HED! Second Edition PDF is up!

[Charles Phipps]

http://www.rpgnow.com/product_info.php? ... s_id=77985

The physical copies should be available soon.

A week at the most.

[MightyDavidson]

YAY!! *Dances around his room like a loon*

[Libra]

I would express my glee, but sadly the Atomic Think Tank lacks an 'Orgasmic Glee' icon - this will have to do instead, I'm afraid:

[MightyDavidson]

You can join me in dancing about like a loon Libra.

[Libra]

I could, but I'm too busy hugging myself with glee.

[MightyDavidson]

I could, but I'm too busy hugging myself with glee.

That works too.

[Winter]

So has anyone picked this up yet who wants to share their initial impressions? I'm waiting for the paper version but I'd love to hear what people think so far.

[Charles Phipps]

Whoops!

Sorry! It would seem that the actual document was a little skew! There's some extra spaces that appeared in the PDF between paragraphs that we'll be fixing this week. Sorry about those who bought their copies of HED! 2.0 early, you'll receive a corrected version as soon as we get it up.

The physical version won't have these flaws.

-Charles Phipps

[daniel_ream]

So has anyone picked this up yet who wants to share their initial impressions? I'm waiting for the paper version but I'd love to hear what people think so far.

I'm planning on writing a review as soon as I'm done reading it, but I'm not sure the community really wants to hear my opinion - I found HED 1 to be a substandard product, but since by the time I picked it up HED 2 was already well under development I counted it as a beta release and not indicative of Charles' best work.

[Charles Phipps]

So has anyone picked this up yet who wants to share their initial impressions? I'm waiting for the paper version but I'd love to hear what people think so far.

I'm planning on writing a review as soon as I'm done reading it, but I'm not sure the community really wants to hear my opinion - I found HED 1 to be a substandard product, but since by the time I picked it up HED 2 was already well under development I counted it as a beta release and not indicative of Charles' best work.

Well HED 1.0 was a labor of love by a bunch of amateur developers. As our accidental paragraphing issue shows, we're still working out the bugs in Phipps Studios but we appreciate the fans patience with us. I think people will find the (final) version of HED 2.0 much better.

[daniel_ream]

It's been my experience with most 3rd party OGL stuff that the developer/author is really only a small part of what makes a product worth spending money on (as opposed to just being somebody's blog or forum post). Competent editing, layout, art direction, and electronic publishing add significant value to a gaming product.

I've met and socialized with a large number of game developers over the years, and honestly most of them aren't any different from the average person posting their homebrew campaign in the Roll Call thread. The difference is that they were backed up by a gaming company that could afford to hire editors/layout artists/art directors/publishing assistants/etc to clean up their manuscripts and process them into a marketable book.

Unfortunately, editing/layout/art direction/publishing/etc are very portable skills, and people who know how to do them well can make a lot more money working in "real" publishing than working on OGL gaming books. Personally, I'd like to see more Curt Schilling-style sponsorship going on: professionals who also game giving back to the industry not just by buying products, but by donating their time and expertise pro bono to the mall outfits that can't afford it otherwise.

[dirkgentry2000]

bummer about the paragraphing thing.


Dan - interesting thought. Given how time-consuming, exacting and plain-out joyless editting and proof-reading can be, if you can find a pro who wants to donate time for free to do that, check that guy for wings and a halo.

[daniel_ream]

Well, whomever did the layout for HED 1st edition is damned good. The book looked good. Whomever it is, tie that person to a chair and keep feeding them cookies, or whatever you need to do to keep them around, 'cause damn.

[Pixelgun]

Well, whomever did the layout for HED 1st edition is damned good. The book looked good. Whomever it is, tie that person to a chair and keep feeding them cookies, or whatever you need to do to keep them around, 'cause damn.

Hey thanks that was me! I think the layout on this version is even better, I hope you will agree when you see it.

[TiverMM2]

Bought this book, Wargames and Gestalt today along with a donation to the people in Haiti at rpg.net. Was impressed with the book, the layout issues did not worry me as I do not print pdfs out anymore. What also I liked was the crossover of material and characters between HED and Wargames.

Keep up the good work.