Pinnacle Style Guide
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PINNACLE STYLE GUIDE Thanks for taking time to read Pinnacle’s style guide. Style Sheets Our goal is to make it easier for writers both novice and Use Body Text for the body of your work, Chapter established to craft and submit Savage Tales and books Header for chapter headers, and Header01 for the start for publication. of major sections. Use Header02 to begin subsections For insight into the content and structure of within a given section. a thrilling and well-crafted adventure, the best If you need a further breakdown, place a sources are Pinnacle’s Plot Point Campaigns descriptor in bold with a colon, like this: and adventures, and our friendly online forums, The Merchant: Silas is polite and responsive, both accessible at www.peginc.com. but knows nothing pertinent to this adventure. The following guide tells you everything you need to know about Pinnacle’s house Setting Up Your Document style—the nuts and bolts of our grammar You can download our style template preferences and writing nuances. This in Microsoft Word format at www.peginc. information applies to all our Savage com. But if you need to set up your own Settings, except where the source material template, here’s how it’s done: supersedes it. • Always indent the first line in a The trail awaits...let’s ride, amigo! paragraph. Do not do this by using a tab. Instead, set your Body Text Style to give WRITING FOR PINNACLE you an automatic, first line indentation (.03″ If you’re planning to write professionally, is good). start by picking up a guide to general • Do not put an extra paragraph (¶) grammar rules and style. between paragraphs to space it out on the We recommend William Strunk Jr. page—adjust your paragraph settings to and E. B. White’s The Elements of Style. automatically put 10-pt space after each one It’s cheap, succinct, and indispensable instead. for any writer. • Use only one space after sentences, or after a quote, colon, etc. Using two spaces is Beyond that book and this guide, a holdover from the typewriter. the current edition of Savage Worlds • Use chapter numbers. Spell out is your most valuable reference for numbers one through nine, then use style queries. numerals if needed (but we typically keep it under 10 chapters). Savage Worlds, East Texas University, Deadlands, all unique characters, creatures, and locations, artwork, logos, and the Pinnacle logo are © 2019 Great White Games, LLC; DBA Pinnacle Entertainment Group. 1 Pinnacle Style Guide Present Tense, Not Future Authors tend to think of an adventure as TO N E happening in the future because no one is playing it yet. It’s a longstanding tradition in RPG writing, we This one's important! Pinnacle keeps things PG-13. studiously avoid it. Think of your adventure as happening in the present. We don't do graphic sex or violence. We also don't glorify If you use the word “will,“ you’re probably wrong. smoking, and in general try to avoid it all together (yes, Don’t say: even in Deadlands Noir). Harming or killing children is “The adventurers will see a shiny object nearby.“ also something we tend to avoid. There are exceptions to Instead, use the present tense: “As they enter the chamber, the adventurers see a every rule, but if it's not critical to your story, please shiny object nearby.“ adhere to our rules. Try to avoid writing in terms of the theoretical future or past, which is typified by some forms of “be“ (may Avoid statements that refer to real-world politics be/maybe, was being, had been, have been, might be, and religions. If it's important to the story and we should be, could be, will be). • Do a Find for the words “will,“ “being,“ “should,“ approved your outline, it's probably fine. If you're “could,“ and “may“ when you’re done writing. slipping in a dig at someone or something, please don't Don't forget contractions like “he’ll.“ Usually, they can be removed or changed to present tense. use our products to do it. Present Participle and Indirect Phrasing Although fine if used sparingly and for variety, try to avoid the –ing form of verbs (the present participle STYLE GUIDE or gerund). Doing so helps make your writing direct, Following are the top changes we have to make with vibrant, and easier to read. new writers. We tend to reject manuscripts that commit too many of these errors. And even in an accepted piece, For example, these issues can be very time consuming to correct. “The wolves surround the villagers.“ Please check for them before submitting your draft! is simpler and more direct than Active Voice, Not Passive “The wolves are surrounding the villagers.“ Use an active voice to make your writing more This change of tense doesn’t change how it plays vibrant and exciting to read. A passive voice is less out—the villagers or heroes still have to fight their way direct, sounds hesitant, and makes it difficult for the through savage wolves—but the first sentence gets to reader to determine who’s doing something. When the point faster. used sparingly it can be effective, but when overused Also, try to avoid constructions that involve it causes writing to drag. characters preparing to act. For example, Here’s a handy device to help recognize passive “The enemy soldiers fire their rifles.“ voice: If you need to insert “by zombies“ at the end to understand who’s taking the action, the sentence is is more direct than probably passive. “The enemy soldiers begin to fire their rifles.“ Here are a few examples of passive voice: Again, it’s the same result but the first example gets “The newspapers are delivered.“ (by zombies?) the reader there faster. Making these changes across “The car is driven.“ (by zombies?) an entire document can reduce your word count “The brains are eaten.“ (by zombies!) substantially and strengthen your writing. Here are the same examples, but written in an active voice: Shorter. Easier. Stronger. Shorter paragraphs and sentences are easier on the “Billy delivers the newspapers.“ eyes and thus more likely to be read. Add subheaders “My mother drives the car.“ to break up long passages of text and provide content “Zombies eat the brains.“ cues for the reader. 2 Pinnacle Style Guide “That” and “Who” That’s incorrect. If you want the Notice roll to Take care not to confuse these terms: “That” refers essentially be at –4, then just say so. to objects and “who“ refers to people. So this should read: “The man who saved my life...“ “The heroes make Notice rolls at –4. With a success they detect a small sound down a nearby corridor.“ “The truck that crashed into the harbor...“ If you want to add a raise effect, tack it on afterward: But do not overuse the word “that“—unless it’s Success detects a small sound, but a raise pinpoints it crucial to understanding the sentence, you can usually as an alarm for unauthorized access. delete “that.“ Foe References Referring to Characters At the end of any scene or section in which the heroes We don’t use the term “PCs.“ If it’s important to encounter nonplayer characters and/or creatures, distinguish between PCs and NPCs, you can spell out include a bulleted list of entries for all NPCs—even “player characters.“ those expected to be noncombatants. But readers get tired of reading the same pronouns • List each character’s name or type (with a [WC] over and over, so try to add variety to your references. before each Wild Card, so we know to put an icon Player characters can be referred to as “the party,“ there) and the number appearing in parentheses, “characters,“ “team,“ “heroes,“ “investigators,“ and followed by a colon, and finally the page or book so on. Certain settings have additional options, such in which the character or creature can be found. as “gumshoes“ for Deadlands Noir, “wanderers“ for • Wild Cards (which have a setting-specific icon Solomon Kane, “posse“ for Deadlands: The Weird West, or instead of a bullet) are listed first in alphabetical “students“ for East Texas University. order, followed by any Extras in alphabetical You can also use situational pronouns. For example, order. if the group is entering a strange new land, you could • Insert a brief qualifier for characters or monsters call them “strangers,“ “invaders,“ “explorers,“ or that vary only slightly from their published “interlopers“ on occasion. versions (e.g., “Use the Thug profile, but they For NPCs, we sometimes write it out if it’s important have Strength d10 and are armed with clubs.“) as “nonplayer characters,“ or use the term “Extras.“ • Unique, named Wild Cards don’t require an Usually, you should refer to the group itself, as in: amount in parentheses after the name. “The heroes can bring their followers along, should Example: A scene in a science fiction game. Brave they choose.“ space explorers battle the diabolical Zandrax Oon, her lieutenant Lightning Mahoney, and a teeming mob of Note that it doesn’t require the insertion of “NPC“ slime wraith accomplices. A JumpCorp security team or “nonplayer character“ before followers. is on hand to aid the heroes, while a ravenous a-pex Using “You:” Characters and Players threatens everyone on the field of battle. There are only two ways “you“ is appropriate: At the end of the scene, just before the following header, foe references should read: • When we’re actually talking to you the reader, as in, “You roll the dice.“ D A-Pex (1): See The Last Parsec: Leviathan.