Annoying style/formatting rant.

[Jack Spencer Jr]

I was going to post this to the word rant thread, but screw it. It's off topic and should be it's own thread. I'm going to rant a it about style or perhaps the correct term is formating. This applies to RPG books more than anything else, but is useful in generalI'm talking about excessive use of:

[*] italics
[*] boldface
[*] underline
[*] all three at once
[*] "quotes"
[*] CAPITALIZATION
[*] bulleted lists
[/list:u]
I believe an arguement can be made for the use of such things because they do help "break-up" the text and are useful as built-in BOOKMARKS, in much the same way art does. However, it is distracting to read if it is not used sparingly. For instance it is not at all uncomon for a person to favor a single type of emphasis and use it over and over again. This takes away from the purpose of using emphasis and makes the reader wonder why the author used so many of a particular type of emphasis, thus missing the point.

My point is:

[*]use sparingly
[*]use well
[/list:u]

[Matt Snyder]

Except that you should never use underlined text in a published product. So sayeth this layout guy. Underlines are an artifact of typewriters unable to italicize. Whenever you find yourself underlining something, just italicize.

Underlines are frickin' evil. And ugly. Ugh.

Using rules (a.k.a. lines) of varying weight is fine. There is a difference. Rule of thumb: Leave that little "U" button in your layout software (even if, no especially if it's Word) for office memos.

[KeithBVaughn]

Hi Jack,

I'm wondering if what is driving you nuts is a combination of two simple things: inconsistant usage of the afore mentioned things and/or the writer's inability to find an appropriate or powerful enough word so gimmicky font tricks are substituted.

For instance in my game, I use italics to provide examples for the rule I have just explained. I switch from a times roman font to arial bold when I providing a name for a skill, a thing like fire damage, romance rules or something else that needs to stand out during the reading of the rules. I make sure that I'm consistant throughout the text to keep things uniform and understandable for the reader.

Not having a sufficient grasp of the language is a real problem and can make a game unreadable or frustrating at best. It is beyond this forum to do remedial english. I think Mark Twain said it best: "The difference between the right word and the almost right word is the difference between the lightening and the lightening bug."

Keith B. Vaughn