a good format for writing down solo plays in a blog post
I'm still searching for a good way to format the text in a blog post to distinguish between mechanical bits, narrative bits, GM text and player text.
For example:
- mechanical bits like dice rolls are in [ ]: (Example: [roll 1d6 = 5])
- normal narrative bits are written without formatting (Example: John threatens the thug with his knife.)
-GM text is written in code blocks (Example: you can see it in this post here, can't do it on G+: http://dieheart.net/ap-dungeon-world-one/)
- player text (in character) is written in italics (Example: John: "Hey, do you really want to do that?)
The aim is that the reader can instantly distinguish between the different parts of the write-up so it's easier to read.
Does anyone have a better idea? Color is not an option in my blog.
If you're doing it on your blog, that sounds as good a format as any. If you're going to post them elsewhere, I really like the idea of using Google Doc comments to hide the mechanical bits away, while keeping them easily accessible.
ReplyDeleteIt reminds me somewhat of how Todd Zircher formats his AP's in a spreadsheet.
Is there a spoiler tag for blogs? So that only if you click the tagged text or select it with your mouse the hidden text displays.
ReplyDeleteI use [ ] to mark GM bits and mechanics (which I consider GM bits, anyway) and leave the rest in normal text. This is mostly because all my game notes are written in Notepad, so there are no good formatting options. Anything I want to format in a different font or colour is usually preceeded by @@@@@@@@@@@@@ in my notes, so I can find it easily when I'm posting It's a good picture placeholder, too. If I want individual words bolded or italicised, I usually just spell them incorrectly so I catch them on my spellcheck pass (blogger's spellcheck highlights words).
ReplyDeleteThere are some deviations depending on the game. My current Traveller Star Trader adventure is done in the form of the captain's log. Everything that happens off-the-record has been relegated to being between brackets as well.
If the blog tools support two columns, you could always try for writing stuff in parallel; narrative stuff in the left column and notes and die rolls in the right.
ReplyDelete// code monkeys know that this is a comment
The quick and dirty thing I do on the Sunday Skypers forum is to preface line of game text with slashes so that readers can automatically ignore the mechanics if they so desire. Since that is an absolutely minimal format thing, it will work with any document type or display.
I don't know how much control you have on your blog but with CSS and a line of Javascript or two this is trivial to do. Add a button to hide some "hideable" parts and you're done!
ReplyDeleteThis would depend on the blogging platform you use, however.