Thursday 17 May 2012

Lamentations of the Flame Princess and the Virtues of A5

I've been playing a bit of Lamentations of the Flame Princess [Grindhouse Edition] these last two weeks, and I have to say, I'm impressed: the game is intuitive, easy to use, retains basically all what makes D&D, D&D...in fact, I'll go out on a limb and say it's what D&D 4th edition always should have been and what D&D 5th edition should be. (If I have a complaint, it's that the art feels like it's trying too hard to be shocking in places, though if that's your only complaint about a game...)

But that's not even the best thing about it. No, the best thing about it is that the rulebooks are in fucking A5. If there ever was a way in which God intended rulebooks to be set out, it would be A5 format paperback. Easy to flick through, light, will fit in a man-bag or brief case, and way more readable in bed or on a train than clunky A4 hardbacks. For that alone, James Edward Raggi IV, I salute you.

8 comments:

  1. Too right. The upcoming hardback version is also going to be A5. It really is the perfect size.

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  2. Lemme give you a +1 on that. I dream of stuff like the Rules Cyclopedia in A5 format.

    -SJ

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  3. I've been similarly raving about the A5 copy of OSRIC I picked up recently.

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  4. Absolutely, and A5 is also nice and readable on most decent-sized tablets. Though the fonts in the Grindhouse Edition are still a bit small for my taste.

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  5. Wholehearted agreement here on the One True Format for gaming. Most of my go-to gaming workbooks* are A5 now.

    * Stuff actually carried and used, rather than kept on the shelf for occasional reference.

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  6. I actually wish these things were A5 landscape, so that you could have solid binding on the back but still have them stay open on the right page when you put them down.

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  7. If you have time, I'd like to hear you elaborate on your LotFP experiences...you know...if you care to share a little?

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  8. I hate A5 as a paperback; it just won't sit open. Vornheim is a hardback and it works for that.

    Otherwise, A-sizes are all just kinda ugly in that Germanic "efficiency has it's own beauty" sort of way.

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