Heroscape Compendium Discussion: New Version 4/01/08

[Annerios]

First of all, I'd like to thank Truth for getting this ever expanding monster of a document posted.

This is a thread for comments, questions and discussion of The Heroscape Compendium, formerly known as "Unofficial Guide to Heroscape" that you can find here:

http://www.heroscapers.com/community...do=file&id=201

If you find any mistakes or things that we missed, please let me know, so they can be included in future updates.

I hope that some of you find this document of use and thanks for all of the kind comments on the front page; they are appreciated!

[netherspirit]

Sticky Worthy.

Nice job Annerios, it looks awesome!

[Mythic]

I posted this in the comments on the front page, but thought I should post it here too:

This is great! To me, this screams for a wiki(http://www.wikispaces.com) with links for all the cross-references. As new sets come out it would be easy to add in the details. You could even allow separation between “official” info and fan fiction…just a thought.

So what do you think? It may be possible to convert the existing document directly into a Wiki: http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Word_macros


.

[Annerios]

Originally Posted by EyeOfSauron

So what do you think? It may be possible to convert the existing document directly into a Wiki: http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Word_macros

It looks interesting. I've read stuff on Wiki before, but unfortunately have never posted any information there.

If you know how to do it, I'd say go for it, but make sure that you put a reference in the Wiki entry back to Heroscapers.com where the main document resides.

There is a detailed entry for Heroscape in Wiki already, so maybe it can be linked to/from that.

[Ch1can0]

Hi Annerios,

with this guide you made a great gift to the community, thank you! Hope it´s ok if i post some ideas to improve the document?

table of contents
there a re lot of entries in the document, i would suggest to make a table of content with the page numbers, something like:

Characters
...
...
Gylphs
...
...

Can be done automatically with winword if you´re using that text editor (well, also others may offer such a function). For the people checking the document onscreen the table of content would be linked, so you click on an entry and the pdf jumps to that chapter.

font size
I just would decrease the font size, now it´s larger than necessary imo. Page number will decrease and for people printing it out it won´t be 41 pages so they save some paper and ink what font did you use?

Beautification
The document is pure text, as the main and most important job - to gather all the information - is done. Now perhaps some pics could be added. You could ask a talented scaper to draw (hex?) or pixel (Malechi?) some eyecandy to illustrate some chapters - or it could be a contest on this board if there is enough interest...

Well, that´s all... Great job Annerios!

Bye, Chicano.

[allskulls]

Great job, Annerios.

I agree with Ch1can0 on all points. I printed it out and it was over 40 pages due to font size. Then I realized a table of contents would help along with page numbers. Guess I'll be printing again

The beautification part would be icing on the cake...

or gravey on the mashed potatos.

[Annerios]

Thanks for the suggestions!

I will try to get them implemented for the next update. The original document was created in Word, so the Table of Contents should be easy to do.

The reason for the font size was so I could read it when I minimized the page size. There is a LOT of cross-referencing in this document and it made it easier to jump back and forth and fix things if I could read the text on multiple pages.

What do you guys suggest as a user-friendly font size for a document of this type?

The font used is Freefrm721 Blk BT. It had a "fantasy" look to it that seemed fitting, but I'm not married to it. I'm open to suggestions on something nicer or more readable for the next update, so let me know.

As, for the beautification, I wholeheartedly agree!

Eventually, I want to have illustrations in there and maybe even maps. I really loved the old AD&D monster manuals with the hand drawn illustrations when I was a kid and turning this into something like that would be very cool. Thormun's Journal is part of the inspiration for this project, so making it look something like that (but with easier to read text) would work great.

It would even be nice to have images of the miniatures, plus great illustrations like the ones H_E_H is fond of doing, featuring battle scenes, etc.

If anyone wants to help with the beautification part, I welcome the help. I am definitely better with research than with making documents look great.


I had parts of this guide done for a while, but it was not useful until more recent releases came out and fleshed things out a bit. Now that HS has gotten bigger (and keeps growing), I thought it would be great to just get it out there as a resource.

[LilNewbie]

Wow! Great job on that compilation, Annerios!

[Sagart]

What more can be said? Great! Very good job. Thanks.

Comments;

Shouldn’t Dreadguls have their own listing under Characters? Maybe they should even have their own listing under Races as they haven’t specifically been called human yet. Maybe the “gul” part is really ghoul.

And, shouldn’t Sir. Hawthorne have an (a.k.a. Sir. Christopher) or something like that after his name?

[-Zim-]

But reading all the comments and kudos I feel left out. I am having a problem opneing the document.

[Annerios]

Originally Posted by Sagart

What more can be said? Great! Very good job. Thanks.

Comments;

Shouldn’t Dreadguls have their own listing under Characters? Maybe they should even have their own listing under Races as they haven’t specifically been called human yet. Maybe the “gul” part is really ghoul.

And, shouldn’t Sir. Hawthorne have an (a.k.a. Sir. Christopher) or something like that after his name?

Good catch Sagart! Yes, the Dreadguls should have their own entry. I will add them.

As for the race, since Valguard was one of their leaders and he is human, the assumption is that they are human. If that is proven otherwise, I will add them to the race section.

In the online character tips for Valguard it is mentioned that we will see more Viking related characters. They mention a, "bloody final battle at Finn's castle." I wonder how that has any relation to the way Finn and Thorgrim are summoned during a goofy arm wrestling match in the HS videos? The entry for the Tarn Vikings makes it sound like the Finn's people lost the battle. We will probably find out more in time. That story needs explaining.

There are other strange things: Shotgun Sullivan is said to have grown up in the Republic of Texas, not just "Texas" and he decided that he wanted to be a lawman like Wyatt Earp or Bat Masterson. Sullivan looks like a man in his 20's or 30's.

The Republic of Texas was a short-lived country in North America between the United States and Mexico that existed from 1836 to 1845.

W. B. "Bat" Masterson (November 24, 1853 or 1856 – October 25, 1921)

Wyatt Earp (March 19, 1848–January 13, 1929)

Somehow it does not seem right that Sullivan would be admiring the deeds of lawmen that were born after the time he "grew up".

[Sagart]

Originally Posted by Annerios

As for the race, since Valguard was one of their leaders and he is human, the assumption is that they are human. If that is proven otherwise, I will add them to the race section.

Absolutely, I completely agree. It's way to early, if ever at all, to make the Dreadgul's a separate race. Interesting thought though, another race from earth.

Originally Posted by Annerios

There are other strange things: Shotgun Sullivan is said to have grown up in the Republic of Texas, not just "Texas" and he decided that he wanted to be a lawman like Wyatt Earp or Bat Masterson. Sullivan looks like a man in his 20's or 30's.

The Republic of Texas was a short-lived country in North America between the United States and Mexico that existed from 1836 to 1845.

W. B. "Bat" Masterson (November 24, 1853 or 1856 – October 25, 1921)

Wyatt Earp (March 19, 1848–January 13, 1929)

Somehow it does not seem right that Sullivan would be admiring the deeds of lawmen that were born after the time he "grew up".

Yah, that historical time warping not bothering to do your research kind of stuff used to bother me a bit. But then someone, and I can't bother to do the research to find out who it was, said something about the comic-book nature of the game. Yah, it's just a fun game. And on top of that we can ***** about the historical inaccuracies. And that's fun too.