Hey Guys, the product looks great and I admire alot about it, but, just a few niggling points.

1.) Printer Friendly rules
Although many people like to read everything on a computer, many of us like hard copy, so having the rules in a greyscale/graphic light version would be wonderful.

2.) Rule page layout
For those of us with laser printers, when we do print out the rules, the page numbers are all on one side.....
Could you please put all the page numbers to the right on odd pages and to the left on even pages. Thanks (you may want to alter the page layouts to that the backgrounds flip to represent the orientation within the book -ie left/right)

3.) Rule page orientation
Although landscape is wonderful on-screen, when printed, it just is a little awkward to work with. A portrait layout would be best if possible.

If the tone of the post did not let you figure out that I have just printed the rules and I am now settling down to a nice cup of tea to read them by.

Best regards

Dalton

These were all design choices that Denny knew he was going to get flack for. The Dev group came to the mutual decision that panoramic worked best (and looked coolest), despite the limitations it presented in terms of printing. I'll let him add to this when he wakes up from catching up on the sleep he missed pushing this out the door, but I'm pretty sure these choices were made on the hopes that sometime in the future he would have the opportunity to have this rulebook professionally printed.

Sacretis

Read just the rules... NICE!
I think like DaltonCalford point 1) printer friendly rules is really important...
The normal book need more ink than the two sample 150 point fleets from the book....
Maybe a (printer friendly) rule overview/summary sheet could help...

Why not just print in grayscale to reduce color usage?

The rules were designed with the intent to offer a tangible, bound version in future. We also wanted things to have a very visual and obvious flow while dealing with some tricky concepts that weren't so crystal clear in written form.

In the short term however you can get away with extremely limited ink usage by setting your printer to "draft" mode in black and white. Honestly, the ink load at that setting is pretty minor. I'm sure that either we or the community will offer a stripped down "text only" version of the rules at some point but its important that those initial concepts are highly visual.

I love the book the way it is. Mine is already printed and spiral bound and really looks the part.

I also printed out the rulebook in color and put it in binder. The people that I just introduced this to were trying to snatch the color rules from each other and totally ignored my two grayscale printouts of the rules.

I think it's important for any complex game to have the rules available in hard copy. It's no fun having to run off to a computer in the middle of a game.

Taking a note from Mel Ebbles I am going to build a simple binding press and try my hand at book binding. The Wormhole manual will be my first test.

I've got 3 laser copied versions in case I screw up the 1st two. And a set in a binder.

~Floyd

Do you have a link for this?

Ah book binding.... I actually had a class in highschool in part on bookbinding when I was going to school in overseas, that was a fun subject/project to do

I like the rules in landscape format. It makes it easier to see the pictures and scenario setups. I have my rulebook printed in color, in sheet protectors and in a notebook.

ME TOO! I printed them out in color and put them in protector pages in a binder. People were going crazy at the game store last night trying to see the rules. They loved the full color pictures.

Some printers might also allow you to print 2 rules pages per printed page, turning the two landscape pages so they are readable one above the other in a portrait booklet. Just remember to print first and last pages normally so you have a nice cover. I think the text size should still be large enough to read this way. Also, test one page before trying to print the whole book. Not all printers are created equal when it comes to page setups.

Tom

I am probably going to print this at home in color. But I am going to wait and print this after I get the rest of my fleets assembled. I'd rather run out of ink while I print the rule then when I am printing game pieces.

Mel described it over at his forum in the Material and Tools section here http://www.ebblesminiatures.com/forum/v ... p?tid=1290 (the actual mention of it is the 3rd to the last post).

Anyway, if you just Google DIY Book binding you'll find all kinds of useful links like these ones:

http://www.instructables.com/id/How-to-bind-a-book/

http://www.persistenceunlimited.com/200 ... -homefast/

~Floyd

Check out Kinkos. They offer a variety of binding styles.

I hate my computer. I just wrote a small book on why the rule book could have been written and organised better and my fingers must have hit some weird two button combo and it went back one page making me loose the entire post.

Now I will edit it down.

The rules, while not written poorly, could have been organised in a more professional way. I have experience writing 250+ page technical manuals, S.O.P. manuals and some rules manuals which I was paid for.

INDEX You need to index any rule that may be of some interest to someone. You need an Index of Illustrations as well.

Recap Hard Rules. Pages 15-29 are nice. It shows how to play the game with lots of pictures with the example play in them. This however can distract some readers so the best thing to do is have a reference table of the rules with no pictures or artsy stuff (yeah I know difficult for artists) in the proper order, almost like a flow chart, for people to follow as a quick reference without paging through pages of art and text (an Index would help as well)

Page referencing You should attempt to add a page reference to the rules to help reader understand why something is being done when you give a descriptive example (even with pictures) even if the rules are on the same page.

My biggest complaint has to be the lack of an index.

This rules summary is already in the works.