Lacking Natural Simplicity

Here I'd like to list the typographical conventions I'm currently using for this blog. (Earlier posts and pages may not use these conventions.)

• Filenames are a green monospaced font: /usr/local/bin.

• Application names are a black bold italic: Emacs.

• Command names (Unix, VMS, Microsoft Windows/DOS, whatever) are a black bold monospaced font: ls or emacs when talking about the actual command.

• The names and section numbers of man pages are in a monospaced italic font groff_ms(7).

• Inline literal or code text is a red monospaced font with a gray background with a hint of red (#f9f2f4 to be precise): rm -rfv *.

• Key strokes are in an orange monospaced font with a gray background with a hint of red (#f9f2f4 again): C-x C-s. They are notated with the Emacs conventions: M- indicates the Meta key (usually "Alt" or "Option" on common keyboards, sometimes indicated with ⌥ by Apple, although the Unicode character is ⎇), C- indicates the "Control" key. S- indicates the "Super" key, ⌘ (“Command”) on Macs, and something else weird on other keyboards.

Now for the fun stuff:

• Encounter area identifiers (usually letters or numbers or a combination thereof) are enclosed in a box with rounded corners: K1.

• Dice, when notated, are in black bold: 3d6+1.

• Items (magic or named), when notated, are in black bold: +1 flaming sword.

• Skills, when notated, are in brown italic: Investigation.

• Spells or powers, when notated, are in purple italic: Fireball, Intangibility.

• A named bit of gaming mechanic, when notated, is in green italic bold: Mighty Blow.

• A house rule, when notated, is in red italic bold: Critical Hit.

• Loot, when notated, is in bold: 30 gp.

• A player character name, when notated, is in bold: Alexa.

• A non-player character name, when notated, is in bold italics: Neven Wesved.

• When a dead player character is notated, their name is in bold and strikethrough: Bytor.

• When a dead non-player character is notated, their name is in bold italics and strikethrough: Polam Wesved.

• A creature name, when notated, is in red and bold: Carrion Crawler.

• A scene name, when notated, is in italics: Across the Chasm.

• A GM's name, when notated, is in underlined, overlined dark green: T.T..

• A hireling's name, notated, is in underline: Symna and Karl.

• Experience points (or character points, whatever they are named), when notated, are in bold: 250 xp.