Cookbooks & RPG books assume the same key thing: That the cook or the GM will be glancing at the book mid-cooking or mid-session to find information. EVERYTHING, design-wise, is about helping them find the information they need as FAST and EASY as possible. Let's dig into it.

1. Separation of Flavor/Art and Instructions Recipe headnotes & boxed/narrative text are visually and spatially distinct from the technical writing. This separation ensures that the instructions are clean and easy to parse quickly while making the narrative distinct & findable.

The key takeaway here for writers AND layout artists is that there's a time for art, and there's a time for instruction. Whether a cookbook or a TTRPG book, never let art (written or visual) impede instruction.

2. Headings Cookbooks and TTRPG books use headers to help readers find what they need quickly. Cookbooks separate instruction text with headers like "To Make the Cake:" / "To Make the Frosting:", while TTRPG books use headers to separate out things like treasure, NPCs, & more.

Look at sections holistically & ask, "How can I divide & label the text to make information easily found?" Just like a cake's parts (cake, frosting, filling, assembling & decorating), encounters may include a trap, combat, NPCs, treasure, & more. Make sure it's all easy to find!

3. Numerals Instead of Text Since cooks and GMs are glancing QUICKLY to find what they need, cookbooks & TTRPG books use numerals to help numbers stand out visually in a paragraph. "bake for ten minutes" -> "bake for 10 minutes" "takes five fire damage" -> "takes 5 fire damage"

Interestingly, this rule isn't always true. Pure narrative text spells out numbers. The busier the reader is (mid-cooking, mid-combat), the more the numbers MUST be findable. If they're reading about a village's five towers, they aren't in such a rush to find that information.

So the takeaway for numerals vs. spelled-out numbers? The more likely it is that the GM will be in a chaotic state of mind, busy and thinking quickly improvising on the fly, the more we use numerals! They stand out from text, so they're easy to grab!

4. Parceled-Out Information Cookbooks & TTRPG books ask "What information should be known at a glance?", then parcel it out into small headers. "Prep Time: 30 minutes "Cook Time: 30 minutes Yield: 12 to 14 meatballs Dietary Notes: Dairy-free" "AC: 12" "HP: 35" "Investiture: 2"

We ask ourselves what people are MOST likely to look for quickly (can they eat the dish? what's the CR of this creature? how difficult is the recipe? what's the AC of this creature again? what's the level range of this adventure? how many will this feed?) and separate it out.

Ingredients work this way, too! We KNOW people will forget how many teaspoons of vanilla extract they need, or they'll want to double-check, so ingredients get their own list—the same way a dungeon might have a quick-reference section on the lighting, ceiling height, etc.!

5. Parentheses This is just a fun quirk I love that these books share. They use parentheses to visually distinguish mechanical things, once again making it easier to find at a glance. "... and sauté until crispy (5 to 7 minutes)." "DC 16 Dexterity (Stealth) check" etc.

6. Don't Assume How the Reader Has Read the Book This sounds weird, but it's important. Good cookbooks NEVER assume a reader has read the book from front to back—because they usually don't. A reader typically opens up the book, finds a recipe they're interested in, and makes it.

This means that if you explain a technique in one recipe (such as how to temperature-test a cake), and another recipe would benefit from that technique, you copy that explanation over. It might seem repetitive, but we can't assume the reader read the other recipe.

All the information they need to succeed at THAT recipe must be, for the most part, on THAT page. (Exceptions exist for things like sub-recipes, etc.) That can highly impact how you approach writing and designing adventures. Does your GM have everything they need on THAT PAGE?

TTRPG books make extensive & good use of cross-references. An adventure page might point a reader to a bestiary for a stat block, to a character bio, and to the Background section. But are they being asked to cross-reference too much? That question is worth asking ourselves.

It's worth stepping back and looking at a page holistically and saying, "For the most part, does a GM have everything they need to run this adventure on this page? Or in this book? Have we equipped them for success?" Not always possible, but good to keep in mind!

7. Design Splashes for Notes Cookbooks & TTRPGs both use sidebars/note boxes for things they want to call special attention to. They're usually colored differently and have elements that draw attention to them. Visual distinction for high findability!

These are just SOME of the things that cookbooks & TTRPG books do as technical manuals to make your cooking and GMing easier. I'm sure I missed some! But it's fascinating & fun to compare them—I think working with both has given me a better eye for layout usability. The end!

p.s. I don't know why "BOOKS" is in all caps in the first tweet, but we're just going to ignore that thanks 🙏