Wednesday, November 30, 2011

This Carcosa PDF is Something Else

Holy crap.

Just saw the latest version of the Carcosa PDF.

The book itself is extensively cross-referenced, has a proper index, etc.

The PDF takes all of that and links it within the document.

More than that, Eero (design/layout guy for the project) linked every hex on the maps (and the room numbers of the Fungoid Gardens map) so clicking on it goes straight to the entry in the body of the book.

Not that I look at all that many gaming PDFs, but this one is Pretty Damn Spiffy.

The PDF is included in the price of the printed book, and for those not wanting the physical book, the PDF will be available as a stand-alone product on December 11.

10 comments:

  1. That's good to hear. Always thought it shame that RPG PDFs aren't used more effectively.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Linking the hexes to their writeups was pure genius. That's one of those "why didn't I think of that" ideas.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Okay...I was going to get Carcosa anyway but all the recent posts have me sold on Isle, too! When are pre-orders going to go up and when do you expect them to actually send them out?

    ReplyDelete
  4. More than that, Eero (design/layout guy for the project) linked every hex on the maps (and the room numbers of the Fungoid Gardens map) so clicking on it goes straight to the entry in the body of the book.

    YES.

    You just sold me a book I don't even want. Bravo!

    ReplyDelete
  5. BTW, Carcosa and the Isle look great so far. Good luck with this round of work, James.

    ReplyDelete
  6. I'm told the books will arrive Monday. I'll hopefully have them up for sale in the store later in the day but if not, then early Tuesday.

    They'll probably start mailing Thursday. We're running low on shipping supplies and I have to go to the supplier (likely Wednesday) with Isle in hand to figure out what the best envelope/box is for that one since I've got nothing for that size book at the moment.

    ReplyDelete
  7. I have thought about something like this for a long time - that added value in electronic products could come from a strong hypertext approach (and beyond that, possibly the possibility to rearrange blocks of information to suit a specific purpose, but that's not possible in PDF, not yet). Good to read it is being realised in Carcosa.

    ReplyDelete
  8. James,

    Could you give an idea of about what shipping to the USA will cost? It being December and all, I'm having to plan out my shopping budget for the next week or two.

    ReplyDelete
  9. I can't say for sure until the books show up and I get the exact weight, but I'm thinking 14,50€ for 2nd class shipping to addresses outside Europe. (the Carcosa book is going to be right almost as thick as the Grindhouse box)

    ReplyDelete
  10. This is beautiful! And you just clinched a sale by this post.

    I'm generally a pure electronic format customer. I've railed against the PDFs that other game companies produce time and again. I've even offered to pro bono take their PDFs and at least add bookmarks and indices. I'll buy the PDF of Carcosa just to encourage this type of professional use of electronic format publications (and probably wouldn't have considered the purchase otherwise.)

    ReplyDelete