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In the WotC books, there are a lot of "key words" that are also everyday words that are adjectives or nouns to describe a condition. They are not generally (I think consistently NOT in WotC books) indicated as having special meaning and having special rules associated with them.
For instance, if an entry says something like "any opponent struck by the Ass-Whoopin' ability is stunned for three rounds", then there is no clear indication that "stunned" is a special word that has special rules associated with it.
I think those of us who have been playing a while with the 3.x books have picked up on most of the conditions or keywords, but I know there were many occasions when we first switched to 3e that I didn't realize those words were special.
So my request would be that in the text when you use a word that has special rules or a special entry to define the effects of that word, it is italicised or bolded or in some way differentiated from the normal text all around it so that we know it's special. Spell names, feat names, skills... anything that has a special set of rules associated with it should be delineated thus. That way if someone reads it they know to look it up in the index and read about it.
Thanks for your consideration. :)
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So my request would be that in the text when you use a word that has special rules or a special entry to define the effects of that word, it is italicised or bolded or in some way differentiated from the normal text all around it so that we know it's special. Spell names, feat names, skills... anything that has a special set of rules associated with it should be delineated thus. That way if someone reads it they know to look it up in the index and read about it.<snip>
Hear, hear! I second and third this request!
This has been something that has irked me for a long while.
It can be worked around, but something like this request would make things much easier, especially for those of us who are essentially "casual" gamers (by choice or circumstance) who can't or don't play on a regular basis.
Yes, yes, yes! I think the bold option would be better so it sticks out more.
Yes but if you have many bolds on the page it will just look bad (and tacky.) Besides, bold is used on section title headings, column headings on tables, and anything with a : next to it.
Italic will stand out when you're reading the entry but won't stand out when you just have the book open.
Good point, I wouldn't mind italics then.
Italics is used for spells and magic items, so that could be confusing, too.
Bold makes some sense because in many textbooks, they use bold face for words that appear in the glossary, so people might be familiar with that usage.
The words could be capitalized to indicate they have a "proper meaning" but that might look odd. Likewise, underlining would be too distracting, and would probably look unprofessional.
Of the options considered so far, my vote is for bold.
Pathfinder and Paizo are pretty colourful. Why not use blue or red (or other colour) text to denote special terms?
Otherwise I like the bold option.
Colouring might work for most people, but it can really mess with those who are colourblind.
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Yay! I'm not the only one! For so long, I wandered lost in the wilderness thinking I was alone in wanting such a thing. ;)
I tossed out a non-specific suggestion of making the keywords different... as for a specific format, I am sure that the layout folks (if it's their job) will find something appropriate. Italics are common, but capitalization would also work. That even eliminates the possibility that it's just being used for emphasis (as sometimes italics are) - except at the beginning of a sentence. Hm... well, I'm sure there's a solution, and I hope that the Paizo folks think it's worth doing.
underline them...
perhaps all in caps...but in a smaller font size and/or different font type (ex: normal text in Times New Roman 10 with game terms/conditions in Courier 8 but all caps), so that the difference isn't glaringly annoying or looks like text shouting
just throwing out an idea...don't know how practical or difficult it would be to layout a book using multiple font types and sizes within the bulk text
I also like the different color idea
Why not just capitalize the condition/word.
I think a different font would be the most aesthetically pleasing. It doesn't clutter up the page as much as bolding, underlining or capitalizing. Italicizing could work too, but as someone mentioned, it might interfere with other words.
Colouring doesn't work, since it can be difficult for some to see.
Unfortunately, a different font is probably (next to colouring) the hardest thing to do during layout, since all the other things you can do by doing a search and replace function with the whole text. I don't think that's possible to do with fonts.
I think a different font would be the most aesthetically pleasing. It doesn't clutter up the page as much as bolding, underlining or capitalizing. Italicizing could work too, but as someone mentioned, it might interfere with other words.
Colouring doesn't work, since it can be difficult for some to see.
Unfortunately, a different font is probably (next to colouring) the hardest thing to do during layout, since all the other things you can do by doing a search and replace function with the whole text. I don't think that's possible to do with fonts.
In most layout programs, i rather suspect that it IS possible to do a search and replace that changes the font of the word. Even Microsoft Word can do that.
- Ashavan
I think a different font would be the most aesthetically pleasing. It doesn't clutter up the page as much as bolding, underlining or capitalizing. Italicizing could work too, but as someone mentioned, it might interfere with other words.
Colouring doesn't work, since it can be difficult for some to see.
Unfortunately, a different font is probably (next to colouring) the hardest thing to do during layout, since all the other things you can do by doing a search and replace function with the whole text. I don't think that's possible to do with fonts.In most layout programs, i rather suspect that it IS possible to do a search and replace that changes the font of the word. Even Microsoft Word can do that.
- Ashavan
Ahh, well, I wasn't even aware that you could replace fonts in Word too (via search and replace)!
There you go, that's definitely my suggestion then. Differentiate the words with another font.