When EABA V2 is finished will you be making the page layout templates available as you did for V1?

And you're using QuarkXpress, aren't you?

I ask mainly because I am upgrading to a new system (my system drive came up full the other week, and, while it was easy enough to clean up extra space, it shows its time for a new one!) and I can get, as a teacher, QuarkXpress for $150 ... and I am sitting on doing a rewrite/redesign of Road to Armageddon until EABA V2 comes out.

I normally use Serif PagePlus for layout, which is a hell of a lot cheaper than InDesign or Quark and, for me, has all the functionality I normally want (and all I am ever likely to need), but now's the time to bite the bullet for learning a new program if there's some point to it ...

Phil

Yeah, I'm still using Quark and will make the layout template available. For maximum compatibility it will probably just be a pdf that has all the exact placements and dimensions listed, so it can be duplicated in any layout program.

I have a fairly new Quark that I picked up a while back, and I use it for final file export and if I absolutely have to. For instance, the pages are supposed to have a gray bar at the bottom, but for some reason it does not show up in the export file in the old version, but it does in the new version. I suspect the problem with the 20% vs. 30% background will not show up in the new version and the transparency of the icons for the examples and such will work.

However, Quark 8 is a pig of a program and I am much more comfortable with the really old version (version 4). I've got version 6 as well, but it's either 4 or 8 for me.

So, my recommendation is to get the program that you like best. Once you create the template you want, you're set.

As an aside, keep RtA in mind as you read EABA v2. I probably won't include RtA-specific components, but if there is something I've missed or some tweak that is applicable to several genres, including RtA, then let me know. For instance, the new "lifestyle" and "encumbrance" rules. Would they work with RtA?

I think the Encumbrance rules will be fine.

Since RtA is mostly intended to be "after the holocaust" cum military-style I rather think a variant of the Quartermaster rules from Verne would apply most of the time (and I really like the basic idea of the QM rules!) ... I did have something along those lines in RtA V1, modified from some hints in EABA V1 ... so, one or the other should work for most. The group I normally game with prefers something closer to living with actual money rather than an abstraction ... though they liked (or accepted!) the foraging rules from RtA as a supplement to that, and should like the QM rules as much or more.

Good news about the pdf format guide! I could get Quark 9, actually for around what it costs me for the yearly update to PagePlus ... but being able to stick with a familiar program is better!

Phil