Guide Update #1 Chapter 1 Outline

I’ve written quite a lot since my previous post announcing I was working on this guide. The first challenge, aside from my inexperience with this type of writing, is determining how much content to add and how to present it in a simple, understandable way. I’ve been reading some websites online that provide tutorials, following their style for writing instructions. I have an outline, but it keeps changing based on things I had overlooked before.

Guide Modules

I decided to break the whole thing into modules, similar to how online courses structure their classes. I’m a huge fan of Domestika, and all of their online courses have a pretty defined structure. Maybe they just use an industry standard, but I believe they excel at breaking down content for an online course. Here is a rough breakdown of a typical Domestika course:

Module 1

This introductory module contains content summarizing the whole course, background about the instructor, their influences, and definitions of terms used throughout the course project.

Module 2

I call this the foundations module. Every design project has a similar structure: a brief and a style guide. This module will teach students my personal method for creating both.

Module 3

The technical module contains tutorials on using tools and software.

Module 4

The delivery module teaches preparing the project for hand-off to others – in this case, the editor and/or publisher.

Introductory Module

Module one is nearly complete. I’ve focused on where I draw inspiration from and described the types of games and books the guide will cover: tabletop RPGs and miniature wargames. This module will include formatting tips for authors’ manuscripts and a glossary of terms. Here is an outline for the module:

1. Guide’s Summary. This is a short introduction paragraph that will contain a summary of the entire course. How to get inspiration. What makes a game rulebook unique. Why using Adobe InDesign and its alternatives. Finally explain who is the guide for.
2. Finding the right Inspiration.
   1. Art and Design Books: A few examples of art books I use for inspiration. What elements I look for in those types of books the most.
   2. Reference and Coffee Table Books: These books are thematic and contain a lot of interesting information and images that can contribute to the theme of the game. History and Niche books are great to seek a particular visual flavor.
   3. Video Games, Films and TV Shows: Video Games, films and tv shows are a great source for visual references that designers can use as inspiration. Specially those pieces of media that share themes with the projects the designers are working on.
   4. RPG and Wargame Rulebooks: These are the last source of information. They should be only good to see how standards and formatting is used. However, I don’t advise designers to use these books as a visual reference from the get go.
3. Print or Digital Books. This section is to explain the differences between Printed Rulebooks and Digital Rulebooks. Why and how both format are used in tabletop games and finally some best practices for each format.
4. Game Types. This section is use to offer a brief description on the differences and similarities between RPG Formats and Wargame Formats.
5. Formatting Manuscripts. This section will include a series of tips to set up text manuscripts to make the importing of the content into InDesign as smooth as possible.
6. Glossary of common terms.

I have a lot of writing to do but I’ve already have quite a lot of notes for the rest of the modules. Especially on module 2 where I’ll be explaining how to create a Design Brief and an Art Bible aka a Style Guide. This covers my progress so far. Stay tuned for more updates as I keep making headway on this guide.