: Turbo Edition layout, I had some thoughts pop into my head that I feel like they’d be worth sharing if you are an aspiring table top role playing game layout designer. Please excuse me though, this post is a bit of a ramble. Hold on tight!
Let’s go back in time for a moment. When I finished the original Street Wolves, I was happy. Not 100% satisfied, but happy. Over time, I learned more about design and layout and I quickly grew very uncomfortable with looking at it. This is something a lot of artists struggle with. No, I’m not saying I’m an artist, I’m saying I share the feeling of seeing and disliking the imperfections your older work.
So when it was time to go to Kickstarter, the one thing I knew I wanted to do besides print the book was to refresh the layout.
Now that the Turbo Edition is done, I’m super excited that it looks more like what was in my mind than the original version. Still, it’s not perfect. Nor will it likely ever be. The ideal state was to get it to be “good enough” to call it done. More on that in a minute, but first let’s talk about:
Form vs. Function
Let’s get a concept out of the way, “Form vs. Function”. In design, it’s a push and pull of what you want the cool design to look like (form) vs the functionality of the thing you’re designing. The fancier it is, the more it leans into the form. The less designed and more functional it is… well I think you get it.
Pages from Mork Borg.
In the world of table top role playing games one of the ultimate examples of a game that leans into form is Mork Borg. The book is fun to look at it, but as much as I love it, it’s very dense and hard to read in sections.
Another example is Eat the Reich, it’s so artful and full of great design choices. It’s riding the line more towards form, but it’s an extremely functional book.
Street Wolves, on the other hand, leans more toward function. Sure, there are a ton of stylistic choices, especially with the dark background and white text, but the layout leans more towards a traditional book.
There’s a few reasons for why it leans a bit more into a traditional layout:
Size and Page Count Constraints: Street Wolves is fairly long. It’s 184 pages. If I had a bunch of art that went across the entire page constraining the text, that would add even more pages to it. The more pages, the the higher the printing cost. And my printing budget isn’t that large.
It’s also constrained by it’s dimensions. It’s the size of a graphic novel to match the official Savage Worlds books. That means less space for both art and text on a page. More and larger art and less words again blows up the page count.
Perceived Audience Expectations: Street Wolves is a Savage Worlds book. Savage Worlds has a built in audience that is used to the way that books from Pinnacle look. They have their own in-house style and while they look amazing, they really don’t go nuts with it like Mork Borg. Therefore, I feel like while I should flex some design muscles, I don’t want to go too far beyond the built in audience’s expectations of what that sort of book should look like.
Art Budget: The Turbo Edition Kickstarter gave the art budget a huge boost, but it doesn’t have as many artistic elements that appear everywhere in a book like Mork Borg or Eat the Reich. I only have so much art. Putting art on practically every single page isn’t feasible.
Skill: Here’s where I have to be honest with myself. I don’t have enough skill as a designer to go bonkers on designing a book to like Mork Borg. Maybe I could get close and create a facsimile of sorts, but it takes a lot of talent as a designer to break rules and still make things look good.
So with the idea that my book was going to look a certain way because of these limitations, it was easier to head in a particular direction. I more or less had guide rails for form vs. function and an idea of what “done” might look like.
The Temptation to Go Back
With design I’ve found that there’s this temptation to go back and redo what I’ve worked on it to make it “right.” And I’ve fallen into the trap a couple times. The first was Street Wolves and to a lesser extent The Wicked Forever King Hungers. But at least in the case of Wicked Forever King was to reformat it for print.
Street Wolves has seen a couple of major updates. The original had a light background and I went back to the well and designed it to have a dark one. That one was pretty easy and quick. The biggest change is the Turbo Edition with a completely new layout.
When I first started out I didn’t know what I was doing. I whipped up a 8.5x11 sized pdf. I knew at some point I’d have to go back and redo things. Not only to resize it to the more “standard” Savage Worlds sized book and update it with design skills I knew I’d have down the road. I was setting myself up for going back and doing it all over. I think it worked out for the best overall, but I’m not sure I’d recommend that others do this. Also, this is not something I’d do now that feel like I have a somewhat developed skill set and eye for layout.
I really can’t let myself do some other design update on it unless there’s some sort of big mechanical changes years from now and it’s an entirely new edition. Still, at some point I know I’ll be tempted to do so…
The important thing is to remember that:
Moving Forward is Important!
Being able to determine if something is good enough to call it done is a valuable skill. You can attempt to reach perfection, but you will fail. And while you’re spinning your wheels trying to achieve an unreachable goal, you could be making other games.
I must keep in mind that:
If I finish more games, that’s more games I can sell.
Doing more projects that have different styles and aesthetic needs helps push my creative boundaries and gives me more design experience than simply rehashing the same ground.
Point #1 is such a simple fact that perfectionists might not consider and is especially important if you are looking to make any money. If you spend five years on a book vs five years on five books, you end up with more to sell. A person might buy two of your books or all of them. If you’ve only got one book out, that’s less chances to make a sale. This might not be important to you if you don’t care about being paid for your time and energy. But if you would like to at least be able to afford to keep making books, you may want to considering having a variety of things to sell is better than having less things.
#2 is really important from a non sales standpoint. I could spend the rest of my life on Street Wolves and I’d be trapped in a loop of synthwave design.
What is Good Enough?
When I say that I aimed to get Street Wolves (or any of my layouts) to a state that’s “good enough”, it might sound bad, like I’m lowering the bar or doing a half assed version. That’s not true. “Good enough” to me has a very high level of polish and looks great. It isn’t perfect.
So how do I decide that it’s good enough? When can I finish the project and move onto the next one? This is something a lot people struggle with and I do to. I mean, I’m doing the book a second time! For me, one of the biggest yardsticks is sharing what you’ve done with others to get feedback.
I don’t often share my work, at least to a wide audience. I usually share it with a select few people whom I trust. And usually then I’m not asking for feedback, I’m saying “hey look at this.” And if they respond with, “wow that’s amazing!” I know I’m on the right track. If they say, “that’s cool but…” I know it might be missing something and I think about it for a bit.
And while this might sound obvious, I must also have a sense of satisfaction from the work. If I feel good about it, even I know it’s not perfect, then I’m on the right track. If I hate it, then it’s not good enough. I need to either abandon the thing, alter it, or start over.
Over time I’ve found that I’m more pleased with my work. This is from developing my eye for design and just working on it. I used to be so much more frustrated. Now it’s easier to feel happier with my results. It’s a bit easier to know if it’s "good enough.”
Basically: Good enough to be done is a mix of my personal satisfaction with a design and the input of others. There’s a point where it sort of clicks together. Your milage may vary.
Awards (or Lack Thereof) and External Validation
Now let’s take a bit of a detour for a moment. I started writing this post awhile ago. During the time between conception and publication of this article, the Crit Awards and Ennie nominations came out (and awards were awarded). I entered The Wicked Forever King Hungers and the Street Wolves Foundry Module for the Ennies, but neither got a nomination. An example I gave earlier, Eat the Reich, got a ton of them (for good reason).
The reality I’m facing is that I’m not there yet. First in popularity, but also in skill. Even with my best stuff, there’s something about it that isn’t sticking with judges. As much as Turbo Edition is improved, I don’t think it’ll win or get nominated any awards. But that’s okay. Still… it’s hard to shake this thought:
But how do I know if I’m any good if I don’t win an award? I must not be good enough to even get a nomination.
I think listening to others and not just what’s in my head is the way to go. One of the biggest gauges of success for me is if people I meet and talk to respond well to what I’m making.
There’s folks at conventions and online that say nice things or are so impressed that they buy a copy of what I’m selling without knowing much about it. They pick it up, look through it and buy it. Or even if they don’t, a lot of them say, “this looks cool.”
And then there’s a bit of industry recognition when I got hired to work a bit on Uncle Ernie’s Summer Catalog. Someone who has a bigger rpg company than mine believed in me and let me work on their stuff. That’s some good validation.
I also often reference Cassi Mothwin a lot because she’s an extremely talented creator, but she’s also a friend. Cassi has really dug the look of Street Wolves and has been a strong supporter of me and my projects. Cassi is also an multi award winning game designer with a much bigger audience than me. In the words of Micheal Scott, "I captivated the guy who captivated a thousand guys. Can you believe that?" Or, in other words, if someone as talented as her likes my work, it can’t possibly be bad, can it?
I’m not sure how this applies to you dear reader, other than if you’re making rpgs and aren’t winning other awards, try to find external validation in other places.
In Conclusion
Design is a learning process. I’m still learning and growing as a designer. I may never being a AAA designer, but I think I’m pretty good and I’m happy with the work I’m putting out. I just have to keep doing it. And that means I have to call something complete even if it hasn’t reached the ideal perfect state that’s in my mind.
In the end, people who contributed to Street Wolves Kickstarter and future buyers are going to get a really great looking book.
