http://www.strawpoll.me/12552422
Big Book Format
Pros
- The classic 8.5x10.75 is traditional and looks official and impressive.
- More page real estate gives you more room for sidebars and things.
- Charts can fit more on a single page.
- Bigger pages inevitably mean more wasted room per page.
- To make the most out of the real estate, you need to go double-column a lot of the time which sucks for mobile viewing.
- The size of the text relative to the page makes it suck further for reading on phones, tablets, or even some computer monitors.
- More expensive per page, even after the difference in word count per page possible is considered.
- Takes up more space at the table
Pros
- Smaller footprint at the table, leaving you more room for drinks, snacks, dice, and play-aids.
- Smaller page means less wasted space.
- Smaller page size means we don't need to do double-columns except in very specific situations.
- Bigger text size relative to the page. Combined with the above, this makes it way easier to view on mobile devices, or even on computer screens as you can easily do a two-page spread on a monitor and read without zooming in.
- Easier to thumb through, and thus easier to look things up in.
- Cheaper per page, even after the size difference is accounted for, meaning the rulebook would be cheaper.
- Eligable for mass market distribution through Lulu, putting us on amazon, barnes & noble, etc.
- Easier conversion to ebook format for ereaders.
- Not a big fancy traditional book.
- Sidebars don't sidebar properly.
- Charts have less room to freely sprawl
) If that were the plan, I would take a nice big 8.5x11 book and a 2:3 PDF (so you can fit 2 pages on a 4:3 ipad).
