Cepheus Light Three-Format Review

[AlegisDownport]

I hope the holidays are treating everyone well, for your reading pleasure I would like to mention that I have reviewed Stellagama Publishing’s ‘Cepheus Light’ over on my blog:-

https://alegisdownport.wordpress.com/2018/12/28/cepheus-light-three-format-review/

I hope you like the review and I would like to wish everyone a very happy new year!

Cheers
Steve

 

[Timerover51]

Hmmm, dropping the page count by only 20%. I will see if I can do better.

 

[whartung]

Hmmm, dropping the page count by only 20%. I will see if I can do better.

Smaller font, smaller margins . Easy!

Traveller on an index card! Includes free fresnel magnifier.

 

[MichaelSTee]

Hmmm, dropping the page count by only 20%. I will see if I can do better.

Cepheus Light contains a bunch of examples, and artwork. Removing those saves a lot of space. I printed the book out, not using any pages that are all artwork or all examples, and did not include the Psionics chapter. And I left out the ship library, because I don't like the artwork that goes with the ship descriptions. It came to 53 sheets of paper, or 106 pages. So about a 33% savings. And if I were writing my own version, I'd re-format it to a slightly smaller font with narrower margins (more like the Traveller Book) with minimal art, and it would save a few more pages.

 

[Timerover51]

Smaller font, smaller margins . Easy!

Traveller on an index card! Includes free fresnel magnifier.

Actually, my preferred font now is 14 point, as my eyes are no longer young. There is a fair amount of wasted space in the rules, but that is a function of them mainly being available in PDF, which does not put a premium on saving blank space, as it cost nothing. Blank paper does cost something.

As I will be putting out a modified set of rules for my sector when finished, MichaelStee gives me a better idea of what I should be looking for.

 

[MichaelSTee]

Actually, a better comparison between Cepheus Engine and Cepheus Light would be to look at the editable versions, available on DriveThruRPG. These versions contain no artwork.
Cepheus_Engine_SRD_Modifiable_Version.docx is 207 pages long, text is mostly 11 point (88180 word count in MSWord).
Cepheus_Light_Editable_version.docx is 119 pages long, and the text is mostly 12 point (41135 word count in MSWord).
So it looks like CL is a little more than half the size of CE!

Your 14 point version may seem larger by page count

 

[Timerover51]

Actually, a better comparison between Cepheus Engine and Cepheus Light would be to look at the editable versions, available on DriveThruRPG. These versions contain no artwork.
Cepheus_Engine_SRD_Modifiable_Version.docx is 207 pages long, text is mostly 11 point (88180 word count in MSWord).
Cepheus_Light_Editable_version.docx is 119 pages long, and the text is mostly 12 point (41135 word count in MSWord).
So it looks like CL is a little more than half the size of CE!

Thanks for the info, but the Mac laptop that I am on does not do Word, so for me it is a matter of copy and paste, or simply replace.

Your 14 point version may seem larger by page count

I am using 14 point for the draft document, and will likely go to 12 for the final copy. I know that will shrink it a bit in terms of page count.

 

[Golan2072]

Indeed, as MichaelSTee said, Cepheus Light (without the long examples for various rule mechanics) is about 50% of the Cepheus Engine SRD's word count. In its PDF form, however, it has many examples, which CE SRD lacks, and has art, which CE SRD also lacks. It also uses a large font and wide margins. Hence, only 20% shorter than CE SRD in terms of word count.

However, if you want something really light, look here:
https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/263755/Cepheus-Faster-Than-Light

 

[Golan2072]

Hmmm, dropping the page count by only 20%. I will see if I can do better.

I will definitely like to see the result

Feel free to utilize the editable version of Cepheus Light:
https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/260927/Cepheus-Light-Editable-Version

You are more than welcome to modify and trim it further.