Best of luck to everyone. Got so stuck in editing the the text down a bit more and fixing the cards that went with it that I missed the deadline by 2 hours. Oh well, next year.
In doing this though, Ash, I have some questions regarding rules clarify for next year. Is there a place you wish for those to be posted?
Okay, so issues that came to mind when doing this jam and following the letter of the rules.
HQuestBuilder, Questbooklet and Heroscribe (HQB, QB, HS) with post editing in a graphics program or MSWord like program, they all format the text and layout differently. Is the word count maximum in HQB larger or smaller than QB and HS? I'm going to recreate my quest using both programs to see the difference but my guess is they are not the same. You may want to come up with Word Count maximums, be it Total Word Count or broken into separate numbers for Intro & QuestNotes, etc. It'd be easy to ask everyone to submit a word file with all of the text in the submissions to run a word count on them.
Page size and format was still a bit too vague. If I set the pdf generation to export my HQB quest as a Legal document in portrait, I have at least double the amount of quest note space, regardless of magnification because the program auto-adjusts to fit the page. You mention not editing text size, but again I'm not sure the text size is the same in all programs and there is definitely an auto-adjust feature in HQB's exporter. You mention in the rules update not to image or pdf edit the quest notes, but even when exporting the pdf, dropping magnification to 99% can be enough to cause the "Made with HQuestBuilder" be on the bottom of the page or on a page two.
No rules of making cards. Do unique monster stats need to be in the quest notes or can we get around that by making a monster card? Same for unique items. And where is the line on "new mechanism" and "special rules" to be drawn?
Participants are allowed to create any mechanics they wish (any special rules must be explained in the Quest Notes).
For example: Darkness is a mechanism I'm using in my quest. I put the explanation in the quest notes. I make a belt lantern that provides illumination up to 3 spaces away from the hero wearing it, canceling the darkness in those spaces for the hero and others. That gets put on equipment card. Is that a new mechanism/special rule or is that just clarification of an exemption of a mechanism rule I already spelled out in the quest notes? What about the monster cards I mentioned? Do unique monster abilities count as a new mechanism? What if its a new monster but I'm using a mechanism from another monster, say the Ethereal condition of the Yeti's Hug Attack? Since it's explained in official documentation, can I save on the text usage by leaving it out? Does this not mean I get penalized for adding something new rather than recycling? What about a new equipment card of a special sword that says on it that it counts as an artifact when using to attack Ethereal enemies? Should that be in the notes rather than on the equipment card? Both places?
Hope that was clear and somewhat helpful for the 2025 jam.
a "new" mechanic would be a special rule - but special rules can also consist of other things that aren't mechanics. Darkness woukd be a new mechanic and thus a special rule.
If its already explained in any official document, then there's no need to repeat the rule in your quest note.
I dont ever want to impose a word count maximum. I want quests to be readable easily, and accessible. I just want the quest map up top and notes on the bottom because that's how we expect to see the quest and play the quest. It should be normal convention, it should be expected. And I want users to choose the program they want to use based on look and feel and whether it can provide all they need for their quests. The programs are different by design, and that's important for the user to know.
Post processing is only allowed for heroscribe, and not if you are using the other tools - that's blatantly in the rules (not sure if that's part of what you're asking, but just so it's clear to others with similar questions). Some tools don't do what the others do, which is why they were all allowed this jam.
Everything not in the quest isn't judged. The itch page design, the homebrew cards, none of it matters for submission purposes. Go ham on cards...or don't make any at all. These honestly are for your flavor but aren't counted as part of the quest.
I hope that helps. Much of this I'll try to condense and make more explicit next year.
Thanks for taking the time to reply.
Everything not in the quest isn't judged. The itch page design, the homebrew cards, none of it matters for submission purposes. Go ham on cards...or don't make any at all. These honestly are for your flavor but aren't counted as part of the quest.
So if monster stats are on the card, but not in the quest notes, will the card be ignored or will it be used when you playtest?
Everything else it sounds like my quest was within the boundaries of the rules, so I'll be good for next year.
