I'm usually not one to be grumpy about things, and Ars Magica being my favorite rpg, I very much looked forward to the previous book, Lords of Men. I think its a very good book in my opinion, but I must say that I was a bit disasppointed with the amount of errors in it. It felt a bit rushed in some places. I was wondering if you have playtesters who proofread the rules too, or is this all done in-house?
I'm a playtester for another rpg (Eclipse Phase from Posthuman Studios) and they send their books out for proofreading to all the playtesters before it goes to print, which is a great idea. Off course, there will always be errors in rpg books, but I was wondering how Atlas handles this.
Atlas' playtesters are discouraged from proofreading the text (for typos, spelling mistakes etc) because the authors are only going to change what they wrote in response to the playtester's comments anyway, making any such proofreading an exercise in futility. That said, however, the playtesters are supposed to report any sections that seem unclear or contradictory so I guess it ultimately depends on what you mean by "proofread".
In any case, Michelle Nephew and Jeff Tidball are credited as the proofreaders for LoM so it looks like Atlas' proofreading is indeed handled in-house...
Gremlin's right ... it depends on what you mean by "proofread." David edits it for content problems as part of playtesting and development, then I read through the entire manuscript again as part of layout to catch typos, grammar problems, and consistency errors. If the latter is what you're disappointed with, then that would be my fault. Sorry, I've been kind of preoccupied lately. If it's actual content errors, then please let us know so we can add it to the errata ... email arsmagica@davidchart.com . Thanks.
Well, just have to say that I'm very happy with the standard of Ars Magica books in general. I really like LoM, but there are some strange stuff here and there.
Well, with proofreading, at least what I'm used to, is that the playtesters receive the manuscript after the rules has been playtested and so on. The focus at that point is to go through the text and catch the errors, be it typos, formatting errors in tables or last minute comments on broken rules. Of course, some errors still slip through. They always do.
You can suggest that to David, if you like. He's working way ahead of our production schedule right now, so there may be time to do such a thing if he thought it would be useful, and not too difficult to coordinate.
I suggest you to hire Mermaid publishers for book proofreading services, they charge a reasonable price and my last book was proofread by them and they did it so well
Off course, there will always be errors in rpg books, but I was wondering how Atlas handles this.
If it's actual content errors, then please let us know so we can add it to the errata ... email 