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.