Putting the 3.5 Player's Handbook back into print

[jeek]

Well, the System Reference Document seems to allow for anything in the SRD to be modified and redistributed, which in the past has allowed for such nifty sites as http://d20srd.org

It's lookling like this rather permissive license would allow for a printing of the SRD, effectively bringing most of the core 3.5 rules back into print, albeit with a few things missing, in particular experience tables, starting gold for nonpsionic classes, and a few creatures and spells designated as off-limits.

It also looks like everything in Unearthed Arcana, except for a couple of the bloodlines, would also be legal to include in such a product.

I started this task to generate an insanely-hyperlinked and better-arranged version of the SRD for my ebook reader, but if I can throw it into a book (or even different editions, such as no-epic/no-dviine) and make somebody else happy, all the better.

My current thinking is that this will need to be split up into three volumes. Volume I for races, classes, feats, skills, items and if they fit, spells. Volume II for monsters, volume III for actual rules (Adventuring section, the variants from UA that don't fall into the previous categories, etc).

Here's where I'm at so far: http://mrs.jeek.net/srd.pdf

I'm looking for thoughts/suggestions regarding a free PDF/print-on-demand book

I'm doing this project in lyx, the source is available at http://github.com/jeek/srd.lyx

[Thajocoth]

The PHB is in print. The 4e PHB. (You might want to note 3.5 in the title.)

[Tinydwarfman]

Looks nice. I'd separate some things though, like PC and NPC classes, and LA+1 and LA+0 races.

[jeek]

Looks nice. I'd separate some things though, like PC and NPC classes, and LA+1 and LA+0 races.

Seems like a good idea, one to continue with when I add the "Bloodlines" classes and stuff like "Prestige Paladin"

[Vaynor]

I like this. Seems like a good way to fix a lot of 3.5's problems as well.

[Ernir]

Mostly posting to congratulate you on the effort. Typesetting a document hundreds of pages long is a feat when you're doing it alone and not getting paid for it.

Anywho. On the subject of length - have you experimented with font size? The length may become an issue if you want to make this print-on-demand-able, and scrolling becomes an issue on PDFs.

(Oh, and the page you're using to store the source seems to be down, at least right now.)

[jeek]

Mostly posting to congratulate you on the effort. Typesetting a document hundreds of pages long is a feat when you're doing it alone and not getting paid for it.

Aye, this is quite the undertaking so far. Most of my time is spent formatting tables.

Anywho. On the subject of length - have you experimented with font size? The length may become an issue if you want to make this print-on-demand-able, and scrolling becomes an issue on PDFs.

I'm using a latex-based file format, and without getting too advanced, I'm pretty much limited to 10-12pt fonts, which is about as small as you can go and still be readable. I'm still up in the air on the 1-column-vs.-2-column layout, however. I'm also resigned to the fact that I won't be able to fit everything in one book, and will most likely need three.

(Oh, and the page you're using to store the source seems to be down, at least right now.)

Github backs up their files every so often, the source site is up now.

[Draxar]

I'm using a latex-based file format, and without getting too advanced, I'm pretty much limited to 10-12pt fonts, which is about as small as you can go and still be readable. I'm still up in the air on the 1-column-vs.-2-column layout, however. I'm also resigned to the fact that I won't be able to fit everything in one book, and will most likely need three.

If the end result will be a portrait A4, as opposed to A5 (or indeed, Landscape A4 to create A5 double spreads) two columns.

The human eye finds it comfortable to read about an alphabet and a half – 40 words – to a line. Longer than that, and when they reach the end, the eye isn't quite as sure on getting back to the start of the next line.

The internet may be training people towards being used to longer lines, and what you're making may well end up largely being used as a reference document, rather than a 'sit down and read it' thing (as gaming books are when you first go through them to understand the rules), so that may reduce the need to go double-column. But it's still a more comfortable way to read things – there's a reason why every single major gaming company has their A4 books in two column layout.