TEXT: This document is an amateur typographer’s best effort at a curso-
  ry analysis of the typography and book design used in early TSR 
  Dungeons & Dragons game products. The examples studied range 
  from the little brown books first published in 1975 to the BECMI 
  boxed editions. This range was chosen as being most likely to be of 
  interest and use to my particular audience, and is not meant to imply 
  that a particular set of products is necessarily “more authentic” or 
  better-designed than others in the TSR product line.
  THE PURPOSE OF THE STUDY
  I performed this work for the sake of my own education. Like many 
  other gamers, I have a particular fondness for the artifacts of my own 
  gaming youth. Combined with a natural and professional interest 
  in typography, it seemed worthwhile to spend some time taking 
  apart early TSR books and seeing just how their designers put them 
  together in the first place.
  Not only would it give me a better acquaintance with the styles of 
  my youth, it would be an opportunity to polish my Adobe InDesign 
  skills. While I had no intention of perfectly replicating early TSR 
  layouts in my own work, creating styles and objects that exactly 
  matched these styles was a good working challenge to test my own 
  style-creation abilities.
  Professional typographers and those with formal design training will 
  doubtless find a great deal to improve in the following observations. 
  My own expertise consists of nothing more exalted than a few years 
  of patient fumbling. Anyone with an interest in lifting the styles and 
  objects from this document is welcome to improve on them and bring 
  about a more accurate reproduction.
  Those with more experience in using InDesign will also doubtless 
  find ways to improve the included styles and objects. In most cases, 
  I elected to use the simplest brute-force solution to a given design 
  problem. While it may lack for elegance, these solutions should be 
  relatively transparent to readers at a similar level of expertise.
  USING THIS DOCUMENT
  Other gamers and publishers are welcome to use this document for 
  their own purposes, whether personal or commercial. Alongside this 
  PDF should also be an InDesign source document with the requi-
  site styles and objects embeddded in the file. Anyone with access to 
  InDesign through an Adobe Creative Cloud subscription should be 
  able to copy-paste these styles and objects for their own work.
  This is not to say, of course, that they should use them unchanged. 
  A perfect replica brings up issues of trade dress duplication and 
  suggests a certain lack of inventiveness from the creator. Aside from 
  that, many of the products examined here weren’t necessarily using 
  the best possible typography in the first place. Many TSR modules, 
  for example, weren’t set to baseline grids. I was puzzled at this until 
  I noticed how the inclusion of boxed text made it very difficult to 
  break blocks at even line increments. As just one other example, the 
  very limited space available in modules and booklets pressed for a 
  kind of compression of whitespace that isn’t to be encouraged.
  Instead, designers should use these styles as references and hints for 
  their own creativity. The clean simplicity of the early modules, the 
  warmth of the B/X rulesets, the compact density of the first edition 
  core books… these things are worth noticing and employing in your 
  own ways, preferably with the benefit of hindsight.
  CREDITS
  Special credit is deserved by Aardy R. DeVarque’s page of TSR font 
  analysis hosted at the Acaeum, at http://www.acaeum.com/library/
  tsrfonts.html and Thorfin Tait’s Mystara Font FAQ at http://mystara.
  thorf.co.uk/fontfaq.php. Both are excellent resources for a typogra-
  pher interested in early TSR productions. The bits of art used here 
  for design illustration are by Earl Geier and Luigi Castellani.
  A Brief Study of TSR Book Design
  BY KEVIN CRAWFORD  
   
   
   
  JANUARY 18, 2015
  
  2
  LBB ELEmEnts
  The example elements here are drawn from the WotC reproduction 
  of Book 1, titled “Men & Magic”. The physical dimensions of the 
  booklet are 7.5 inches tall and 5.25 inches wide. The text block on 
  each page is single-column, with half-inch margins on all sides but 
  the top, where a quarter-inch margin was used.
  Spacing distinction was not always maintained between heads 
  and body text. In most cases there is properly larger amount of space 
  after the text that precedes a head than follows it. Other times there 
  remains only a single line’s spacing both before and after a head.
  For the sake of accurate reproduction I’ve left the head styles 
  as-is with only one line following. If you set the final paragraph of 
  a passage in “LBB Body Final” style, however, an additional line of 
  blank space will be added after the paragarph.
  Typefaces Used
  Only three typefaces were used in the sample chosen– one for the 
  body text, one for the game itself, and one for the title of the book 
  on the title page. Modulations of the body typeface were used to 
  provide subheads.
  Body text for this edition of the LBBs is in Futura, here represented 
  by Futura PT, which is available through Typekit for subscribers to 
  Adobe CC. Heads are done in the same typeface in Heavy style, 
  all-caps. Subheads are in Heavy style at the same point size as the 
  body text, with normal capitalization for their text. Note that other 
  printings used Univers in place of Futura.
  The Futura used in the booklets evidently did not have an italic. 
  Instead, underscoring was used wherever an italic would normally 
  have been employed. For more modern sensibility, avoid underlining.
  The title of the game itself appears to have been Quentin EF or 
  some close relative. For highly decorative fonts such as this, avoid 
  using them at anything smaller than 60 points, and 72 is perhaps 
  better. Most decorative fonts lose their distinction at smaller sizes.
  The title of the individual book was in Chisel D, which along with 
  its close equivalents appears to be unavailable for use in PDFs. The 
  Nauert used above is a marginal substitute and lacks both a clear 
  license and an ampersand symbol.
  Table Design
  Table text was slightly larger than body text and did not appear to 
  have been set to a baseline. Few of the tables had cell strokes of any 
  kind, relying on whitespace and centered content to keep the eye 
  oriented on the tables. A few elements did have light cell strokes along 
  the bottom of the column header cells when long lists were involved. 
  If the contents of a cell are numeric, they are centered in the cell. 
  If they are text, they are usually left-justified in the cell. Column heads 
  are justified in the same way as their contents.  Most are Futura in 
  Heavy style, usually underscored, though some are Book style. Try 
  not to let a page end with a table, if it’s possible to avoid it. Because 
  the tables have no real footer to them, it can lend a page foot an 
  unfinished look if it trails away in a table’s whitespace.
  MULTI-COLUMN TABLE TYPE A:
  Column 1
  Column 2
  Column 3
  Column 4
  Item
  1
  2
  3
  Item
  1
  2
  3
  Item
  1
  2
  3
  Item
  1
  2
  3
  Item
  1
  2
  3
  Item
  1
  2
  3
  Item
  1
  2
  3
  Item
  1
  2
  3
  Item
  1
  2
  3
  MULTI-COLUMN TABLE TYPE B:
  Column 1
  Column 2
  Column 3
  Column 4
  Item
  1
  2
  3
  Item
  1
  2
  3
  Item
  1
  2
  3
  Item
  1
  2
  3
  Item
  1
  2
  3
  Item
  1
  2
  3
  Item
  1
  2
  3
  Item
  1
  2
  3
  Item
  1
  2
  3
  Title Here
  Multicolumn
  Table Type
  Item
  1
  2
  Item
  1
  2
  Item
  1
  2
  Item
  1
  2
  Item
  1
  2
  Item
  1
  2
  Item
  1
  2
  Item
  1
  2
  Item
  1
  2
  
  3
  REWORKED CLASS DETAIL TABLE:
  Hooligan
  XP Needed
  Hit Dice
  Attack
  Spells & Level
  1
  2
  3
  4
  5
  6
  Mook
  0
  1d4
  20
  1
  -
  -
  -
  -
  -
  Thug
  1,000
  2d4
  19
  2
  -
  -
  -
  -
  -
  Brute
  2,000
  3d4
  18
  2
  1
  -
  -
  -
  -
  Cad
  4,000
  4d4
  17
  3
  1
  -
  -
  -
  -
  Savage
  8,000
  5d4
  16
  3
  2
  1
  -
  -
  -
  Riff-Raff
  16,000
  6d4
  15
  4
  2
  1
  -
  -
  -
  Ruffian
  32,000
  7d4
  14
  4
  3
  2
  1
  -
  -
  Goon
  64,000
  8d4
  13
  5
  3
  2
  1
  -
  -
  Hooligan
  128,000
  9d4
  12
  5
  4
  3
  2
  1
  -
  Legbreaker
  256,000
  9d4+1
  11
  5
  4
  3
  2
  1
  -
  Revolutionary
  +128,000
  9d4+2
  10
  5
  5
  4
  3
  2
  1
  SAVING THROWS:
  Class & Level
  Poison & 
  Death Spell
  Polymorph, 
  Paralysis & 
  Wands
  Petrification
  Breath
  Weapon
  Staves & 
  Spells
  Hooligan 1-3
  12
  13
  14
  15
  16
  Hooligan 4-6
  12
  13
  14
  15
  16
  Hooligan 7-9
  12
  13
  14
  15
  16
  Hooligan 10+
  12
  13
  14
  15
  16
  Nimrod 1-5
  12
  13
  14
  15
  16
  Nimrod 6-10
  12
  13
  14
  15
  16
  Nimrod 11+
  12
  13
  14
  15
  16
  ATTACK MATRIX:
  Armor 
  Class
  Roll to Hit by Level
  1-3
  4-6
  7-9
  10-12
  13-15
  16+
  9
  11
  9
  7
  5
  3
  2
  8
  12
  10
  8
  6
  5
  3
  7
  13
  11
  9
  7
  6
  4
  6
  14
  12
  10
  8
  7
  5
  5
  15
  13
  11
  9
  8
  6
  4
  16
  14
  12
  10
  9
  7
  3
  17
  15
  13
  11
  10
  8
  2
  18
  16
  14
  12
  11
  9
  
  4
  DESIGNING THE PAGE:
  Lines run the width of the page, which is acceptable on a booklet-sized page but 
  should be avoided for sizes larger than 6 x 9 inches. Initial paragraphs are flush left 
  with the margin, but following paragraphs are indented by two-thirds of an inch.
  This paragraph is set in “LBB Body Text”, a style that automatically applies to 
  the next paragraph after an “LBB Body Initial” style. This style will continue until 
  you change a paragraph to something else.
  To ensure the proper spacing for headers and other elements, set the final 
  paragraph in “LBB Body Final” style to add an extra line of blank space, which 
  will combine with the space before header styles to give the right distance between 
  them and the prior text. If for some reason you don’t want the extra space, leave 
  the final paragraph in LBB Body Text style.
  MONSTER ENTRIES: begin with all-caps underscored heavy monster names 
  terminated at the first colon. The “LBB Body Monster” paragraph style automat-
  ically applies this format to a paragraph. These entries always have one blank 
  line after them, with multiple entries thus stacking up with a line of blank space 
  between each. Because of this spacing, indents are not appropriate for them.
  Spell and Magic Item Entries: use heavy, non-underscored body text that 
  also terminates at the first colon in the paragraph, and like monster entries forgo 
  indentation in favor of line spacing after the entry.
  EXAMPLE TABLE:
  Column 1
  Column 2
  Column 3
  Column 4
  Item
  1
  2
  3
  Item
  1
  2
  3
  Item
  1
  2
  3
  Subheads Need Room
  As you can see, the subheads should have 2 lines before and 1 line after. While 
  you could theoretically drop the heads directly on top of the text and leave just 
  1 line before it to save space, that would be inadvisable on such a dense page. 
  White space is not your enemy. It should be used to distinguish the page elements.
  4
  ExamplE pagEs
  
  5
  AN ALTERNATE PAGE LAYOUT
  This page demonstrates how you might use this set of styles on a 
  conventional 8.5 x 11 inch US Letter-sized page. The most obvious 
  difference is the presence of two columns of text. As soon as your 
  page gets bigger than 6 x 9 inches you should start employing multi-
  ple columns in your design. It’s too burdensome to the reader to make 
  them scan a line of text almost eight inches long. By the time they get to 
  the right-hand edge of the text block, they lose their place on the left.
  You also need to add more whitespace. Solid, relentless blocks of 
  10 point text are very hard on the reader, even if you break them up 
  into multiple columns. Using a spaced paragraph style adds a little 
  breathing room for the reader’s eyes.
  Using a larger page does give you more room for tables and art 
  elements, but try not to go overboard with very large tables. Because 
  the table styles used here don’t have strokes or fills to help discipline 
  the reader’s attention, it’s easy to lose your place in the table if you 
  can’t easily see all of it at once. Use alternate fills for large tables.
  You’ll note that these paragraphs are set in “LBB Body Columned”, a 
  style intended for use in multiple columns of text. The paragraphs are 
  not indented. Instead, a line of blank space is provided after each 
  one. As always, indents and paragraph spacing are a “choose one” 
  sort of choice. If you have one, you can’t use the other.
  If you decide to use these styles with a full letter-sized page, you’ll 
  also want to adjust the LBB Header and LBB Subhead styles so that 
  their “next style” setting is set to LBB Body Columned instead of LBB 
  Body Initial, the better to save yourself time when setting text.
  LBB Design Strengths
  While the design of the “Little Brown Books”  is utterly lacking in the 
  flash and color of more modern efforts, there are a number of very 
  creditable qualities about it. Futura is a good typeface, and the way 
  the LBBs use different weights and styles of it to provide for all the 
  books’ needs ensures that their fonts will always be in harmony. You 
  don’t really need multiple typefaces for your book, if you can weight 
  and style the same face in sufficiently distinct ways.
  This trick doesn’t work for every typeface, however. If the one you’re 
  using for your body text only comes in one flavor, don’t try to force it 
  into serviceability by changing its size or applying software-based 
  alterations to it. Look for another font in the same family.
  The choice of a slightly larger font for table text is also a good move 
  because there are no cell strokes or typeface differences to visually 
  cue the reader to the table’s presence. The larger body text immedi-
  ately alerts the reader that they’re looking at a table.
  With these styles, however, you’re going to have to be careful to 
  be extremely disciplined about their usage. If you use a particular 
  weight and style to indicate a particular type of element, like all-caps 
  underlined heavy for monster entries, don’t use it for anything else. 
  The styles are all you have to cue the reader, so don’t blur them.
  REASONS FOR ZOMBIE JUBILATION
  d00
  Reason
  Reason
  Reason
  01-05
  Brains
  Brains
  Brains
  06-10
  Brains
  Brains
  Brains
  11-15
  Brains
  Brains
  Brains
  16-20
  Brains
  Brains
  Brains
  21-25
  Brains
  Brains
  Brains
  26-30
  Brains
  Brains
  Brains
  31-35
  Brains
  Brains
  Brains
  36-40
  Brains
  Brains
  Brains
  41-45
  Brains
  Brains
  Brains
  46-50
  Brains
  Brains
  Brains
  51-55
  Brains
  Brains
  Brains
  56-60
  Brains
  Brains
  Brains
  61-65
  Brains
  Brains
  Brains
  66-70
  Brains
  Brains
  Brains
  71-75
  Brains
  Brains
  Brains
  76-80
  Brains
  Brains
  Brains
  81-85
  Brains
  Brains
  Brains
  86-90
  Brains
  Brains
  Brains
  91-95
  Brains
  Brains
  Brains
  96-00
  Brains
  Brains
  Brains
  
  6
  Early Module Elements
  The example elements here are largely drawn from 
  dungeon module B1, “In Search of the Unknown”, first 
  published in 1978, though some elements are taken 
  from A1, “Slave Pits of the Undercity” published in 1980. 
  Module styles were largely consistent within that time 
  frame, albeit a few style tweaks distinguish them.
  The largest difference between the two modules is 
  the use of “boxed text” in A1 for the room descriptions, 
  while B1 simply describes the room inline with the rest 
  of the body text. The boxed text innovation appears 
  first around 1980. Earlier modules, such as the GDQ 
  series,  T1, B1-B2, and X1 all use inline text. While om-
  nibus modules that appear later use this inline text 
  when reproducing these modules, new content from 
  some point in 1980 onward relies on boxed room text.
  TYPEFACES USED
  Almost without exception, only two different typefaces 
  were used in the early modules. For the earliest, in-
  cluding B1, Avant Garde Bold was used for title and 
  heads while lighter weights were used for body text. 
  Later modules such as the G123 omnibus used Hel-
  vetica Bold for the titles, though they also relied on 
  Avant Garde for the interior body text, even though 
  Avant Garde is really only meant for display uses.
  Text for early modules appears to have been mostly 
  set to a baseline grid, though this appears to have 
  been sacrificed regularly for modules using boxed 
  text. Heads sit very close to their following text, but usu-
  ally have at least two lines of space before them.
  The head styles given here follow that pattern and are 
  not set to sit on a baseline grid. If you want a more 
  tidy pair of columns you’ll want to turn that on and be 
  careful about your inclusion of tables, boxed text, or 
  other material that doesn’t fit neatly onto a grid.
  TABLE DESIGN
  Table design largely follows the pattern laid down in 
  the LBBs. Each column is without strokes or fills, with 
  numbers centered and text left-justified. Column 
  heads use the same justification as their contents, 
  and are usually normal bold text. A few have under-
  lined column labels, and a few more use centered all-
  caps titles replicated by the “EM Section Head” style 
  given here.
  Unlike the LBBs, however, table text is at the same font 
  size as body text. This makes it all the more important 
  to be generous with whitespace when setting these 
  tables, as there’s little else to visually distinguish them.
  Table Title
  Column 2
  Column 3
  Item
  1
  2
  Item
  1
  2
  Item
  1
  2
  Item
  1
  2
  Table Title
  Column 2
  Column 3
  Item
  1
  2
  Item
  1
  2
  Item
  1
  2
  Item
  1
  2
  SHINY TREASURES
  1)
  A scroll of magic missile done in glitter
  2)
  A suit of leather armor +1 sized for gnomes
  3)
  A 500 gp faience chamberpot
  4)
  A chromed sword +1
  HAPLESS HENCHMEN
  1.
  Phront the Misaligned
  Str 10, Int 10, Wis 10, Con 11, Dex 11, Cha 12
  2.
  Yorblad the Questionable
  Str 4, Int 12, Wis 18, Con 5, Dex 11, Cha 9
  3.
  Glinby Frume
  Str 13, Int 8, Wis 4, Con 11, Dex 13, Cha 17
  4.
  Lamentable Frimp
  Str 10, Int 10, Wis 13, Con 5, Dex 15, Cha 13
  The henchmen entries in the table above use the “EM 
  Body Henchmen First Line” style, which automatically 
  shifts to an indented style for the following stat line.
  Thieves
  Knaves
  1. Zorlon
  2. Frintwort
  3. Lorm
  4. Wizlont
  5. Hobbleby
  1. Zod
  2. Raffnit
  3. Glern
  This faux two column style uses a table to get the 
  same distinction, along with the “EM Body Text Num-
  bered” styles to automatically number a list of items. 
  By default, however. all numbering is continuous. To re-
  start the count at 1 for the second column, right-click 
  before Zod and choose “Restart Numbering”.
  
  7
  POST-1980 SECTION HEADING
  Room entry styles changed notably post-1980.
  4. DUNGEON ROOM:
  This style is found chiefly in late 1980-era mod-
  ules and later products. The boxed text gener-
  ally includes whatever details might be obvious 
  to the PCs at first glance. Use of boxed text can 
  make it very challenging to set your text to a 
  baseline grid, however. To simplify inline setting 
  the boxed text is put into a single-cell table with 
  a .75 stroke.
  Further details relevant to the DM go after the 
  boxed text, along with monster statistics. In mod-
  ules of this era, monsters received very little call-
  out in the text itself, appearing in a regular face.
  For example, the room might refer to two doom 
  wombats (AC 5, MV 9”, HD 4+1, hp 16, 8 #AT 1, D 
  1-4 + breath weapon). Individual NPCs of conse-
  quence sometimes receive boldface as a call-
  out, such as the mention of Yorg the Hermit (AC 
  9, MV 12”, HD 1, hp 8, #AT 1, D 1-8).
  Magical items also appear in boldface, as do 
  spell names. When other rooms are cited in a 
  room description they take the same heavy bold 
  face as appears in the room entry. Thus, mention 
  of this room would be as DUNGEON ROOM.
  Areas with a single heading and multiple loca-
  tions of importance are presented with a number 
  for the main entry and lowercase letters for the 
  sub-elements. The passage below is an example, 
  though you’ll note that the room title is in the EM 
  Body Indented Spaced style, to provide a haf-line 
  of following space so as not to crowd the areas.
  This space is undesirable for normal room headers 
  as it pushes the boxed text too far away from the 
  header. A full line’s space is also undesirable,as it 
  leaves the room title too far from the area title.
  5. WOMBAT BATHS:
  a. Caldarium:
  Numerous wombats are scalded here.
  Room details go here. such as they might be for 
  such a location.
  b.  Frigidarium:
  Numerous wombats are frosted here.
  Room details go here. such as they might be for 
  such a location.
  PRE-1980 SECTION HEADING
  These modules used text flush with the left margin. 
  Text unrelated to specific dungeon rooms is set flush, 
  though inset matter is indented by a quarter-inch or 
  so, such as with lists like this:
  1 suit of plate mail
  7 wooden bandyclefs
  Matter that deserves a subheading gets an all-caps 
  heavy left-justified subhead like the one below.
  ROOM ENTRY STYLES
  Note that the subhead is assumed to come after body 
  text, and thus have a line of space already before it 
  due to the termination of the prior style. By default, it 
  also provides a half-line space following the subhead. 
  If you plant the subhead after an element which does 
  not have at least a line of following space, you’ll need 
  to clone the subhead style and then give the new 
  style whatever spacing you need.
  4. 
  B1 STYLE ROOM. In module B1, rooms were set 
  flush with the left margin, with the room number fol-
  lowed by a period, then a roughly 1/3 inch tab, then 
  the room name in normal caps terminated by a pe-
  riod. This “EM Room Title Flush” paragraph style auto-
  matically sets that style for text set in it.
  5. B2 STYLE ROOM: In B2, however, rooms moved to a 
  hanging indent style, with the room number flush 
  with the left margin and the rest of the paragraph 
  indented by about a quarter-inch.  The “EM Room 
  Title Indented B2” style automatically applies this 
  style, shifting to “EM Body Indented” as the next style 
  after a paragraph break.
  Monsters are given only a name and a basic stat-
  line, such as mentioning an orc (AC 9, MV 12”, HD 
  1, hp 8, #AT 1, D 1-6). Important figures sometimes 
  receive all-caps normal text for their name, such 
  as the CASTELLAN. 
  SPELL LIST STYLE
  One element sometimes needed is a list of spells pre-
  pared by a given NPC. These appear in simple out-
  dented form, with the outdent equal to the length of 
  the spell level text. The easiest way to reproduce this is 
  with a three-column table, resizing the first column to 
  provide whatever indent spacing is needed.
  First level:
  Magic Missile, Sleep
  Charm Person, Detect Magic
  
  8
  Early Module Example Pages
  The following few pages contain examples 
  of each early module style in use. The text 
  is taken from my adventure “The House of 
  Bone and Amber” for Spears of the Dawn, 
  tweaked slightly to show the features of 
  each design.
  The first page replicates the styles used in 
  B1, in particular the flush-left room descrip-
  tions and normal all-caps room titles. As 
  with B1 itself the text is not set to a baseline 
  grid. A designer who wanted to nod at this 
  style might be well-served to change that.
  The absence of boxed text spares the de-
  signer from having to deal with objects 
  that don’t break along convenient line in-
  crements. The EM Section Head style used 
  for the column header is sized in 14 point 
  with 6 points of following space, allowing 
  for an even two grid lines of 10 point text.
  The second page sets the same text in 
  B2 style, in the standard format used until 
  some time in 1980. Again, this text is not 
  set to a baseline grid, but in the absence 
  of unevenly-sized page elements there’s 
  no reason you couldn’t fix that in your own 
  work. The heavy bold room names are the 
  same 10 points as the body text, so they 
  won’t interfere with a clean grid setting.
  The third page sets the text in A1 style, the 
  major difference being the inclusion of 
  boxed text for the GM to read to the play-
  ers. The value of the text to the GM is a de-
  bate for a different time. What is not debat-
  able is that it presents a number of new 
  challenges for the person setting the text.
  The boxed text can’t be broken over col-
  umns, and it is highly undesirable to have 
  the box text at the foot of one column 
  and the following body text starting at the 
  head of the next. At least a paragraph’s 
  worth of text should stick with the box.
  These limits cause each room to have a much larg-
  er minimum footprint in a column than the B1 or B2 
  styles. While putting only four or five lines of a room 
  in one column and wrapping the rest into the next 
  may not be wonderful typesetting, it’s at least tolera-
  ble. Boxed text makes that impossible- you need to fit 
  the boxed text plus at least two or three lines of the 
  following body text before you can reasonably wrap it.
  The final page in the sequence is a hybrid style that 
  takes its basic feel from B2, but sets it to a baseline 
  grid and introduces a monster stat block callout. Ta-
  bles do present something of a challenge to this style, 
  because the additional cell padding causes tables 
  to occupy an uneven amount of vertical space. The 
  easiest way to deal with this is to just click-drag the ta-
  ble’s height until it fills an even grid increment. Art slots 
  also need to be adjusted carefully to fit the increment 
  of the baseline.
  
  9
  THE TOMBS OF THE FAITHFUL
  The Old Lord favored his most loyal living servants with 
  the serenity of true death. Their remains were lodged 
  here in tunnels dedicated to their memory.
  1. 
  CHAMBER OF UNENDING LONGING. The air of this 
  chamber is filled with a haze of dust-fine powdered 
  bone, a thick layer resting on every flat surface. At the 
  far wall, four withered, mummified Nebeti (AC 7, MV 
  12”, HD 1, hp 3,3,4,5, #AT 1, D 1-6) are clawing at the 
  stone wall with fleshless arms. Shackled by Akhen’s 
  curses in death and forbidden to leave by the tomb’s 
  entrance, their only thought was to return to their fam-
  ilies. Their efforts have dug the room out of the bed-
  rock; as their bones are slowly ground to powder, the 
  magic that animates them restores the broken limbs 
  from the dust. They will ignore intruders unless some 
  effort is made to stop them. Even if destroyed, they 
  will eventually reanimate until their remains are taken 
  from the House.
  2. 
  AMBER MUMMIFICATION ROOM. A complex array 
  of vats, cauldrons, pipes, and furnaces fill this room, 
  and the smell of sweet pine still lingers in the air. The 
  Old Lord experimented extensively with amber en-
  casement as a technique for staving off the wither-
  ing of Eternal flesh, and his final experiment involved 
  a recently-discarded Eternal concubine. The young 
  Nebeti girl stands against the far wall, the perfect flow-
  ering of her beauty glazed in an inch-thick layer of 
  gleaming amber. The girl has been “alive” in the fash-
  ion of the Eternal and conscious for forty years, and 
  nothing remains of her self-awareness but a burning 
  desire to see the Old Lord destroyed. If the amber is 
  touched, a last heroic convulsion on her part will al-
  low her to crack the amber shell, screaming of “the 
  key in the yellow skull” in the Deshrite tongue, referring 
  to the key she hid to the Old Lord’s private sanctum. 
  Once cracked, the shell will collapse into powder and 
  shards. Her long-entombed body will soon follow after, 
  the vigor of her own motions breaking her into a pow-
  der indistinguishable from the amber.
  3.  
  DEFLESHING ROOM. Four smooth-glazed clay 
  tanks dominate this chamber, each one the size of 
  a large sarcophagus and covered by a marble lid. 
  Within three of the tanks, the desiccated husks of 
  ancient flesh-eating beetles lie in heaps around the 
  yellowed bones they were meant to clean. Within the 
  northeast tank, the beetles died after feasting upon 
  the corpse of a witch, and the sorcerer’s hateful spirit 
  has animated the husks. They will swarm out of the 
  tank as soon as the lid is slid aside (AC 5, MV 9”, HD 
  3, hp 15,  #AT 1, D 1-6). The beetle swarm is immune 
  to common weapons, while any behavior that would 
  logically destroy a great many beetles will inflict 1d8 
  damage on it. Magic, torches, or burning oil will do 
  double damage.
  4. 
  OSSUARY. The bones of faithful minions were im-
  mured here in the ossuary, stacked high along the 
  walls in patterns fixed by mortar and keystone-skulls. 
  A shrine to one of the serpent-headed Gods Below is 
  erected against the far wall, a few ancient offerings 
  left before the fanged face. 
  Incense wortth 50 silver ingots.
  A black glass dagger +1.
  A green glass bottle filled with a brownish crust 
  of long-dried blood.
  A cup of beaten gold worth 100 silver ingots.
  Taking any of the offerings will inflict a curse on the 
  profaner, forcing them to fail their next saving throw.
  5. 
  FRESCO ROOM. A Nebeti painter was command-
  ed to decorate this room with wall frescoes celebrat-
  ing the glorious deeds of the Old Lord and his faith-
  ful servants. The conquest of Paraku is depicted in 
  bloody fashion, with the undying legions of the Eternal 
  swarming over the wall and Old Lord Akhen at their 
  head. Foul banquets of human flesh and festivities of 
  more horrid variety still are shown interspersed with 
  scenes of torment and grinding labor inflicted upon 
  the wretched inhabitants of the city. In particular, the 
  Old Lord is shown threatening the Nebeti with a green 
  bowl, a thing that seems to induce a special terror.
  The floor of the chamber is parquetry of rotting wood. 
  A faint cloud of black mold puffs upward at each step.
  6. 
  NICHED HALL. The walls of this chamber are lined 
  with small niches for the bones of the dead, each one 
  labeled with a carving in small Deshrite glyphs. Most 
  of them are Nebeti names, though some seem to be 
  the bones of Lokossan collaborators.
  Art Slot. Stretch it to get an even page foot.
  
  10
  THE TOMBS OF THE FAITHFUL
  The Old Lord favored his most loyal living servants with 
  the serenity of true death. Their remains were lodged 
  here in tunnels dedicated to their memory.
  1.  CHAMBER OF UNENDING LONGING: The air of this 
  chamber is filled with a haze of dust-fine powdered 
  bone, a thick layer resting on every flat surface. At 
  the far wall, four withered, mummified Nebeti (AC 
  7, MV 12”, HD 1, hp 3,3,4,5, #AT 1, D 1-6) are clawing 
  at the stone wall with fleshless arms. Shackled by 
  Akhen’s curses in death and forbidden to leave 
  by the tomb’s entrance, their only thought was to 
  return to their families. Their efforts have dug the 
  room out of the bedrock; as their bones are slowly 
  ground to powder, the magic that animates them 
  restores the broken limbs from the dust. They will 
  ignore intruders unless some effort is made to stop 
  them. Even if destroyed, they will eventually reani-
  mate until their remains are taken from the House.
  2. AMBER MUMMIFICATION ROOM: A complex array 
  of vats, cauldrons, pipes, and furnaces fill this room, 
  and the smell of sweet pine still lingers in the air. 
  The Old Lord experimented extensively with am-
  ber encasement as a technique for staving off the 
  withering of Eternal flesh, and his final experiment 
  involved a recently-discarded Eternal concubine. 
  The young Nebeti girl stands against the far wall, 
  the perfect flowering of her beauty glazed in an 
  inch-thick layer of gleaming amber. The girl has 
  been “alive” in the fashion of the Eternal and con-
  scious for forty years, and nothing remains of her 
  self-awareness but a burning desire to see the Old 
  Lord destroyed. If the amber is touched, a last he-
  roic convulsion on her part will allow her to crack 
  the amber shell, screaming of “the key in the yellow 
  skull” in the Deshrite tongue, referring to the key 
  she hid to the Old Lord’s private sanctum. Once 
  cracked, the shell will collapse into powder and 
  shards. Her long-entombed body will soon follow 
  after, the vigor of her own motions breaking her into 
  a powder indistinguishable from the amber.
  3.  DEFLESHING ROOM: Four smooth-glazed clay tanks 
  dominate this chamber, each one the size of a 
  large sarcophagus and covered by a marble lid. 
  Within three of the tanks, the desiccated husks of 
  ancient flesh-eating beetles lie in heaps around the 
  yellowed bones they were meant to clean. Within 
  the northeast tank, the beetles died after feasting 
  upon the corpse of a witch, and the sorcerer’s hate-
  ful spirit has animated the husks. They will swarm 
  out of the tank as soon as the lid is slid aside (AC 5, 
  MV 9”, HD 3, hp 15,  #AT 1, D 1-6). The beetle swarm 
  is immune to common weapons. Magic, torches, 
  or burning oil will do double damage.
  4. OSSUARY: The bones of faithful minions were im-
  mured here in the ossuary, stacked high along the 
  walls in patterns fixed by mortar and keystone-skulls. 
  A shrine to one of the serpent-headed Gods Below 
  is erected against the far wall, a few ancient offer-
  ings left before the fanged face. 
  Incense wortth 50 silver ingots.
  A black glass dagger +1.
  A green glass bottle filled with a brownish 
  crust of long-dried blood.
  A cup of beaten gold worth 100 silver ingots.
  Taking any of the offerings will inflict a curse on 
  the profaner, forcing them to fail the next saving 
  throw they attempt.
  5. FRESCO ROOM: A Nebeti painter was commanded 
  to decorate this room with wall frescoes celebrating 
  the glorious deeds of the Old Lord and his faith-
  ful servants. The conquest of Paraku is depicted 
  in bloody fashion, with the undying legions of the 
  Eternal swarming over the wall and Old Lord Akhen 
  at their head. Foul banquets of human flesh and 
  festivities of more horrid variety still are shown inter-
  spersed with scenes of torment and grinding labor 
  inflicted upon the wretched inhabitants of the city. 
  In particular, the Old Lord is shown threatening the 
  Nebeti with a green bowl, a thing that seems to 
  induce a special terror. The floor of the chamber 
  is parquetry of rotting wood. A faint cloud of black 
  mold puffs upward at each step.
  6. NICHED HALL: The walls of this chamber are lined 
  with small niches for the bones of the dead, each 
  one labeled with a carving in small Deshrite glyphs. 
  Most of them are Nebeti names, though some 
  seem to be the bones of Lokossan collaborators.
  Art Slot. Stretch it to get an even page foot.
  
  11
  THE TOMBS OF THE FAITHFUL
  The Old Lord favored his most loyal living servants with 
  the serenity of true death. Their remains were lodged 
  here in tunnels dedicated to their memory.
  1.  CHAMBER OF UNENDING LONGING:
  The air of this chamber is filled with a haze of 
  dust-fine powdered bone, a thick layer resting 
  on every flat surface. Four withered human 
  shapes are clawing desperately at the gouged 
  stone wall on the far side of the room.
  At the far wall, four withered, mummified Nebeti (AC 
  7, MV 12”, HD 1, hp 3,3,4,5, #AT 1, D 1-6) are clawing 
  at the stone wall with fleshless arms. Shackled by 
  Akhen’s curses in death and forbidden to leave 
  by the tomb’s entrance, their only thought was to 
  return to their families. Their efforts have dug the 
  room out of the bedrock; as their bones are slowly 
  ground to powder, the magic that animates them 
  restores the broken limbs from the dust. They will 
  ignore intruders unless some effort is made to stop 
  them. Even if destroyed, they will eventually reani-
  mate until their remains are taken from the House.
  2. AMBER MUMMIFICATION ROOM: 
  A complex array of vats, cauldrons, pipes, and 
  furnaces fill this room, and the smell of sweet 
  pine still lingers in the air.  Against the far wall, 
  a huge slab of amber encases the body of a 
  beautiful young woman.
  The Old Lord experimented extensively with am-
  ber encasement as a technique for staving off the 
  withering of Eternal flesh, and his final experiment 
  involved a recently-discarded Eternal concubine. 
  The girl has been “alive” in the fashion of the Eternal 
  and conscious for forty years, and nothing remains 
  of her self-awareness but a burning desire to see 
  the Old Lord destroyed. If the amber is touched, a 
  last heroic convulsion on her part will allow her to 
  crack the amber shell, screaming of “the key in the 
  yellow skull” in the Deshrite tongue, referring to the 
  key she hid to the Old Lord’s private sanctum. Once 
  cracked, the shell will collapse into powder and 
  shards. Her long-entombed body will soon follow 
  after, the vigor of her own motions breaking her into 
  powder indistinguishable from the amber.
  3.  DEFLESHING ROOM:
  Four smooth-glazed clay tanks dominate this 
  chamber, each one the size of a large sarcoph-
  agus and covered by a marble lid. 
  Within three of the tanks, the desiccated husks of 
  ancient flesh-eating beetles lie in heaps around the 
  yellowed bones they were meant to clean. Within 
  the northeast tank, the beetles died after feasting 
  upon the corpse of a witch, and the sorcerer’s hate-
  ful spirit has animated the husks. They will swarm 
  out of the tank as soon as the lid is slid aside (AC 5, 
  MV 9”, HD 3, hp 15,  #AT 1, D 1-6). The beetle swarm 
  is immune to common weapons. Magic, torches, 
  or burning oil will do double damage.
  4. OSSUARY:
  Countless bones pile high along the walls in 
  patterns fixed by mortar and keystone-skulls. 
  A shrine to one of the serpent-headed Gods 
  Below is erected against the far wall, a few an-
  cient offerings left before the fanged face. 
  The bones of faithful minions were immured here 
  in the ossuary. The offerings are largely worthless, 
  but a few still have some value.
  Incense wortth 50 silver ingots.
  A black glass dagger +1.
  A green glass bottle filled with a brownish 
  crust of long-dried blood.
  A cup of beaten gold worth 100 silver ingots.
  Taking any of the offerings will inflict a curse on 
  the profaner, forcing them to fail the next saving 
  throw they attempt.
  5. FRESCO ROOM: 
  Wall frescoes celebrate the glorious deeds of 
  the Old Lord and his faithful servants. The con-
  quest of Paraku is depicted in bloody fashion, 
  with the undying legions of the Eternal swarm-
  ing over the wall and Old Lord Akhen at their 
  head. Foul banquets of human flesh and festiv-
  ities of more horrid variety still are shown inter-
  spersed with scenes of torment and grinding 
  labor inflicted upon the wretched inhabitants 
  of the city. In particular, the Old Lord is shown 
  threatening the Nebeti with a green bowl, a 
  thing that seems to induce a special terror. 
  The floor of the chamber is parquetry of rotting 
  wood, and a faint cloud of black mold puffs up-
  ward at each step you take.
  A Nebeti painter was commanded to decorate this 
  room with celebratory frescoes.
  Art slot for footer spot art to even the page.
  
  12
  THE TOMBS OF THE FAITHFUL
  The Old Lord favored his most loyal living servants with 
  the serenity of true death. Their remains were lodged 
  here in tunnels dedicated to their memory.
  1.  CHAMBER OF UNENDING LONGING: The air of this 
  chamber is filled with a haze of dust-fine powdered 
  bone, a thick layer resting on every flat surface. 
  At the far wall, four withered, mummified Nebeti 
  are clawing at the stone wall with fleshless arms. 
  Shackled by Akhen’s curses in death and forbidden 
  to leave by the tomb’s entrance, their only thought 
  was to return to their families. Their efforts have dug 
  the room out of the bedrock; as their bones are 
  slowly ground to powder, the magic that animates 
  them restores the broken limbs from the dust. They 
  will ignore intruders unless some effort is made to 
  stop them. Even if destroyed, they will eventually 
  reanimate if their remains lie within the House.
  Nebeti (4): AC 7, MV 12”, HD 1, hp 3, 3, 4, 5, #AT 1, 
  D 1-6
  2. AMBER MUMMIFICATION ROOM: A complex array 
  of vats, cauldrons, pipes, and furnaces fill this room, 
  and the smell of sweet pine still lingers in the air. 
  The Old Lord experimented extensively with am-
  ber encasement as a technique for staving off the 
  withering of Eternal flesh, and his final experiment 
  involved a recently-discarded Eternal concubine. 
  The young Nebeti girl stands against the far wall, 
  the perfect flowering of her beauty glazed in an 
  inch-thick layer of gleaming amber.
  The girl has been “alive” in the fashion of the Eter-
  nal and conscious for forty years, and nothing 
  remains of her self-awareness but a burning de-
  sire to see the Old Lord destroyed. If the amber is 
  touched, a last heroic convulsion on her part will 
  allow her to crack the amber shell, screaming of 
  “the key in the yellow skull” in the Deshrite tongue, 
  referring to the key she hid to the Old Lord’s private 
  sanctum. Once cracked, the shell will collapse 
  into powder and shards. Her long-entombed body 
  will soon follow after, the vigor of her own motions 
  breaking her into a powder indistinguishable from 
  the amber.
  3.  DEFLESHING ROOM: Four smooth-glazed clay tanks 
  dominate this chamber, each one the size of a 
  large sarcophagus and covered by a marble lid. 
  Within three of the tanks, the desiccated husks of 
  ancient flesh-eating beetles lie in heaps around the 
  yellowed bones they were meant to clean. Within 
  the northeast tank, the beetles died after feasting 
  upon the corpse of a witch, and the sorcerer’s hate-
  ful spirit has animated the husks. They will swarm out 
  of the tank as soon as the lid is slid aside. The beetle 
  swarm is immune to common weapons. Magic, 
  torches, or burning oil will do double damage.
  Beetle Swarm: AC 5, MV 9”, HD 3, hp 15,  #AT 1, D 1-6
  4. OSSUARY: The bones of faithful minions were im-
  mured here in the ossuary, stacked high along the 
  walls in patterns fixed by mortar and keystone-skulls. 
  A shrine to one of the serpent-headed Gods Below 
  is erected against the far wall, a few ancient offer-
  ings left before the fanged face. 
  Incense wortth 50 silver ingots.
  A black glass dagger +1.
  A green glass bottle filled with a brownish 
  crust of long-dried blood.
  A cup of beaten gold worth 100 silver ingots.
  Taking any of the offerings will inflict a curse on the 
  profaner, forcing them to fail the next saving throw 
  they attempt to make.
  5. FRESCO ROOM: A Nebeti painter was commanded 
  to decorate this room with wall frescoes celebrating 
  the glorious deeds of the Old Lord and his faith-
  ful servants. The conquest of Paraku is depicted 
  in bloody fashion, with the undying legions of the 
  Eternal swarming over the wall and Old Lord Akhen 
  at their head. Foul banquets of human flesh and 
  festivities of more horrid variety still are shown inter-
  spersed with scenes of torment and grinding labor 
  inflicted upon the wretched inhabitants of the city. 
  In particular, the Old Lord is shown threatening the 
  Nebeti with a green bowl, a thing that seems to 
  induce a special terror. The floor of the chamber 
  is parquetry of rotting wood. A faint cloud of black 
  mold puffs upward at each step.
  Art Slot. Stretch it to get an even page foot.
  
  13
  1E CorE Book ELEmEnts
  The observations here are drawn from the WotC  reproductions of the 
  Players Handbook, Dungeon Master’s Guide, and Monster Manual. 
  I haven’t bothered to dig my originals out of storage as the reproduc-
  tions were fashioned to be as faithful as was practical.
  Unsurprisingly, most of the styles used in these books were very similar 
  to those used in the later LBBs. Italic Futura was available and used in 
  lieu of underlining. Also, importantly, the text appears to have been 
  set to a grid, and so the 1e styles in this document have been set 
  accordingly. Because of this grid, head leading is much more regular. 
  Each head gets two blank lines above and one line after.
  Also noteworthy is the shift from the LBBs’ indented paragraphs to 
  spaced paragraphs, with one line of whitespace separating individual 
  paragraphs in a column. The larger page size of these core books 
  makes for a greater need for whitespace.
  There are a number of noticeable flaws in the setting, most notably 
  the presence of widows and orphans in more than a few columns. 
  The PHB’s page 30 is one such example, with a decapitated list of 
  monk thief skills. Runt lines are also fairly common, with the final line 
  of a paragraph consisting of only one or two words. This same setting 
  flaw is visible in the modules set during the same era, especially B1.
  One quality also worth noting is the extremely stingy margin space 
  allowed to these books, with individual margins no more than a third 
  of an inch or so on the upper, lower, and outer sides and probably 
  no more than a half-inch on the spineward margin. This can cause 
  readability issues, as it’s very easy for the text to end up crawling 
  into the spine due to the stingy inside margin.
  If you’re setting your own books in a style inspired by these volumes, 
  you would be well-advised to change this margin choice. Most black-
  and-white POD print processes require at least a half-inch margin on 
  every side, though DriveThruRPG/RPGNow is currently able to do 
  full bleed on all their books.
  Running Heads
  The 1e core books had an interesting type of double running head 
  on each page, with all-caps oblique Times New Roman in about a 
  12-point weight. Each head labeled the main topic of the column 
  beneath it. InDesign can be easily set up to provide section labeling 
  in running heads, as is shown later in the B/X page setup, but there’s 
  no simple way to automate this kind of acute micro-labeling. 
  The master page spread for this section of the document is set to 
  automatically apply default running heads to each column. If you 
  want to mimic this element of the design, you’re going to need to 
  manually override each page’s master page elements and just type 
  in an appropriate running head. Do this after finishing the set.
  Typefaces Used
  The 1e core books continued to use the Quentin EF and Chisel D for 
  the game title used in the LBBs, along with Futura for the interior text. 
  An italicized font for Futura was evidently obtained, as underlining 
  gave way to italics for those terms in need of emphasis. Times New 
  Roman oblique or possibly condensed oblique was used for the 
  running heads and for the book title itself on the title page.
  Table Design
  Many tables were not set to a grid, and the table styles here reflect 
  that. You may need to manually drag the tables taller or shorter to 
  make sure the surrounding text hits the page in a graceful way. The 
  example tables here have also had their cell styles changed so that 
  the left-hand cell padding has been removed, so that left-justified 
  table text hits the margin at the same place as the body text.
  The 1e core books introduce the use of table fills. Most of the fills are 
  about 20% density and go in a 3 filled/3 empty pattern, though 
  this isn’t always maintained. Table strokes are almost nonexistent, 
  with the one of the few examples I noticed appearing in the monster 
  lists in the Dungeon Master’s Guide, where a stroke separates each 
  individual monster line from its peers.
  ATTRIBUTE TABLE I.
  Ability
  Score
  General Information
  3
  Bonuses and penalties go here.
  4-5
  Bonuses and penalties go here.
  6-8
  Bonuses and penalties go here.
  9-12
  Bonuses and penalties go here.
  13-15
  Bonuses and penalties go here.
  16-17
  Bonuses and penalties go here.
  18
  Bonuses and penalties go here.
  19
  Bonuses and penalties go here.
  20
  Bonuses and penalties go here.
  21
  Bonuses and penalties go here.
  22
  Bonuses and penalties go here.
  23
  Bonuses and penalties go here.
  24
  Bonuses and penalties go here.
  25
  Bonuses and penalties go here.
  28
  Bonuses and penalties go here.
  27
  Bonuses and penalties go here.
  
  14
  RUNNING HEAD
  RUNNING HEAD
  CLASSIC CLASS TABLE
  Experience 
  Points
  Experience
  Level
  10-Sided 
  Dice for 
  Accumulated 
  Hit Points
  Level
  Title
  0—2,000
  1
  1
  Swordguy
  2,001—4,000
  2
  2
  Swordguy
  4,001—8,000
  3
  3
  Swordguy
  4,001—8,000
  4
  4
  Swordguy
  4,001—8,000
  5
  5
  Swordguy
  4,001—8,000
  6
  6
  Swordguy
  4,001—8,000
  7
  7
  Swordguy
  4,001—8,000
  8
  8
  Swordguy
  4,001—8,000
  9
  9
  Swordguy
  4,001—8,000
  10
  9+3
  Swordguy
  4,001—8,000
  11
  9+6
  Swordguy
  As can be seen to the left, the classic class table tried to cram a great 
  deal of text into its column headers. The style below is more compact.
  ALTERNATE CLASS TABLE
  XP
  Level
  Hit Dice
  Level Title
  0—2,000
  1
  1d10
  Swordguy
  2,001—4,000
  2
  2d10
  Swordguy
  4,001—8,000
  3
  3d10
  Swordguy
  4,001—8,000
  4
  4d10
  Swordguy
  4,001—8,000
  5
  5d10
  Swordguy
  4,001—8,000
  6
  6d10
  Swordguy
  4,001—8,000
  7
  7d10
  Swordguy
  4,001—8,000
  8
  8d10
  Swordguy
  4,001—8,000
  9
  9d10
  Swordguy
  4,001—8,000
  10
  9d10+3 Swordguy
  4,001—8,000
  11
  9d10+6 Swordguy
  SPELLS USABLE BY CLASS AND LEVEL — MAGIC-USERS
  Magic-User
  Magic-User Spell Level
  Level
  1
  2
  3
  4
  5
  6
  7
  8
  9
  1
  1
  -
  -
  -
  -
  -
  -
  -
  -
  2
  2
  -
  -
  -
  -
  -
  -
  -
  -
  3
  2
  1
  -
  -
  -
  -
  -
  -
  -
  4
  3
  2
  -
  -
  -
  -
  -
  -
  -
  5
  4
  2
  1
  -
  -
  -
  -
  -
  -
  6
  4
  2
  2
  -
  -
  -
  -
  -
  -
  7
  4
  3
  2
  1
  -
  -
  -
  -
  -
  8
  4
  3
  3
  2
  -
  -
  -
  -
  -
  9
  4
  3
  3
  2
  1
  -
  -
  -
  -
  10
  4
  4
  3
  2
  2
  -
  -
  -
  -
  11
  4
  4
  4
  3
  3
  -
  -
  -
  -
  12
  4
  4
  4
  4
  4
  1
  -
  -
  -
  13
  5
  5
  5
  4
  4
  2
  -
  -
  -
  14
  5
  5
  5
  4
  4
  2
  1
  -
  -
  15
  5
  5
  5
  5
  5
  2
  1
  -
  -
  16
  5
  5
  5
  5
  5
  3
  2
  1
  -
  17
  5
  5
  5
  5
  5
  3
  3
  2
  -
  18
  5
  5
  5
  5
  5
  3
  3
  2
  1
  The table above examples one of the standard class spell tables from 
  the PHB. You’ll note the somewhat intricate division of the header rows 
  so as to ensure that the class name and the class spell level labels 
  are even on the lines. For classes with fewer spell levels than 9, the 
  excess levels can just be lopped off the right.
  Some tables in the books are done without fills, particularly in the 
  equipment section. The tables below are  examples of the style. Note 
  the empty “gutter” column in the middle of the first table to separate 
  the right-justified prices from the left-justified items in the next column. 
  Also note how the subsections are created by merging columns and 
  leaving blank rows above them to provide spacing.
  UNFILLED TABLE STYLE
  Armor
  Leather
  5 g.p.
  Gummi
  77 g.p.
  Wombat
  60 g.p.
  Neutronium
  100 g.p.
  Tinfoil
  12 g.p.
  Optimism
  0 g.p.
  Weapons
  Bandyclef
  6 g.p.
  Weasel
  4 g.p.
  Harsh Words
  0 g.p.
  Bardiche
  7 g.p.
  Photon Torpedo
  588 g.p.
  Spam
  2 g.p.
  INSET LIST TABLE
  Class
  Known 
  Weapons
  Non-Prof. 
  Penalty
  Prof. 
  Gained
  CLERIC
  2
  -3
  1/4 levels
  Reformed
  1
  -4
  1/4 levels
  Orthodox
  3
  -2
  1/3 levels
  FIGHTER
  4
  -2
  1/3 levels
  Lover
  0
  -8
  None
  
  15
  RUNNING HEAD
  RUNNING HEAD
  Summon Wombat (Conjuration/Summoning)
  Level: 1
  Components: V, S, M
  Range: 1”
  Casting Time: 5 segments
  Duration: 1 turn
  Saving Throw: None
  Area of Effect: One wombat
  The “1e Spell Table Line” style used above sets the text in Futura book 
  up until the first colon, after which the rest of the line is set oblique. 
  The spell’s title is set in “1e Spell Table Title”, which automatically sets 
  it in 12-point heavy up until the first parenthesis, after which it uses 
  12-point book. The only alignment is on the table labels. The revised 
  version below uses the table to align the spell details.
  Summon Wombat (Conjuration/Summoning)
  Level:
  1
  Components:
  V, S, M
  Range:
  1”
  Casting Time:
  5 segments
  Duration:
  1 turn
  Saving Throw:
  None
  Area of Effect:
  One wombat
  WOMBAT, Giant
  FREQUENCY: Common
  NO. APPEARING: 2-20
  ARMOR CLASS: -5
  MOVE: 9”/24”
  HIT DICE: 44
  % IN LAIR: 100%
  TREASURE TYPE: E, R, V
  NO. OF ATTACKS: 1 bite
  DAMAGE/ATTACK: 2-12 + poison
  SPECIAL ATTACKS: See below
  SPECIAL DEFENSES: +6 or better weapon to hit
  MAGIC RESISTANCE: 85%
  INTELLIGENCE: Genius
  ALIGNMENT: Lawful Evil
  SIZE: L (12’ tall)
  PSIONIC ABILITY: 313
  ATTACK/DEFENSE MODES: All/all
  This style of monster stat block was used in the Monster Manual, but 
  it seems that the main reason for using it was so that it could fit in a 
  small monster illustration directly to the right of it, in the same column. 
  Many of the stat blocks are cramped into only half the column in 
  order to fit in the illustration.
  You may notice the difference in spacing between this table’s bottom 
  and the following text and that of the table next to it. This is because 
  the table body text is not set to the grid. You may need to manually 
  drag table cells taller in order to get clean, even sets below them.
  WOMBATS
  Giant
  Dire
  FREQUENCY:
  Common
  Rare
  NO. APPEARING:
  2-20
  2-20
  ARMOR CLASS:
  -5
  -5
  MOVE:
  9”/24”
  9”/24”
  HIT DICE:
  44
  44
  % IN LAIR:
  100%
  100%
  TREASURE TYPE:
  E, R, V
  E, R, V
  NO. OF ATTACKS:
  1 bite
  1 bite
  DAMAGE/ATTACK:
  2-12 + poison
  2-12 + poison
  SPECIAL ATTACKS: 
  See below
  See below
  SPECIAL DEFENSES:
  +6 weapon to hit
  +6 weapon to hit
  MAGIC RESISTANCE: 
  85%
  85%
  INTELLIGENCE: 
  Genius
  Genius
  ALIGNMENT: 
  Lawful Evil
  Lawful Evil
  SIZE: 
  L (12’ tall)
  L (12’ tall)
  PSIONIC ABILITY: 
  313
  313
  AT./DEF. MODES:
  All/all
  All/all
  This alternate style fits two monster variants into the same single col-
  umn, at the cost of leaving no room for an illustration. It also moves 
  the statistics into their own column, away from the label. If you prefer 
  to use this style for single monster types, you can strike the subtype 
  header line and the excess column. You can also stretch it to cover 
  multiple columns if you need to fit in three or more monster types.
  WOMBAT, Giant
  FREQ:
  Common
  INT:
  Genius
  NO. APP.
  2-20
  MAGIC RES:
  85%
  AC:
  -5
  ALIGN:
  Lawful Evil
  MOVE:
  9”/24”
  SIZE:
  L (12’ tall)
  HIT DICE:
  44
  # ATTACKS:
  1 bite
  % IN LAIR:
  100%
  DMG/ATK:
  2-12 + poison
  TREASURE:
  E, R, V
  SPECIAL ATK.: See below
  PSIONICS:
  See below
  SPECIAL DEF:
  +6 weapon to hit
  This is an shorter, tighter version of the monster stat blocks below. 
  If you have several different kinds of monsters to present in a short 
  space, it can be serviceable, though limited space in the columns 
  means that psionics and other complications will have to be covered 
  in the text block description for the beast. The all-caps labels are 
  derived from the source, though you might find it more appealing to 
  use normal characters and rely on the oblique setting of the statistics 
  to hint the reader’s eye.
  
  16
  B/X Elements
  The styles used in this section were drawn largely from the 
  Moldvay Basic and Cook Expert books and the short run 
  of modules that shared their basic design sensibilities– X1 
  through X5 and the two Basic modules B3 and B4. The solo 
  modules M1 and M2 also seem to partake of this style.
  B/X styles relied on two-column pages set almost exclusively 
  in various weights of Souvenir. As with earlier products, the 
  text was not set to a baseline grid and the spacing between 
  paragraphs and headers was often varied to ensure that the 
  columns hit an even foot. Most pages use a running head 
  about a quarter-inch from the top of the page, the master 
  pages here automatically using the page’s section name.
  Modules for B/X largely adopted the boxed text format that 
  was standard for TSR at the time, though X1 was produced 
  before this format change and used a heavy room name run-
  in not unlike that used in B2.
  Typefaces Used
  Quentin EF makes an apperance on the covers of Moldvay 
  Basic and Cook Expert, but the rest of these books are set 
  entirely in two different weights of Souvenir. The strong visu-
  al character of Souvenir tends to make these products stand 
  out noticeably from earlier TSR products.
  This is not necessarily a good thing. Souvenir was something 
  close to the Comic Sans of the 70s, and it does not have a 
  good reputation among typographers. If you do decide to 
  use Souvenir for your own products, you may find it best to 
  use it as a visual reference to B/X, and not for the sake of its 
  own dubious charms.
  A “free” version of Souvenir called Soutane can be found 
  here and there on the net, but actual provenance and licens-
  ing terms are very unclear for it, and all versions I’ve seen 
  have been locked against embedding it in a document, mak-
  ing it largely useless for a designer’s purposes.
  If you choose to use Souvenir for your text, you should keep 
  in mind that it is a substantially wider typeface than the Avant 
  Garde used in earlier products. If you set a page in Souvenir 
  and then decide to swap to a different typeface, you’re going 
  to have to deal with the changed length.
  Table Design
  Table design continues to use the unstroked, unfilled styles 
  used in the LBBs, albeit with Souvenir as the base typeface. 
  Table font sizes are the same as body text sizes. Column 
  headers are sometimes underlined to provide some visual 
  distinction and are usually set heavier than the table text. 
  Unlike the LBBs, table titles are usually centered.
  Multi-Column Table Type A
  Column 1
  Column 2
  Column 3
  Column 4
  Item
  1
  2
  3
  Item
  1
  2
  3
  Item
  1
  2
  3
  Item
  1
  2
  3
  Item
  1
  2
  3
  Item
  1
  2
  3
  Item
  1
  2
  3
  Item
  1
  2
  3
  Item
  1
  2
  3
  MULTI-COLUMN TABLE TYPE B
  Column 1
  Column 2
  Column 3
  Column 4
  Item
  1
  2
  3
  Item
  1
  2
  3
  Item
  1
  2
  3
  Item
  1
  2
  3
  Item
  1
  2
  3
  Item
  1
  2
  3
  Item
  1
  2
  3
  Item
  1
  2
  3
  Item
  1
  2
  3
  Untitled
  Table
  Column 3
  Column 4
  Item
  1
  2
  3
  Item
  1
  2
  3
  Item
  1
  2
  3
  Item
  1
  2
  3
  Item
  1
  2
  3
  Item
  1
  2
  3
  Item
  1
  2
  3
  Item
  1
  2
  3
  Item
  1
  2
  3
  
  17
  B/X STYLES
  CLASS STYLE A
  Level Title             
  Exp.
  Points
  Hit Dice
  Spells    
  1
  Example
  0
  1d6
  1 first level
  2
  Example
  1,500
  2d6
  2 first level
  3
  Example
  3.000
  3d6
  1 first level 
  + 1 second
  4
  Example
  6,000
  4d6
  Etc.
  5
  Example
  12.000
  5d6
  Etc.
  6
  Example
  24,000
  6d6
  Etc.
  7
  Example
  48,000
  7d6
  Etc.
  8
  Example
  96,000
  8d6
  Etc.
  9+
  Example
  200,000
  9d6
  Etc.
  To get a partially-underlined header like that for Exp. Points, 
  newline after the Exp. to create two paragraphs, then set 
  them in different styles. To stretch an underline beyond the 
  word itself, you can fake it with spaces. If your entry is mul-
  tiline, as with Spells for level 3, make sure all your cells are 
  vertically justified toward the top, to ensure that the text for 
  each level entry lines up correctly.
  Below you can see two optional wide formats for the same 
  class information. The Thief Abilities entries could be re-
  placed by saving throw totals, a lengthy special ability sum-
  mary for each level, or anything else that requires significant 
  real estate. A boldface font could also be used for column 
  headers, but such use would cramp the thief skill titles and 
  can be problematic when horizontal space is at a premium.
  Be careful when resizing tables horizontally. It’s easy to over-
  stretch columns like Level that should be narrow.
  CLASS STYLE B
  Level Title        
  Exp.
  Points
  Hit
  Dice
  Spells
  1
  2
  3
  4
  5
  6
  1
  Example
  0
  1d6
  1
  -
  -
  -
  -
  -
  2
  Example
  1,500
  2d6
  2
  -
  -
  -
  -
  -
  3
  Example
  3.000
  3d6
  2
  1
  -
  -
  -
  -
  4
  Example
  6,000
  4d6
  2
  2
  -
  -
  -
  -
  5
  Example
  12.000
  5d6
  2
  2
  1
  -
  -
  -
  6
  Example
  24,000
  6d6
  3
  2
  2
  -
  -
  -
  7
  Example
  48,000
  7d6
  3
  2
  2
  1
  -
  -
  8
  Example
  96,000
  8d6
  3
  3
  2
  2
  -
  -
  9+
  Example
  200,000
  9d6
  3
  3
  3
  2
  1
  -
  Six columns for spells are about all you can fit into this for-
  mat, and even that comes at the cost of room for level titles. 
  You can get some real estate back by using “Lvl” as a level 
  abbreviation, and “HD” in place of Hit Dice, but you’ll have 
  to drop the Title column entirely if you want to take it out to 
  the classic nine spell levels. Optionally, break out the spell 
  progression entirely as below, adding rows as needed.
  CHARLATAN SPELL PROGRESSION
  Level
  1
  2
  3
  4
  5
  6
  7
  8
  9
  1
  1
  -
  -
  -
  -
  -
  -
  -
  -
  2
  2
  -
  -
  -
  -
  -
  -
  -
  -
  3
  2
  1
  -
  -
  -
  -
  -
  -
  -
  4
  2
  2
  -
  -
  -
  -
  -
  -
  -
  5
  3
  2
  1
  -
  -
  -
  -
  -
  -
  CLASS STYLE WIDE A
  Level 
  Title                       
  Exp.
  Points
  Hit
  Dice
  Spells
  1
  2
  3
  4
  5
  6
  7
  8
  9
  1
  Example
  0
  1d6
  1
  -
  -
  -
  -
  -
  -
  -
  -
  2
  Example
  1,500
  2d6
  2
  -
  -
  -
  -
  -
  -
  -
  -
  3
  Example
  3.000
  3d6
  2
  1
  -
  -
  -
  -
  -
  -
  -
  4
  Example
  6.000
  4d6
  2
  2
  -
  -
  -
  -
  -
  -
  -
  CLASS STYLE WIDE B
  Level Title                  
  Exp.
  Points
  Hit
  Dice
  Thief Abilities
  Open
  Locks
  Remove
  Traps
  Pick
  Pockets
  Move
  Silently
  Climb Sheer
  Surfaces
  Hide in
  Shadows
  Hear
  Noise
  1
  Example
  0
  1d6
  10%
  10%
  10%
  10%
  10%
  10%
  1-2
  2
  Example
  1,500
  2d6
  10%
  10%
  10%
  10%
  10%
  10%
  1-2
  3
  Example
  200,000
  3d6
  10%
  10%
  10%
  10%
  10%
  10%
  1-3
  4
  Example
  400,000
  4d6
  20%
  20%
  20%
  20%
  20%
  20%
  1-4
  
  18
  B/X STYLES
  First Level Spells
  1. Magic Missile
  7. Magic Missile
  2, Magic Missile
  8. Magic Missile
  3. Magic Missile
  9. Magic Missile
  4. Magic Missile
  10. Magic Missile
  5. Magic Missile
  11. Magic Missile
  6. Magic Missile
  12. Magic Missile
  CHARLATAN SPELLS
  First Level
  Second Level
  Third Level
  Fourth Level
  Fifth Level
  1
  Lengthy Spell Name
  Lengthy Spell Name
  Lengthy Spell Name
  Lengthy Spell Name
  Lengthy Spell Name
  2
  Lengthy Spell Name
  Lengthy Spell Name
  Lengthy Spell Name
  Lengthy Spell Name
  Lengthy Spell Name
  3
  Lengthy Spell Name
  Lengthy Spell Name
  Lengthy Spell Name
  Lengthy Spell Name
  Lengthy Spell Name
  Spell entries can be tricky due to the lengthy spell names and the difficulty of packing them in horizontally. The brief sum-
  mary table below can be used between lists of spell entries, but it’s still usually necessary to have a full list of spells in a single 
  place somewhere in the chapter. The wide table below can work for this, but it’s rarely possible to fit more that five levels 
  of spells horizontally at a time. If necessary, just repeat the table for levels 6-9 and stretch it horizontally so it hits the same 
  margins. Make sure the numbering column on the left isn’t allowed to expand, however. You can also play with font sizes. 
  Fribnel’s Dire Wombat
  Range: 50’
  Duration: 1 hour/level
  This spell entry style is simple and compact, for a system 
  that doesn’t have many distinguishing elements to track for a 
  given spell. Note that as usual, the text description of a spell 
  does not go into a table cell. Sometimes a spell’s description 
  has to break over a column or page despite the designer’s 
  best efforts, and a cell can’t break. Also note the left-hand 
  cell padding on the spell name’s cell is removed to allow for 
  it to hit the description text’s left margin.
  CATEGORIZED INDENT TABLE
  Item
  Cost
  Gubbins
  Item
  1
  Item
  6
  Item
  3
  Thingamajigs
  Item
  10
  Item
  12
  Whatchamacallits
  Item
  4
  Used occasionally for equipment lists and other vertical lists 
  that need some kind of subcategorization, you can repro-
  duce this effect with a simple table trick. To reproduce the 
  above, first create a three-column table. Merge all the header 
  row cells. Merge the leftmost two subhead cells. Then for 
  each subcategory row, merge the leftmost two cells and put 
  the cell contents in a column header style. The unmerged 
  cells of the first row will provide an even indent you can shift 
  as needed.
  You can also get the same effect with styles- just create a 
  new “Table Subcategory” style that segues into an indented 
  “Table Entry” style. Tables are more easily resized, though.
  Magic item entries in B/X usually start with a bold normal 
  run-in that terminates at the first colon. The style given be-
  low shows an example of such an entry. The entries in the 
  books are compressed, with no following space between 
  items, and so this style has no following set. Also note that 
  magic item names referenced in B/X products are always 
  rendered in boldface. The “B/X Item Entry Text” style reca-
  pitulates this style.
  Horn of Uselessness: While appearing magical to those 
  with suitably refined powers of arcane perception, the 
  Horn of Useleness obstinately refuses to reveal any 
  ability that might not be natural to a horn of its type.
  Other passages call out specific sub-sections with an all caps 
  run-in. These sub-sections are used sparingly but usually 
  have the normal following after each paragraph. The “B/X 
  Subsection Run-In” style emulates this format. Note that you 
  might want to trade out the colon delimiter for a period, as 
  the Souvenir colon is out of scale for the all-caps run-in.
  DIRE PORTENTS: Upon noticing a Dire Portent, the par-
  ty’s henchmen will be so paralyzed with fear as to refuse to 
  move from the spot for 1d6 days unless plied with 50 g.p. 
  each in inducements.
  This subsection style does not have an indent.
  
  19
  B/X STYLES
  Monster Tall Block
  Armor Class:
  9
  Hit Dice:
  1
  Move:
  120’
  Attacks:
  1 weapon
  Damage:
  by weapon
  No. Appearing:
  1d10 (2d20)
  Save As:
  Fighter 1
  Morale:
  8
  Treasure Type:
  Q
  Alignment:
  Neutral
  The “tall block” monster stat style almost never appears on 
  its own. Usually, several monster variants are slotted vertical-
  ly as exampled to the right. If there’s insufficient horizontal 
  space in one column, the table can be stretched to span 
  columns. Otherwise, this example is only likely to be useful 
  if you have a slightly-wider-than-one-column illo you want to 
  put alongside it.
  Monster Wide Block
  Type A
  Type B
  Type C
  Armor Class:
  9
  9
  9
  Hit Dice:
  1
  1
  1
  Move:
  120’
  120’
  120’
  Attacks:
  1 weapon
  1 weapon
  1 weapon
  Damage:
  by weapon
  by weapon
  by weapon
  No. Appearing: 1d10 (2d20) 1d10 (2d20) 1d10 (2d20)
  Save As:
  Fighter 1
  Fighter 1
  Fighter 1
  Morale:
  8
  8
  8
  Treasure Type:
  Q
  Q
  Q
  Alignment:
  Neutral
  Neutral
  Neutral
  Monster Short Block
  Armor Class:
  9
  No. Appearing:
  1d10 (2d20)
  Hit Dice:
  1
  Save As:
  Fighter 1
  Move:
  120’
  Morale:
  8
  Attacks:
  1 weapon 
  + 1 claw
  Treasure Type:
  Q
  Damage:
  by weapon
  + 1d6 claw
  Alignment:
  Neutral
  The “short block” is by far the most common monster stat 
  block, being more compact and easier to set than the taller 
  blocks. The narrow cells do sometimes force multiline en-
  tries, so each cell is vertically justified to the top, to ensure 
  that the lines read cleanly straight across.
  
  20
   BECMI Elements
  The BECMI series of books is partic-
  ularly interesting for its reliance on a 
  three-column layout and an extreme-
  ly expansive header. Almost all TSR 
  books of this era relied on a two-col-
  umn layout, but the BECMI series 
  used three columns for a number of 
  purposes.
  BECMI text is very dense. The 
  default body text uses a flush initial 
  paragraph with following paragraphs 
  relying on a 1/8th inch indent. The 
  body text size is nine points, unlike 
  the 10-point Futura preferred in ear-
  lier AD&D products.
  Perhaps the most immediately 
  striking characteristic of the BECMI 
  rulebooks is the enormous top mar-
  gin. The running head used here is 
  actually far closer to the top of the 
  page than in the actual BECMI books, 
  which set the line on which the run-
  ning header rests about an inch and 
  a half down from the top of the page.
  To give comparisons, the bottom 
  margin is only a half-inch wide from 
  text block to page bottom, and about 
  a quarter-inch from the bottom of the 
  page number to the edge of the page. 
  The outer margin is a half-inch and 
  the inner margin is about 5/8ths of 
  an inch.
  I confess that I have no idea why 
  they set such a huge top margin. The 
  usual canons of page design insist on 
  a large bottom margin to give the 
  page a sound footing and help give 
  the reader someplace to put their 
  thumbs while reading.
  The running heads were designed 
  in two formats. For the opening 
  spread of a section the running head 
  was grounded on one thin line and 
  one thick line, as you see on this page 
  and its opposite. The following pages 
  of that section had only a single thin 
  line, as you see on the next spread.
  This head style appears to have 
  been carried through at least some 
  of the BECMI-era modules, though 
  not all of them. An interesting vari-
  ation can be seen in CM6, “Where 
  Chaos Reigns”, where the empty 
  header space is often filled with a spot 
  illustration matching the text. B10, 
  “Night’s Dark Terror” dispatches it 
  entirely, using instead a repeated bit 
  of spot art along the top of the page. 
  Yet in B11 and B12 it once again makes 
  its appearance 
  From my examination of the mod-
  ules, it looks as if the UK modules 
  such as B10, CM6, X8, and O2 often 
  replaced the empty header with spot 
  art, often to very good effect given 
  the artists involved. If you keep this 
  design quirk, you might do likewise.
  One other habit of the designers 
  was to break through the running 
  head with illustrations that some-
  times went right to the upper edge 
  of the page. Luigi Castellani’s  illus-
  tration opposite is an example of this 
  design element.
  Illustrations and other page ele-
  ments in the BECMI books almost 
  invariably fit exactly into the column 
  layout. Illustrations were one, two, or 
  three columns wide, with almost no 
  variation.
  It seems a puzzling choice on the 
  whole. The BECMI layout is so ex-
  tremely dense and with such small 
  type that it seems fairly inexplicable 
  that the designers should give up so 
  much space at the top of the page to 
  no visible purpose, particularly when 
  the bottom margin is so ungenerous.
  This three-column style persists in 
  the BECMI modules of this era as well 
  as the rulebooks. It appears to be fair-
  ly universal for BECMI products until 
  the era of the Rules Cyclopedia. In-
  terestingly enough, while the RC uses 
  the three-column layout, the module 
  series published after late 1990 such 
  as the Thunder Rift series and the 
  Hollow World module series revert 
  to a two-column layout.
  The BECMI books and especially 
  the modules made heavy use of boxed 
  text. Perhaps as a consequence, the 
  body text was not set to a grid.
  Typeface and Setting Details
  Thanks to the research work of Jon 
  Peterson, the author of Playing At The 
  World, we have an actual style sheet 
  for the X6 module “Quagmire”. With 
  this, we can determine the exact style 
  settings used for most of the BECMI 
  books and modules. This may have 
  varied between individual products 
  due to the vagaries of the text, but it’s 
  a good starting point for analyzing the 
  page layout for the line as a whole.
  The interior text for BECMI books 
  is almost entirely different weights 
  of Baskerville. This example is set in 
  the free Libre Baskerville font, though 
  readers are advised to make sure 
  they’ve got the .TTF TrueType files, 
  as the most recent .OTF OpenType 
  font version doesn’t seem to agree 
  well with InDesign’s composer.
  The front cover of BECMI uses a 
  custom tweak of Quentin TF for the 
  “Dungeons & Dragons” text, while 
  other title page text is done in Korin-
  na. Later modules made use of Feinen 
  for maps and running heads, and the 
  Baldur font by Mad Irishman Produc-
  tions seems to be the only available 
  clone of the font.
  The text itself is set in 9 point body 
  type with 10 point leading. This is a 
  very tight set. If left to its own devic-
  es, InDesign will automatically assign 
  leading equal to the traditional 120% 
  of the font size, but the technical chal-
  lenge of coming up with 10.8-point 
  type in 1983 seems to have left TSR 
  inclined to go with a flat 10-point 
  leading rather than 11. The provided 
  styles in this file go with the TSR stan-
  dard, but if you use them in your own, 
  I’d seriously consider opening up the 
  leading to 10.8 or 11 points.
  As a special note, an examination 
  of the actual products shows that the 
  module leading doesn’t really look as 
  severe as what you see here on this 
  page. It’s possible the leading was 
  tweaked before the final print, but I 
  think it’s more likely that the Bask-
  erville that TSR was using was not as 
  severe as the Libre Baskerville this 
  document uses. These tiny differ-
  ences in font details can make a large 
  difference in the actual print.
  Headers were scaled to 10, 12, 14, 
  and 18 points, with 18 reserved for 
  page heads and 10 used for most mi-
  nor heads. In the styles used here, 10 
  points have also been used for table 
  labels. Minor heads have been given 
  the same 10-point leading as body 
  text to help even the display, though 
  you may notice that it cramps dun-
  geon room titles uncomfortably if 
  they run more than one line.
  For BECMI books, subheads ap-
  pear to have an equal amount of 
  whitespace before and after them, 
  about one line’s worth. The style in 
  this document uses a 10 point font 
  for the minor heads with a 10 point 
  following space. Combined with the 1 
  
  21
   
  pica following space after the BECMI 
  Body Text Indented style, it ensures 
  the head is just barely closer to the 
  following text than to the preceding 
  body text. More distinction would be 
  preferable, but this is closest to the 
  style as it appeared in print.
  Each column in the classic TSR 
  style is 14 picas wide, with three col-
  umns per page. The gutter between 
  columns is to be 1.5 picas. This has 
  been adjusted for the margins here.
  Strictly speaking with this TSR 
  style, the inside margin should be 2 
  picas and the outside 3 picas, follow-
  ing the traditional canon that the out-
  side margin should be wider than the 
  inner margin. Contrary to this, you’ll 
  notice that this document has a wider 
  inside margin than outside.
  I’ve done it this way due to the dif-
  ferent print environments between 
  a classic TSR saddle-stitch module 
  and a more probable modern print-
  on-demand perfect-bound book. 
  A saddle-stitch book tends to open 
  very easily and have a comparatively 
  “loose” binding that it allows it to lie 
  mostly flat, showing the entire spread. 
  A perfect-bound book tends to be 
  tighter, especially with a very short 
  book. Opening them perfectly flat can 
  harm the binding in a way that sad-
  dle-stitch booklets don’t suffer from, 
  so I granted the inside margin a little 
  more space to compensate for that, 
  and allow the text to be comfortably 
  legible without flattening the book.
  Table Design
  BECMI tables make heavy use of very 
  thick, dark strokes at head and foot, 
  usually with a lighter stroke after the 
  table’s title. This stroke pattern is re-
  peated in multiple places, even on 
  text elements that aren’t actually ta-
  bles. The “order of combat” sequence 
  on page 58 of the Basic player’s book 
  is stroked in this way. The table text 
  itself is identical to the body text, with 
  column and row labels only some-
  times in bold. Table titles are given 
  in all-caps bold.
  Some text is called out in a filled 
  gray box, usually as a chunk of exam-
  ple text or player instructions. Rath-
  er than inserting an entire sidebar 
  object, it can be easiest to just use a 
  filled table cell with the appropriate 
  padding. The default fill appears to be 
  fairly dense, and so changing it to 20% 
  at most is perhaps advisable.
  EXAMPLE: This is such an exam-
  ple callout. Remember that add-
  ing elements like this makes it that 
  much harder to set text to a grid, 
  unless your callout box just hap-
  pens to fit exactly into the lines. 
  You can stretch table cells vertically 
  to help provide this coincidence.
  With BECMI tables, the designer 
  clearly was averse to having a partial 
  intrusion of a table into a column, so 
  if what you have to set is too wide to 
  fit one column, the table should be 
  precisely two columns wide, or three 
  columns if you need to claim space.
  Table designers are also advised to 
  use a lot of whitespace. The BECMI 
  table defaults use only normal body 
  text, so there’s no clue to the eye that 
  you’re looking at a table line. Giving 
  a little extra space around each table 
  entry can help.
  Variations On A Theme
  While the styles given above were 
  drawn from an in-house style sheet 
  for X6, it’s clear that they were not 
  universally followed in the BECMI 
  product line. Below, I list some of the 
  changes in style I’ve noticed through 
  the BECMI line. The notes aren’t 
  exhaustive, but they might provide 
  some hints for elaboration.
  X7 followed the X6 style almost ex-
  actly. The same huge header and tiny 
  footer was used.
  X8 was a British effort. It shared the 
  same header and footer, but used sec-
  tion-specific header art to offset the 
  running head, and had a noticeable 
  absence of the public-domain animal 
  art visible in X6 and X7.
  X10 has not a single piece of orig-
  inal art inside it. Even the “Interior 
  Artist” title page entry is blank. Every-
  thing is either public domain, a map, 
  or recycled from B4 or X3.
  X11, published in 1986, marks a dis-
  tinct shift in the footer and header 
  margins. Some of the gigantic header 
  is shifted down to the footer, making 
  the latter perhaps an inch high. The 
  header remains distinctly larger. This 
  rebalancing continues on in X12, pub-
  lished in 1987.
  This seems to be a style change ad-
  opted sometime in 1986, as you see 
  the same difference appear in “B1-9: 
  In Search of Adventure”. The head-
  er/footer heights are rebalanced in 
  the same way for that module. The 
  exact timing appears to have been 
  sometime between the Master-level 
  modules M1 and M2, the former be-
  ing printed in 1985 and using the old, 
  huge header while the latter appeared 
  in 1986 and used the rebalanced head-
  er. The same alteration is visible be-
  tween CM7 in 1986 and CM8 in 1987, 
  however, so it seems that the old style 
  was carried through for at least some 
  1986 publications. 
  B10, “Night’s Dark Terror” in 1986 
  is sui generis. Showing the British ten-
  dency to vary from the US theme, 
  they dropped the header entirely. 
  Instead, they use black border deco-
  rations with inset corner art for each 
  section, and use a running footer at 
  the bottom with the section title re-
  peated next to the page number. 
  Around 1989, it seems that the style 
  for the running heads at the top of 
  each page changed to the Feinan font. 
  This may have been inspired by the 
  1987 release of the first Gazeteer for 
  Karameikos, though that product line 
  also had all the other headers also 
  shifted to Feinan. This change  of all 
  the headers seems to have been lim-
  ited in scope, however, as the DDA 
  modules were still using Baskerville 
  heads for their columns in 1991.
  The Hollow World boxed set came 
  out in 1990 during the line’s dying 
  days, when more experimentation 
  seemed to be in order– along with 
  economizing. All use a two-column 
  format and sane headers and footers, 
  but internal art is extremely sparse. 
  This style appears to have been main-
  tained at least through the HWA ad-
  venture series. The header setting in 
  these products is noticeably better 
  than earlier in the BECMI main line, 
  with heads set closer to the follow-
  ing text than the preceding matter. 
  The typesetter is a little vague about 
  indents, however, sometimes putting 
  one in the first paragraph of a section 
  and sometimes using a proper justi-
  fied paragraph. No Feinan was used.
  Sometime around 1991, the cover 
  logo for BECMI products changed, 
  visible between DDA2 in 1990 and 
  DDA3 in 1991. The urge for economy 
  seems to have been maintained, if not 
  increased. The cover illo for DDA2, 
  for example, is a cut taken from the 
  Dark Sun setting.
  A more detailed cataloging of the 
  differences would doubtless find even 
  more style shifts over the years, but 
  this should be enough to encourage 
  your own variations.
  
  22
   
  THUG EXPERIENCE TABLE
  Level
  Title
  XP
  1
  Hooligan
  0-1,500
  2
  Hooligan
  1,501-3,000
  3
  Hooligan
  1,501-3,000
  4
  Hooligan
  1,501-3,000
  5
  Hooligan
  1,501-3,000
  6
  Hooligan
  1,501-3,000
  7
  Hooligan
  1,501-3,000
  8
  Hooligan
  1,501-3,000
  9
  Hooligan
  1,501-3,000
  10
  Hooligan
  1,501-3,000
  These are example templates for 
  some of the more important BECMI 
  character generation tables. There 
  are only three strokes used for most 
  of these tables, and none of them in-
  volve row fills or other shading.
  All begin with a 3-point stroke 
  across the top of the title, then a 
  1-point stroke beneath the bottom of 
  the column labels, and then a 1-point 
  stroke at the table foot. When a table 
  has multiple title lines, such as below 
  with the magic thug experience table 
  and the Spell Levels label, there is 
  sometimes another one-point stroke 
  between the major and minor table 
  column titles.
  THUG ABILITIES TABLE
  Level
  Open
  Locks
  Find
  Traps
  Remove
  Traps
  Pick
  Pockets
  Move
  Silently
  Climb 
  Sheer
  Surfaces
  Hide in
  Shadows
  Hear
  Noise
  1
  15%
  15%
  15%
  15%
  15%
  15%
  15%
  15%
  2
  15%
  15%
  15%
  15%
  15%
  15%
  15%
  15%
  3
  15%
  15%
  15%
  15%
  15%
  15%
  15%
  15%
  4
  15%
  15%
  15%
  15%
  15%
  15%
  15%
  15%
  5
  15%
  15%
  15%
  15%
  15%
  15%
  15%
  15%
  6
  15%
  15%
  15%
  15%
  15%
  15%
  15%
  15%
  7
  15%
  15%
  15%
  15%
  15%
  15%
  15%
  15%
  9
  15%
  15%
  15%
  15%
  15%
  15%
  15%
  15%
  10+
  15%
  15%
  15%
  15%
  15%
  15%
  15%
  15%
  MAGIC THUG EXPERIENCE TABLE
  Level
  Title
  XP
  Spell Levels
  1
  2
  3
  4
  5
  6
  1
  Hooligan
  0-1,500
  1
  -
  -
  -
  -
  -
  2
  Hooligan
  1,501-3,000
  2
  -
  -
  -
  -
  -
  3
  Hooligan
  1,501-3,000
  2
  1
  -
  -
  -
  -
  4
  Hooligan
  1,501-3,000
  2
  2
  -
  -
  -
  -
  5
  Hooligan
  1,501-3,000
  3
  2
  1
  -
  -
  -
  6
  Hooligan
  1,501-3,000
  3
  2
  2
  -
  -
  -
  7
  Hooligan
  1,501-3,000
  3
  2
  2
  1
  -
  -
  8
  Hooligan
  1,501-3,000
  3
  3
  2
  2
  -
  -
  9
  Hooligan
  1,501-3,000
  3
  3
  2
  2
  1
  -
  10
  Hooligan
  1,501-3,000
  3
  3
  3
  2
  2
  -
  THUG SAVING THROWS
  Level:
  1-3
  4-6
  7-9
  10
  Death 
  Ray or 
  Poison
  12
  8
  4
  2
  Magic 
  Wands
  13
  10
  7
  4
  Paralysis 
  or Turn 
  to Stone
  13
  10 
  7
  4
  Dragon 
  Breath
  15
  11
  7
  3
  Rod, 
  Staff or 
  Spell
  15
  11
  7
  3
  
  23
   
  BECMI Spell Entry
  Range: 0 (Caster only)
  Duration: A long lunch
  Effect: The caster calls forth a flan.
  This BECMI spell block is simple, 
  but this edition’s spells rarely needed 
  anything more than this. The table 
  has been adjusted to have no left cell 
  padding so that the text is flush with 
  the following description.
  A little additional space has been 
  added after the table as well, as there’s 
  otherwise little distinction between 
  the Effect line of the table and the de-
  scriptive text. The top cell has been 
  padded vertically a little, to give the 
  bolded title more emphasis, and the 
  padding on the three lower lines has 
  been reduced to add cohesiveness.
  Magic Item Descriptions
  Rather than the outdent used in B/X, 
  BECMI magic item lists often prefer 
  to indent the first line. As with B/X, 
  there is no whitespace between items. 
  An alternate format found in Mentzer 
  Basic instead uses a flush paragraph 
  with a bold run-in and whitespace 
  before and after.
  Trumpet of Ache: This trumpet 
  sounds only the very worst song, 
  accompanied by the ugliest guitar.
  Monster Stat Blocks
  BECMI modules commonly used a 
  simple text block callout for the mon-
  ster statistics of an adventure, usually 
  set inline with the area description. 
  In some cases, such as with CM7, the 
  monster statistics were gathered to-
  gether in a single table. All text was 
  set in regular type, with no bolding 
  or other weight changes. One line 
  of whitespace lead and followed the 
  block, as below.
  Wombat: AC 0; HD 12***; hp 60; 
  AT 3; D 3-18 (x2)/2-16; MV 
  180’(60’)/360’(120’); Save F24; AL 
  N; THAC0 9; SA clerical spell use.
  The example above is outdented, 
  though some modules set the block 
  flush left.
  Spell List Format
  Spells appear in an outdented format, 
  with italic spell names.
  First level: cause light wounds, dark-
  ness, detect magic, cause fear
  Second level: find traps, hold person, 
  know alignment, silence 15’ radius
  FIRST LEVEL CLASS SPELLS
  1.
  Glower
  2.
  Glower
  3.
  Glower
  4.
  Glower
  5.
  Glower
  6.
  Glower
  7.
  Glower
  8.
  Glower
  9.
  Glower
  10.
  Glower
  11.
  Glower
  12.
  Glower
  Class spell lists usually stick to the 
  column format, with however many 
  tables as are necessary to cover all the 
  spell levels. The table provided above 
  has had the cell padding reduced be-
  low the title in order to tighten the list.
  Monster Wide Block
  Variant Type A
  Variant Type B
  Variant Type C
  Armor Class:
  5
  5
  5
  Hit Dice:
  3*
  3*
  3*
  Move:
  90’ (30’)
  90’ (30’)
  90’ (30’)
  Attacks:
  1
  1
  1
  Damage:
  Energy Drain
  Energy Drain
  Energy Drain
  No. Appearing:
  1-6 (1-8)
  1-6 (1-8)
  1-6 (1-8)
  Save As:
  Fighter: 3
  Fighter: 3
  Fighter: 3
  Morale:
  12
  12
  12
  Treasure Type:
  B
  B
  B
  Alignment:
  Chaotic
  Chaotic
  Chaotic
  XP Value:
  50
  50
  50
  While the variant stats of the wide 
  block are spread evenly over the avail-
  able columns, the text that goes with 
  the monster descriptions remains in 
  the column format. The typographer 
  clearly had a difficult job fitting the 
  monster lists into the available space, 
  and some of their decisions appear to 
  be owed to the necessity of cramming 
  in as much text as possible.
  Designers who wish to nod to the 
  BECMI design style might be advised 
  to open up the layout, particularly 
  when it comes to monster lists or sim-
  ilar large information dumps. Many 
  of the compromises that the designer 
  made in fitting all the monsters into 
  the space provided could be alleviated 
  by simply giving the text more pages 
  and allowing more whitespace.
  Monster Tall Block
  Armor Class:
  5
  Hit Dice:
  3*
  Move:
  90’ (30’)
  Attacks:
  1
  Damage:
  Energy Drain
  No. Appearing: 1-6 (1-8)
  Save As:
  Fighter: 3
  Morale:
  12
  Treasure Type: B
  Alignment:
  Chaotic
  XP Value:
  50
  Monster descriptions usually appear 
  in this tall block format. In cases 
  where multiple monster variations are 
  needed, the block is split over mul-
  tiple columns as below, with strokes 
  beneath the variant column labels.
  Note also that the cell padding has 
  been adjusted on the rows to tighten 
  the block and make it more cohesive. 
  The block title has been given extra 
  padding as well.
  
  24
   
  24
  Example BECMI Module Page
  The Tombs of the Faithful
  The Old Lord favored his most loy-
  al living servants with the serenity 
  of true death. Their remains were 
  lodged here in tunnels dedicated to 
  their memory.
  1.     CHAMBER OF UNENDING 
  LONGING
  The air of this chamber is filled 
  with a haze of dust-fine powdered 
  bone, a thick layer resting on every 
  flat surface. Four withered human 
  shapes are clawing desperately at 
  the gouged stone wall on the far 
  side of the room.
   At the far wall, four withered, mum-
  mified Nebeti are clawing at the stone 
  wall with fleshless arms. Shackled by 
  Akhen’s curses in death and forbid-
  den to leave by the tomb’s entrance, 
  their only thought was to return to 
  their families. Their efforts have dug 
  the room out of the bedrock; as their 
  bones are slowly ground to powder, 
  the magic that animates them restores 
  the broken limbs from the dust. They 
  will ignore intruders unless some ef-
  fort is made to stop them. Even if 
  destroyed, they will eventually rean-
  imate until their remains are taken 
  from the House.
  Nebeti: AC 7, HD 1, hp 3, 3, 4, 5, #AT 
  1, D 1-6, MV 12”, Save F1, AL N, 
  THAC0 20
  2.    AMBER MUMMIFICATION 
  ROOM
  A complex array of vats, cauldrons, 
  pipes, and furnaces fill this room, 
  and the smell of sweet pine still lin-
  gers in the air.  Against the far wall, 
  a huge slab of amber encases the 
  body of a beautiful young woman.
  The Old Lord experimented exten-
  sively with amber encasement as a 
  technique for staving off the withering 
  of Eternal flesh, and his final exper-
  iment involved a recently-discarded 
  Eternal concubine. The girl has been 
  “alive” in the fashion of the Eternal 
  and conscious for forty years, and 
  nothing remains of her self-aware-
  ness but a burning desire to see the 
  Old Lord destroyed.
  If the amber is touched, a last he-
  roic convulsion on her part will allow 
  her to crack the amber shell, scream-
  ing of “the key in the yellow skull” in 
  the Deshrite tongue, referring to the 
  key she hid to the Old Lord’s private 
  sanctum. Once cracked, the shell will 
  collapse into powder and shards. Her 
  long-entombed body will soon follow 
  after, the vigor of her own motions 
  breaking her into powder indistin-
  guishable from the amber.
  3. DEFLESHING ROOM
  Four smooth-glazed clay tanks 
  dominate this chamber, each one 
  the size of a large sarcophagus and 
  covered by a marble lid.
  Within three of the tanks, the des-
  iccated husks of ancient flesh-eat-
  ing beetles lie in heaps around the 
  yellowed bones they were meant to 
  clean. Within the northeast tank, the 
  beetles died after feasting upon the 
  corpse of a witch, and the sorcerer’s 
  hateful spirit has animated the husks. 
  They will swarm out of the tank as 
  soon as the lid is slid aside. The beetle 
  swarm is immune to common weap-
  ons. Magic, torches, or burning oil will 
  do double damage.
  Undead Beetle Swarm: AC 7, HD 1, 
  hp 3, 3, 4, 5, #AT 1, D 1-6, MV 12”, 
  Save F1, AL N, THAC0 20
  4.    OSSUARY
  Countless bones pile high along the 
  walls in patterns fixed by mortar 
  and keystone-skulls. A shrine to one 
  of the serpent-headed Gods Below 
  is erected against the far wall, a few 
  ancient offerings left before the 
  fanged face.
  The bones of faithful minions were 
  immured here in the ossuary. The 
  offerings are largely worthless, but a 
  few still have some value.
  Incense worth 50 silver ingots.
  A black glass dagger +1.
  A green glass bottle filled with a 
  brownish crust of long-dried blood.
  A cup of beaten gold worth 100 sp.
  Taking any of the offerings will in-
  flict a curse on the profaner, forcing 
  them to fail the next saving throw 
  they attempt.
  5.    FRESCO ROOM:
  Wall frescoes celebrate the glori-
  ous deeds of the Old Lord and his 
  faithful servants. The conquest of 
  Paraku is depicted in bloody fash-
  ion, with the undying legions of the 
  Eternal swarming over the wall and 
  Old Lord Akhen at their head. Foul 
  banquets of human flesh and fes-
  tivities of more horrid variety still 
  are shown interspersed with scenes 
  of torment and grinding labor in-
  flicted upon the wretched inhabi-
  tants of the city. In particular, the 
  Old Lord is shown threatening the 
  Nebeti with a green bowl, a thing 
  that seems to induce a special ter-
  ror. The floor of the chamber is par-
  quetry of rotting wood, and a faint 
  cloud of black mold puffs upward 
  at each step you take.
   A Nebeti painter was commanded to 
  decorate this room with frescoes.
  Art slot. Stretch to even the rooms as 
  needed by the set.
  Comments on the Design
  Even a brief comparison with the 
  AD&D and B/X module pages 
  earlier in this document will show 
  how much more densely the aver-
  age BECMI module page was set. 
  The nine-point type and aversion 
  to whitespace make for a tight set.
  In my own opinion, it’s not 
  worth following this lead in mod-
  ern module designs. The rigid 32-
  page or 20-page module footprint 
  of the early hobby is no longer ap-
  plicable with modern POD pro-
  cesses, and the cost of an extra five 
  or six pages to let the set breathe 
  is trivial.
  
SOURCE: textdata/thevault/Dungeons & Dragons [multi]/Homebrew Design/OD&D - 1st Edition/TSR Book Design.pdf