Style guide

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Solomoriah
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Re: Style guide

Post by Solomoriah »

According to the product identity license, and my own preferences, "Basic Fantasy RPG" is okay in print. I'd prefer to avoid the abbreviation BFRPG in print; it would only be okay if for some reason the name of the game had to be used repeatedly.

Other than that, I'm in agreement with Chi.
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chiisu81
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Re: Style guide

Post by chiisu81 »

r7 uploaded.
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orobouros
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Re: Style guide

Post by orobouros »

Note that use of words in place of numbers is preferred, except when discussing game statistics (hit dice, damage, etc.).
I believe the rule of thumb is to prefer written out words for numbers up to ten, and digits past that. Such as, "the third number past 120 when counting up is 123. There are four digits between 120 and 123 if counting inclusive, only two if counting exclusive. I remember this from my 37th programming homework." The argument is for readability; short numbers read quickly. Longer numbers like one-thousand-six-hundred-forty-two can be harder to follow.
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Solomoriah
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Re: Style guide

Post by Solomoriah »

Generally this is true, except for nominative cases. For example, if something is in room 2, you write the numeral, not the word two. 2 is its name, and furthermore, stands out from the text better.

When writing boxed text, writing numbers out as words is always preferred, except where it's too inconvenient.
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chiisu81
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Re: Style guide

Post by chiisu81 »

r8 uploaded.
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jmhimara
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Re: Style guide

Post by jmhimara »

Regarding the "Dashes and em-dashes" section on pg 4.

I believe there's an error of definitions there: where you have "em-dash" it should really be "en-dash," and where you have "en-dash" it should be "hyphen." It's the hyphen symbol that's on your keyboard—not the en-dash. Typing two hyphens and then space generates an en-dash. I'm not aware of any such trick to automatically generate an em-dash in LibreOffice.

Short explanation: There are three common horizontal-line punctuation symbols in English: the hyphen ('-', which is on your keyboard), the en-dash ('–', slightly longer, with a size of 'en' which is 1/2 em), and the em-dash ('—', the longest, with size 'em'; 1 em = font-size). Depending on context, the en-dash may or may not have a space before and after it; but the true em-dash must always be typed with NO spaces around it (at least, according to my textbook, hahah). Both version (i.e. the em-dash without spaces or the en-dash with spaces) are acceptable typographic practice to denote a pause in the text, although the em-dash is far more common.

I hope this helps, and let me know if you have any questions.
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chiisu81
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Re: Style guide

Post by chiisu81 »

Yes, the terms are mixed up; I've corrected for r9. We tend to use the en-dash in our documents, at least the ones I've edited. I've seen Stuart and perhaps one or two others use the em-dash, but in my schooling, etc. the semi-colon reigned supreme. I've come around to using the en-dash; the longer em-dash is still foreign to me.

In LO Writer it is possible to have either the en- or em-dash automatically inserted, it just depends on whether you put in spaces or not (as on page 9 of this guide):
  • For the en-dash type in a word, a space, two hyphens, another space, and then the next word(s)
  • For the em-dash type in a word, two hyphens, and then the next word(s)
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jmhimara
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Re: Style guide

Post by jmhimara »

For the em-dash type in a word, two hyphens, and then the next word(s)
Good to know. :D

Yeah, it was only the matter of definition that I wanted to clarify. The practice is fine. It's perfectly acceptable to use the en-dash instead of the em-dash.
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Solomoriah
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Re: Style guide

Post by Solomoriah »

For the record, I hate dashes of all types. I'm often amazed that the people who tell me that two spaces after final punctuation is "wrong" because it's "ugly" still use dashes... I find them VERY ugly.
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chiisu81
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Re: Style guide

Post by chiisu81 »

Copied from FG2 thread, I'll update style guide soon:
Solomoriah wrote: Wed Oct 30, 2019 8:19 pm Editing commentary: We need to watch the titles of the various books. It's the Basic Fantasy Field Guide, for example; I keep finding "RPG" stuck in the middle. And I'd like to say Basic Fantasy Field Guide volume 1 rather than just Basic Fantasy Field Guide 1. I'm fixing them as I come to them, but I thought I'd put it out there. Any other books being misnamed should be corrected as well; I don't know of any examples right now, but let's keep our eyes open.
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