#PDF Accessibility Guidelines

[projectchampionz]

Exploring leadership and organizational development journal

Exploring leadership and organizational development journal Are you keen on learning about leadership and organizational development? Our journal offers insightful articles on various topics. Discover strategies for effective team building. Learn tips for fostering a positive work culture. Excel in your role as a leader with our wide range of topics. Join us to explore the latest trends and…

[adasitecompliance]

Accessibility Experts

Learn how to create inclusive and compliant PDF documents with our ultimate guide on PDF accessibility best practices!

[shawnjordison]

Table Header Cell Has No Associated Sub Cells

Learn how to resolve the 'Table Header Cell Has No Associated Sub Cells' error in PAC 2021 and enhance PDF accessibility! #PDFUACompliance, #PAC2021, #TableHeaderCellError, #AdobeAcrobat, #WCAG, #AssistiveTechnology

Welcome to an in-depth exploration of a specific issue related to PDF/UA compliance testing, known as the ‘Table Header Cell Has No Associated Sub Cells’ error. This error often comes up when using the PAC 2021 checker, and today, we’re going to walk you through how to address it. Video Overview This video will provide an overview of this post but in video format. Understanding the ‘Table…

[echobsilly]

Art Submissions are NOW OPEN for the DOWN LIMBO LANE Collab!📣🌼🙂

This form will close on MAY 10TH! info + form below!

RECAP🌼

Here is the original announcement post for this project! Here's a little TLDR:

Celebrating Smile For Me's 6th Anniversary, this year's art collaboration is open to all LimboLane games, dedicated to highlighting this growing community!

Artists will make visual pieces featuring anything from ANY LimboLane Project ( Smile For Me, FACE LOVE, Great God Grove & L4CEY ) - Focus a piece on one game, two, ALL - One character, Multiple, Ships, Canon, Crossovers between the games, GO HAM!

This will be a DIGITAL GALLERY rather than a Zine -- artwork will be hosted on a Website, rather than a PDF. Anyone can join and submit work before the deadline MAY 10TH!

For the full timeline, description, submission guidelines (Keep images PG + under 10MB), and to SUBMIT WORK, please view the form below! :-D

🌼SUBMISSION FORM🌼

If you do not have a Google account and are unable to access the form, please send an email to sfmminizine@gmail.com from your preferred email address! We will send you an alternate instructions via email as soon as we are available.

And of course, feel free to ask any other questions! HAVE FUN! 🌼

[personasintro]

I created a pdf file in hopes to put it on ko-fi for anyone who's interested in getting exclusive access to Milfed's first chapter. However, reading all of their guidelines and considering the explicit and mature themes for this story, I'm afraid I won't be able to put it there. Does anyone know of other options?

The first chapter is not as explicit, but there are a few mentions of mature content and I don't want take any risk. Thank you in advance!

[swimonzine]

Swim On 10: Blue Planet Applications are OPEN!

APPLY HERE! Swim On is a yearly charity zine dedicated to shark preservation. All proceeds the zine makes go directly to finfree.org and this will be the final zine! After ten volumes I decided this was a good number to stop on so I want to it to go out with a BANG! The zine will go up on https://topazcomics.com/swimon for $1+ (pay what you can) All Swim On zines can be found at https://topazcomics.com/swimon/downloads All artists at any skill level are welcome to apply! Everyone who applies will receive an email, so be sure to whitelist swimon@topazcomics.com Any information in this application can be found at topazcomics.com/swimon Submission Guidelines

Your piece must be 6”x9” (1800x2700px) at 300dpi JPG or PNG in RGB

There is no theme the zine, just sharks!

A shark must be the focus of the piece (humans & other animals are allowed to be present)

You must submit a full completed piece, no rough sketches, or blank white backgrounds will be accepted

Comics, traditional and digital artwork are all accepted

You are welcome to submit more than one piece

Only new pieces will be accepted, please do not submit a piece that you have made previously

Lesser known species are encouraged!

For species examples check out this site

No anthropomorphic, half-human, or prehistoric sharks

Absolutely no AI art will be permitted

No nsfw content (including gore, death, blood – this is a G-rated zine)

Applying You will need to provide 1 url to showcase your work. This can be a tumblr, twitter, instagram, google drive, etc. Please:

Make sure your work is easily accessible and easy to find on your website of choice

Showcase that you can finish a full illustration or comic page

You can change your credit name or url after the rough pdf is sent out

You will receive a copy of the application after you apply, if you did not receive it please email swimon@topazcomics.com

This zine’s communication is through email only, there will not be a discord

Schedule May 10 – Call for artists opens May 24 – Call for artists closes May 31 – Artists Announced July 12 – Submissions are DUE July 26 – Rough PDF is sent to artists/adjustments made August 2 – Zine goes live September 2 – Artists can post their full pieces publicly September 30 – All proceeds donated to finfree.org If you have any questions about the zine check out the FAQ, shoot me an ask, reply to this post or you can contact me at: swimon@topazcomics.com

[nova-dracomon]

My Gender is [NOT] Human Zine is Now Accepting Submissions!

Xenogender: A gender that cannot be contained by human understandings of gender; more concerned with crafting other methods of gender categorization and hierarchy such as those relating to animals, plants, or other creatures/things.

This zine will be a collection of artwork, writing and more created by alterhumans and nonhumans to express both their species identity, gender, and how they intersect. While this zine will have an xenogender slant, everyone who has something to share about how their species and gender overlap are encouraged to submit pieces! Similarly, if you are currently questioning, you are still welcome to participate. Anonymous submissions are accepted.

What Can I Submit?

Both fiction and nonfiction pieces are accepted. As long as what you have in mind fits the theme, it’ll probably be a-ok. 

Off the top of our head, we’re thinking of:

Essays of your personal experiences

Short stories 

Poetry 

Advice columns

Artwork

Fictional advertisements

Comics 

Mock interviews

This is far from an exhaustive list, we welcome you to think outside the box!

How to Participate

Please email your completed submission to ruffledgryphon(@)gmail(.)com and title the email “My Gender is Not Human Zine Submission.” Also make sure to include the following information in your email:

A name you would like the piece attributed to 

Title of your submission

Any content warnings that you feel are necessary for the piece

Any social media handle or personal website you’d like listed in the contributor section

A logo or icon for the contributor section

**If you would like to stay anonymous please let us know

Members of systems are welcome to submit individually or collectively. Please let us know your preference when it comes to attribution.

Once the deadline has passed, the submissions will be crafted together into a single zine and it will be posted on our itch.io as a free PDF. 

Submissions are due by May 1, 2024.

Our itch.io: https://ruffledgryphon.itch.io/

Submission Guidelines

Each individual may submit up to 3 works to be featured in My Gender is [NOT] Human. Comics and multi-image works count as one piece. Individuals within a system may each submit up to 3 works. All work must be your own! Anyone caught plagiarizing or submitting AI-generated work will be barred from entering My Gender is [NOT] Human and any future zines from us.

Written submissions should not exceed 30 pages and multi-part art entries should not exceed 10 pages. Please keep in mind the zine’s pages will be 8.5x11 and entries will be scaled accordingly to fit that size. We request all art submissions to be sent in either .jpg or .png file formats. 

For stories that use multiple different fonts, we will do our best to preserve the general “feel” of your piece but cannot guarantee we will be able to use the exact fonts or sizes due to restrictions in what fonts we have access to, readability and overarching zine style.

Submissions must fit the thematic criteria of

About the intersection of gender and species identities

If you’re not sure if you count, feel free to reach out to us. However, we will be leaning on the side of “Yes! We’d love to hear from you!”

FAQ

Q: Where will the zine be hosted? What will it cost? A: The zine will be hosted digitally on our itch.io and will be free to download. Our itch.io can be found here: https://ruffledgryphon.itch.io/

Q: Is there a cap on submissions? A: There is none, as long as the file doesn’t start getting too big for our computer we’ll do our best! If there are an unprecedented amount of submissions, we may have to delay the release. In the event that happens, we would communicate that through updates on our tumblr.

Q: Can I update my application after it’s been submitted? A: Yes you may, as long as that is communicated to us before the submission deadline.

Q: Can I rescind my submission? A: Yes you may, as long as that is communicated to us before the submission deadline. This is because once we begin work on the zine, having to remove content mid-way through would throw off the formatting of everything else after. Please take this into account before submitting. 

Q: Will this zine allow NSFW entries? A: No, nothing 18+ will be accepted.

Q: What is your timeline for the project? A: Our submission deadline is May 1, 2024. We are then planning to spend the next month compiling all of the entries. Our goal is to have the zine live by June 1, 2024. If something unforeseen happens and we are unable to make that deadline, we will post an update about it on our tumblr.

Q: I have another question! A: Feel free to reach out to us at our email ruffledgryphon(@)gmail(.)com or here on tumblr  with any other questions you have about the zine.

[solar-acheron-zine]

Applications & submissions open!

Feel free to copy & paste this graphic to other websites :^]!

Applications & submissions for Solar Acheron, a collaborative Greek mythological fiction anthology zine are now open!

Looking to submit? Full guidelines can be read here!

Applications for designers & those looking to illustrate/have their work illustrated are closed.

Since not enough people were interested in purchasing the zine, it will be released in a single pdf and will be completely free & accessible to anyone wishing to print it. C:

@zine-scene @zine-applications @zinefeed @all-zine-apps

[embodiedfutures]

nov 9 - nov 13 readings

hi! this is reaux (she/they)! as many of you know, BFP is slowly waking up and will be undergoing a full makeover in the coming months. in the mean time, to help get back into the pattern of posting and to continue to share resources, i want to start posting what i read each week!

without further ado, here is everything i've been learning from and engaging with so far just between last saturday night [nov 9, 2024] and right now [wednesday afternoon, nov 13, 2024]! i tried to post this on tiktok @/edgeofeden.17 (go check me out for cool political talks and reading recs!) with my reactions as well, but they said it violated community guidelines :(

journal article: The House on Bayou Road: Atlantic Creole Networks in the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries

wikipedia: Plaçage

wikipedia: Signare

paperback book: Africans In Colonial Louisiana: The Development of Afro-Creole Culture in the Eighteenth-Century

article: Why Is Gen Z So Sex-Negative?: A prehistory of the Puriteen.

article: Policy-makers must not look to the “Nordic model” for sex trade legislation

article: Sex workers face unique challenges when trying to unionize: Anti-sex work stigma and labor status create roadblocks in sex workers’ fight against the industry status quo

wikipedia: Decriminalization of sex work

short youtube video: "Decriminalization of sex work does not mean the decriminalization of human trafficking."

short youtube video: What About Legalization? Decriminalization is the only solution

short youtube video: Dis/Ability and Sex Work Decriminalization

short youtube video: "Helping people through police is inherently coercive." - Gilda Merlot

wikipedia: Page Act of 1875

essay: Uses of the Erotic: The Erotic as Power by Audre Lorde

wikipedia: Erotic Capital

long youtube video: KATHERINE MCKITTRICK: Curiosities, Wonder, and Black Methodologies // 09.14.20

journal article: Black life is Not Ungeographic! Applying a Black Geographic Lens to Rural Education Research in the Black Belt

journal article: Black matters are spatial matters: Black geographies for the twenty-first century

journal article: Unspoken Grammar of Place: Anti-Blackness as a Spatial Imaginary in Education

short video: Chicago Works | Andrea Carlson: Shimmer on Horizons

zine: Evaluating What Skills You Can Bring to Radical Organizing

diagram + workbook?: The Social Change Ecosystem Map (2020)

essay: How to Build Language Justice

guide: Anti-Oppressive Facilitation for Democratic Process: Making Meetings Awesome for Everyone

radical resource library: Center for Liberatory Practice & Poetry

short essay: The Short Instructional Manifesto for Relationship Anarchy

essay/blog post: Access Intimacy: The Missing Link

i think that's everything? whew. let's see how i finish off the week! if you need PDFs for anything i didn't directly link, lmk and i'll find a way to get it to you. might upload it to my google drive or something!

--

topics: Louisiana Creole history + heritage, women of color + erotic capital, sex work decriminalization, Black geography, revolutionary organizing, language, relationship anarchy, disability, intimacy

[househrt]

Resource for whumpy hurt/comfort fic writers!!

Welcome to the St John of God Clinical Resources. It's from Western Australia and it includes a ton of info for medical professionals, meant to be a guide for paramedics ('To provide a written outline of systematic patient assessment and management in the pre-hospital situation').

The website is here, and it also exists as a 312-page PDF here.

It includes:

Clinical Practice Guidelines/Management aka "what does this injury/condition look like and how should it be managed/treated?" Conditions are sorted into broad categories of Neurological, Respiratory, Circulation, Trauma, Obstetric, Metabolic, Environmental, Anaphylaxis, Sepsis, and Toxicology. In each category, there's more specifics (i.e. within Trauma, there's all of these: Abdominal trauma, burn trauma, crush injury, eye injuries, haemorrhage, limb trauma, pelvic trauma, pneumothorax, spinal trauma, thoracic trauma, and traumatic brain injury). Then, within each condition, it tells you the presentation, risk assessment, and how it should be managed by paramedics (screenshots under the cut).

Skills aka "how do I do this and what do I need?" Again, it's sorted into categories: Assessment, Airway, Breathing, Circulation, Medications, Trauma, and Obstetrics, with specifics within each category. You wanna know how EpiPens work? Here. You wanna know suturing works? Here.

Medications aka: "what does this medication do, how does it work, and (for some meds) what's a standard dose for an adult of X weight?" (the website has a weight-based calculator for some meds) It's not a comprehensive list, but it's still so, so useful as a summary and starting point. It includes how quick the onset is, contraindications (times when the med shouldn't be used because it might be too harmful to the patient), etc.

It's got some other stuff too, but this post is already longer than I wanted it to be. Basically, it's useful, colour-coded and a great tool for writers if you want to get medical things accurate. Some of the language is obviously geared to medical professionals, but it's fairly accessible for the most part.

Some screenshots under the cut:

Screenshots from the website:

screenshots from the PDF:

[dartagnantt]

Called Shots | Because the players keep asking

PDFs of this and more can be found over on at my Patreon here! I release everything for free, so your support makes this possible. I've also started making a new system based off of 5e, 6th Dawn! Become a patron and join the playtest.

What is a called shot, if not a self imposed challenge with a built in reward? And while I don't think it's ever going to be a balanced mechanic, it does make for a good thinking exercise, and the result, moreover, makes for a good jumping off point.

Are these balanced? As I said before, probably not. What they are is a set of guidelines consistent with how the 5e (and I guess by extention, oneD&D, Tales of the Valiant, Advanced 5e, and now 6th dawn) rules are designed.

Simple penalty = simple reward. If I wanted to be properly balanced, I go with some kind of Sharpshooter/great weapon master thing where I do numerical penalties in proportion to the strength of the effect, but that's not something anyone at the table actually wants to bother with. So instead, disadvantage and no gaming the system, and even more nuances on the instant kill option, because of course you want the instant kill option. Vorpal sword eat your head off.

…

That is how the expression goes, right?

And now to plug my stuff. I release homebrews weekly over on my Patreon. Anyone who pledges $1 or more per post don't have to wait a month to see them, and also help fund my being alive habit.

At the moment, they have exclusive access to the following:

Daredevil Conclave

Forces of Chaos

Survival of the FIttest

Proteans

I also have three classes, and a splatbook over on DriveThrueRPG to check out:

The Rift Binder. A class specialising in summoning monsters and controlling the battlefield.

The Witch Knight. A class that combines swords and sorcery in the most literal way.

The Werebeast. A class that turns you into a half beast to destroy your foes.

d'Artagnan's Adventurer Almanac. A compendium of races, subclasses, feats, spells, monsters and more!

[lordoftheringsmusical]

The Lord of the Rings opens in Chicago today!

The Chicago Shakespeare Theater has provided additional information on the website ahead of the first preview tonight (19 July 2024):

Age recommendation: Suitable for all audiences; best enjoyed by ages 8 & up

Run Time: 2 hours, 45 minutes (including intermission)

Audience Notice: Prop weaponry, including items handled by actors as they move through the audience; fog and haze; brief usage of strobe lights and loud sound effects.

More useful links:

Cosplay guidelines

Programme (PDF, download)

Seat Map (PDF, download) / Ticket Guide (mine)

Visitor & Access Information

[adasitecompliance]

Create Accessible PDFs

The Ultimate Guide To PDF Accessibility: How To Make Your Documents Inclusive And Compliant

In today’s digital age, Portable Document Format (PDF) files have become an integral part of our information-sharing process. Whether educational materials, corporate reports, or government publications, PDF files with Accessibility maintain the original formatting and allow users to access information consistently across various devices. However, for PDFs to be truly effective, they must be accessible to all, including those with disabilities. Besides, as about 61 million adult Americans have some disability, you risk their not being able to access the ADA-compliant PDFs and content you create. And it’s not just those with visual impairments that are affected. Even people with a mobile or hearing disability may face problems accessing your web content or PDF.

This is why the ADA and Section 508 focus on making life for those people with disabilities much easier. They require that places of accommodation be accessible to users with disabilities. As PDFs are commonly used on the web, they also have to comply with these laws based on the criteria set by the WCAG. While web compliance is important, creating accessible web content can be challenging. PDFs are especially difficult to manage as they are complex files inaccessible out of the box. It’s only experts who know WCAG and ADA standards well who can take care of the task. We have provided some tips about PDF accessibility features in this article. However, don’t worry if the information overwhelms you. We at ADA Site Compliance can help if you don’t know how to ensure your website or PDF is accessible. Our team of accessibility experts will not only check your PDFs and website content for accessibility but also constantly monitor and update your website and PDFs based on the latest accessibility updates.

Overview of Portable Document Format (PDF)

PDFs, developed by Adobe, have transformed how we share electronic documents. The format was created to maintain document integrity while allowing easy sharing. PDFs are based on an image model that differs from the typical PostScript language commonly used. It is to improve interaction and accessibility that PDFs are structured differently.

What makes an accessible PDF?

As the name suggests, an accessible PDF is a PDF anyone with any disability can easily read and navigate through. And it can mean different things for users with different disabilities. For example, for those with visual impairments, an accessible PDF can mean any of these three. It can mean:

They can easily zoom into the texts if need be

The content has high contrast, making it easy to read

They can easily read the PDF using the help of screen readers

In the case of users with physical disabilities, it means ensuring users can easily navigate through the entire document with the help of a keyboard. These readers find managing a mouse for navigation difficult, so being able to use a keyboard is a welcome move for them. For users with hearing impairments, creating an accessible PDF will mean having captioned audio and video content. In short, the main aim of creating web-compliant PDFs is to provide them with an alternative means of accessing content. Most PDFs have some of these options as default, like zooming and keyboard navigation. However, it doesn’t mean that these PDFs are necessarily accessible. They can, however, be made accessible just by implementing some additional steps.

Characteristics of Accessible PDF Files

Accessible PDFs are a must to ensure inclusivity. Most importantly, they feature searchable text, which, in the process, makes content available to screen readers. Besides, unlike scanned images of text, accessible PDFs can be selected, copied, and edited. This can prove helpful to everyone requiring more clarity about the PDF. Optical Character Recognition (OCR) technology also plays a crucial role in making content searchable and thus accessible to all.

Navigating PDF Accessibility

Ensuring that your PDF documents are fully accessible can be a complex task, but it’s an essential one. This is especially required with the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) having set the standards for digital accessibility. These guidelines encompass various aspects, including alternative text alternatives, navigation, and readability. Adhering to these guidelines is crucial to creating PDFs that are both legally compliant and user-friendly. Besides, ensuring that your website and the content you provide, including PDFs, are accessible is not just a legal obligation; it’s a moral imperative. By embracing accessibility, you not only comply with the law but also open doors for a more inclusive and diverse audience.

Accessible PDFs: A Key to Digital Inclusion

The importance of accessible PDFs cannot be overstated. They open up a world of information and opportunities for individuals with disabilities. Accessible PDFs offer text-to-speech capabilities, allowing screen readers to convey the content to visually impaired users. Moreover, they allow users to navigate the document efficiently, providing screen reader users with a seamless reading experience. When your documents are accessible, you broaden your reach and cater to a broader audience. This inclusivity can increase website traffic and customer engagement, benefiting your business or organization.

How to Remediate an Inaccessible PDF?

Making an inaccessible PDF accessible isn’t about perfection; it’s about improving and providing access for all. Whether you have the original source document or just a PDF, here is a rundown of the best ways to enhance existing PDF documents for accessibility with the help of the right tools and processes. Contact ADA Siite Compliance today so we can make ALL your PDF documents fully accessible.

1. Determining the Accessibility Path for Each PDF Document

As PDFs can be generated in various ways, there is no cookie-cutter accessibility solution. Each document has and needs a unique solution.  The good news is there are some tools like Adobe Acrobat Pro with multiple accessibility features, making the remediation process more manageable.

2. Starting with an Accessible Document

The journey to accessible PDFs begins with the source document. Whenever possible, it is always better to start the remediation process with the document title in native file formats. The reason is that any and all documents created in Word or desktop publishing software can be later easily exported as PDFs. This is a useful feature as it allows for adding additional text, headings, data table structures, other document structure tags, language definitions, and more.

3. Preventing Security Settings from Interfering with Screen Readers

Ensuring that screen readers can navigate your PDFs smoothly is an important step in remediating inaccessible PDFs in the form fields in the proper PDF format. It is always better to avoid copying, printing, extracting comments, or editing PDFs. The reason is that these actions can hinder accessibility. There are tools that can help you ensure that access permissions do not interfere with screen reading.

How to Make a PDF Compliant with Accessibility?

Achieving document accessibility in your PDFs is essential. It ensures that users with difficulties can at least use the help of assistive technologies like screen readers to interpret your whole document structure’s structure correctly. Besides, as mentioned earlier, compliance with ADA standards helps make your digital landscape more inclusive to reach out to more of your target audience and, in the process, generate more web traffic.

How do you make accessible PDF documents?

There are a few optimal practices to adhere to within reading order to make a PDF accessible documents, and they are to:

Make things simple; in other words, use simple language in the PDF

Ensure you include as many relevant headings and subheadings as possible

Including meaningful alt-text for all the images and graphics you have in your PDF

Ensuring the text in the PDF is not only readable but has sufficient contrast with the background for better readability

Not depending much on colors to convey information as it can be intimidating to users with color blindness

Always make more use of accessible tables and lists in PDF documents

Adding bookmarks where possible

Using a catchy and interesting title, and of course, specifying the language used in the PDF

Correctly tagging the different elements

Setting titles and metadata as and where appropriate

Adding captions to videos and other non-text content accessible

It is undoubtedly time-consuming to create accessible PDFs. However, the end result of a compliant, accessible PDF file, which increases your reach and reduces the chances of facing a legal lawsuit, makes the item invested well worth it. Besides, you can always use the help of PDF accessibility checkers for PDF document audits and verifications as per the latest accessibility standards. And if that’s too cumbersome, you can always have the experts take care of your PDF compliance while you focus on what you do the best!

Web Accessibility Provider

Ensuring web compliance is a multifaceted endeavor. It may seem to take lots of time and be confusing to many. It’s where web accessibility providers, like ADA Site Compliance, play a crucial role in ensuring your website and PDFs meet ADA standards. We have a team of accessibility experts who can help make web compliance so much easier and less time-consuming for you. With our expertise, we can ensure your site and all your PDFs are easily accessible to all, including individuals with disabilities.

In conclusion, the world of PDF accessibility and web compliance is multifaceted, but it’s a journey worth embarking on. By ensuring that your PDFs are accessible, you not only meet legal standards but also contribute to a more inclusive and diverse digital landscape. Together, we can make the Internet a place where everyone can access information and opportunities. Contact ADA Site Compliance for all your website accessibility needs today!

[kiscon]

K/S Gazette (Jan and Feb!)

First, a reminder: Early Bird Registration for KiScon is still open through Valentine's Day!

If you have not yet registered for KiScon and want that sweet sweet Early Bird Registration rate of $150, make sure you sign up within this window!

The price of in-person attending registration will go up on February 15th to $165. Registration will remain available at that price through the 31st of July. On August 1st the price will go up again to $180. All registration for the convention, both online and in person, takes place through Conline! Register here: https://kiscon.conline.club/ We have also produced a helpful Conline How-To pdf: https://kiscon.org/resources/Conline-How-To-2024.pdf

More information regarding registration, membership tiers, as well as scholarships, can be found in the previous issue of our newsletter, archived here. 2. Submissions for the 2024 KiScon Zine are open! Submissions for the 2024 KiScon Zine are open now through August 1st!

Our editor, @1lostone, is looking forward to working with you.

We are looking for new and never before seen art and writing (both fic and meta!) focusing on the relationship between Kirk and Spock.

For a full rundown of the submission guidelines and access to the submission form, please see the zine page on our website: https://kiscon.org/zine.html

The hard deadline for zine submissions is August 1st, 2024. 3. K/S Spring Fever is in full swing!

February finds you feeling frigid? Not to fret! K/S Spring Fever, our delightful springtime Kirk and Spock prompt fill fest will have you thoroughly warmed up in no time! The prompting phase of the fest has generated 120 glorious prompts, which now beckon to be filled.

You can view said prompts and find out more information about the event on the 2024 Collection Page on AO3. 4. K/S Bingo is also in full swing, and will be for the rest of the year!

If you are active in our KiScord Server you may already be aware, but 1lostone has put together a splendid, low-pressure K/S fannish creation event in the form of a bingo challenge!

The way it works is like this: 1. You fill out this Google form. 2. 1lostone, powerful Wrangler of the Bingo, will then generate for you a custom bingo card, and send it to you either via Direct Message on Discord or via e-mail. 3. You have until the end of the year to obtain the state known as bingo (horizontal, vertical, diagonal, blackout, Texas T – any way you like) by creating fanworks to fill the prompts upon thy bingo card. Don't forget to add your work to the AO3 collection: KiScon Bingo Challenge. 5. Curious what else is going on in online K/S fandom?

The lovely Thia has put together a handy dandy calendar of K/S and K/S adjacent fandom events, anniversaries, and deadlines for the year 2024! It lists the events in chronological order and has links to websites where you can find out more information on many of them listed at the bottom of the page. Neat!

You can view the calendar on Thia's website here.  6. Not enough K/S in your social media feed?

KiScon is now on both Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/kisconnews/) and TikTok (https://www.tiktok.com/@kisconnews/).

Our lovely social media wranglers @cate-adams and @purpleenma are currently conducting and posting a fascinating fannish interview series, as well as KiScon and K/S fandom related news and updates in delightful bite-sized social media format. If you are active on either of these platforms, please consider giving us a follow!

And that's the news! Thank you all so much for taking the time to read this.

We've said this before but we'll say it again: we love to hear from y'all! If you have a question or comment about anything discussed in the newsletter or maybe a piece of K/S news we've missed, such as a new zine coming out or an online fanwork creation fest or anything else you think might be worthy of note, please let us know! You can get in touch by replying directly to this e-mail. :-) Yours in K/S,

T’Lara & StarshipLillian

[rottenshotgungames]

Sorry for falling off of the face of the earth for a bit there

Make A Quick Reference

I’ve been quietly toiling away, making design alterations, doing formatting, editing, making character sheets, all of those lovely things that go into publishing a playtest. I’ve walked away from that experience a little wiser, new skills under my belt and an utter hatred for the process of creating form fillable PDFs. I’d like to share some of that hard-won wisdom today, particularly this:

YOU SHOULD MAKE A RULES REFERENCE SHEET FOR YOUR GAME. If it is any larger than two pages, your game needs it. I do not care what your game is, it can be a tactical combat game, an FiTD variant, some chaotic mish-mash resulting in an OSR Lovecraft game, you should make a Quick Reference sheet. There are a lot of reasons why, A LOT of reasons, but here’s 3 big ones:

It really helps GMs and players (this is the obvious one). Having a reference sheet during play makes the game faster, easier, and better.

It forces you to review, revise, and refocus the game’s foundation. You should be doing this regularly as part of the design process anyway, but creating a rules reference will often result in a stark reminder of what the central rules of your games are. If you’ve lost your focus a bit, you’ll figure it out pretty quick.

It exercises your ability to convey information concisely, a necessary skill for game designers and writers. If you’re not practicing conveying the necessary rules of your game in short form, you should be— and making a quick reference will be a wake-up call if nothing else.

That should be enough. If you are not convinced that you should make a quick reference, I cannot help you. Go, live in your blissful ignorance for eternity.

For those who have taken my message to heart, I’m gonna give you a few loose guidelines for making an effective quick reference. These are not hard and fast rules, just things that I use for myself to keep the sheet practical and sharpening.

Include core and common rules first and foremost. This is different for every game, but usually includes one or two important chapters (probably the first one). I don’t personally include character specific options, but to each their own.

Limit yourself to a 2 page spread / single sheet of paper. If you have multiple kinds of play, such as downtime rules or a separation between narrative and tactical play, feel free to create a second 2 page rules reference.

Use boxes and tables. Organize and section related information to the best of your ability.

Limit yourself to a minimum font size of 10 point. This is about the limit of readability on a printed page, for the purpose of accessibility.

Like all rules documents, write the first draft in pure text format.

That’s really it. At the end of the day, any quick reference is better than no quick reference. Whether you eschew these guidelines entirely or specify hard-and-fast rules is entirely up to you. That being said . . . MAKE A QUICK REFERENCE. And if you have a favorite quick reference, or implementation of a quick reference sheet, please let me know in the notes!

Self Promotion

Thank you so much for reading. I really just wanted to get something out, considering how long I’ve been absent. The free playtest for my stealth-action RPG, Footfall, is launching by the end of the day tomorrow! The game is going to include all player facing rules, the rules for enemy creation, and a playable adventure. If you want to be notified when it releases, you can follow me here or on itch at https://rotten-shotgun-games.itch.io. I also have a Discord server where I post about the projects I’m working on pretty regularly, which can be joined with this link: https://discord.gg/wcHnG4V5fH.

Once again, I hope you have a great night and a great day.