Type treatment for FotF2e: Freebooters Futura or Lampblack & Brimstone house style?
I’m trying to decide between the original Freebooters treatment, which is vaguely evocative of OD&D, and the “house style” I used in all the other L&B books (like The Perilous Wilds). Which do you prefer?
You can get a better look at the draft here: https://www.dropbox.com/s/rb10d8r2gcho0tj/FotF2e_typetest.pdf?dl=0
Note that I haven’t settled on either d12 or d100 tables, d100 is just what I’m using on this draft.
The one on the right (seriffed)
The official L&B house style is so gorgeous you have to make a save vs Pulchritude. It’s as fine as a hoard of Treasure Type H. It’s like taking the blast from a double-barrelled Wand of Wonder straight to the eyeballs.
You should leave Futura to us designers who know nothing about type and hope that their work will look like nostalgia rather than ineptitude 🙂
I really like Futura, but not for body text.
Stick with your house style! I’ve got all your stuff, and I just love the HPLHS Old Style.
Use house style – you are evoking an old school ethos and that should shine through on every page… A sans serif like futura is too clean and stark and does not offer the same feel.
I noticed you used a sans serif in the original fbotf and when compared side by side with the beasts book it looks pretty plain. Don’t let TSRs lack of good graphic designers in the 80s be your guide.
Point taken, Ron Thomas, but the appeal to plainer type to me is clarity and simplicity without the rustic suggestion of the other font. It”s not just homage to TSR’s graphic design limitations, I like the look and feel of Futura at a pretty basic level. When I look at the original FotF, I find that font more inviting than the L&B house style.
But the poll results are pretty overwhelming!
As an amateur designer myself, I understand the appeal of plainer type. In many cases, it is clearly the correct choice. However, I think in this field, an evocative font choice really speaks to an audience that’s reading for fictional inspiration rather than mere data consumption.
I like Futura because it affords you the ability to use a wider set of characters and because it has a natural bold (I think you’re adding a small stroke to create a bold effect right now?) Given that the poll supports the house style, I wonder if there are other typefaces that give the same rough look with more modern features.
House style.
Aaron Sturgill well put! I also agree with Jason Lutes to the point of futura being a great font for a very clean look and feel but just doesn’t have that old style Linotype look of the house serif.
I’m a huge fan of Futura for evoking the OD&D feeling, but I’m also a huge fan of yours, so it was a tossup. I think that sticking with the house style works for you now.
Aaron Sturgill, I agree, and I don’t like the force-bolding I end up having to do. I have searched and searched for a feature-complete font as good as HPLHS Oldstyle, and have yet to find one. I am certainly open to suggestions.
Offhand, I’d say either Goudy or Century Old Style would get close, as I think one or the other is what the HPLHS font is based off of, but they’re clean and not worn. Perhaps you could use the cleaner match for body text and keep using the HPLHS in headlines?
Just make the Futura version a stretch goal. I’ll convert the main version for you 🙂
PS: Are you going to call it 2E or AFotF?
Have you checked out http://practicaltypography.com/equity.html
?
Maezar, I’m leaning toward Freebooters on the Frontier Complete, since the idea is to produce five little booklets that contain everything you need to play. One of the booklets will be Advanced Freebooters, which will include alternate and additional rules.
“Complete” FTW!
The left is perfect for Victory Basic, not for the L&B we know and adore.