Product Standards Recommendations

Product standards guarantee we offer customers the best possible products and make their shopping experiences enjoyable. Customers should be eager to return and buy more products from the people that sell through DMsGuild. These standards are not an attempt to control the content of any products, but to set recommendations for presentation which will be to the benefit of partners, customers, and DMsGuild.

The quality of products, from all partners, is the key component of the quality of the store. When partners put together high-quality products and offer accurate and detailed information about them, customers can better find what they want and make informed purchasing decisions.

There are three main components to the presentation of any product:

  • The cover
  • The product description
  • The product preview

Product Presentation

Cover

A customer's first impression about a product comes from a thumbnail of the cover image.

These appear on the front page of the site when a product is new and in various contexts throughout the life of the product. Ideally, a product should be clearly recognizable even when its cover is seen as a thumbnail. Therefore, the cover of any product needs to both represent the product well and be appropriate for display to the general public.

The cover, as displayed on the DMsGuild sites, can be the graphic actually used on the cover of a print version of a product, or it can be a graphic prepared to resemble such a cover even though there is no print version. We recommend including your cover graphic in the digital product. A partner with a compilation of artwork might make a cover by adding the title to a single piece of artwork or making a collage of several pieces to indicate what is included in the product. The creator of an audio product might put together a colorful graphic for the sole purpose of presenting the product's title anywhere the cover thumbnail needs to appear.

In preparing cover images, partners should strive for a professional appearance. This does not mean that all artwork or graphics must be prepared by someone who is a professional artist. However, partners should keep in mind that product covers represent their business to the public, and should aim to have those covers represent them in the best way possible. This may include (but is not limited to) using art which is well done, having a legible product title, showing a distinctive logo for the company or product line, and arranging all these elements in a pleasing fashion. The overall effect should be to attract customers' eyes, and give them confidence that the product will be high quality.

Cover Specifications

Cover images should be 736 x 953 pixels, in PNG, JPG, or GIF format. For quicker load times of your cover images, please try to keep their file size under 200kb. We recommend the PNG format for the best quality image.

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Guidelines for Cover Images and Other Artwork

DMsGuild uses the following 'universal' standard regarding human-like figures:

  • Absolutely no full nudity or exposed genitals. Artwork included on the cover or in the files of a product should have any human figure (or semi-human or humanoid figure, in the case of fantasy or science fiction products) be covered at least to the extent of the Miss Universe or Mr. Universe candidates in the linked photos. It's recommended to keep artwork to a "PG" standard on DMsGuild, products with suggestive or otherwise inappropriate imagery of any kind will be deactivated. Use recently published official Dungeons & Dragons products as a guide to what is acceptable on DMsGuild.

Product Description

The product description is the most important component in selling a product to a customer. It should be complete - telling the customer everything they need to know about the product - accurate, and clear.

  • For more tips on creating a great product description, see our article here!

Display pages from the product in the product preview (see below) and use the product description to tell customers about the product. The "Set Up a New Title" and "Edit a Title Listing" tools encourage the entry of several important pieces of information by providing places to fill in the author, artist, and number of pages. The "Product Page Text" on the form is the place to put anything else potential customers should know.

For instance: Is the product an adventure, a rules supplement, or something else? If it is a supplement, is it used only with a specific book, or can it be used with more than one? For whom is it intended - a Dungeon Master, a player, or anyone? In what ways might a purchaser use the product? If the product has specific requirements or value-added components, this is the place to mention them.

Point out if the product has an ink-saving version to print, or a screen-friendly version, set in landscape instead of portrait orientation. The text could also reiterate key points - such as the author or page count - so customers have more than one chance to take in that information.

Allowed URLs

We do not allow offsite links in product descriptions. You can find a full list of allowed URLs here. We do allow offsite links in the Purchase Note and the PDF of your product, however URLs linking to third-party marketplaces should not appear in the PDF Preview of your title.

 

Good Examples of Description Pages

While these are just a few examples and not required, we hope that these listings will inspire your creativity to make your description the best it can be.

Tabletop Roleplaying Games

Darrington Press | Tal'dorei Campaign Setting Reborn

  • Beautiful artwork to grab the customers' attention.
  • Previews enabled.
  • Video to support the listing.
  • Clear description of what the customer is getting.
  • Clearly chosen filters that match what the setting and game system is.
  • Links to news articles as well as social media.

Monte Cook Games | Cypher System Rulebook

  • Beautiful artwork to grab the customers' attention.
  • Previews enabled.
  • How to Play video.
  • Clear description of what the customer is getting.
  • Clearly chosen filters that match what the setting and game system is.

Possum Creek Games | Wanderhome

  • Beautiful graphics to accompany descriptive text.
  • Previews enabled.
  • List of press and actual plays to see the game in real time.
  • Testimonies from industry peers and professionals.
  • Attributing inspiration.

Hunters Entertainment | Alice is Missing

  • Beautiful artwork to grab the customers' attention.
  • Previews enabled.
  • How to Play video.
  • Gif of the game in action.
  • Run time of the game included.
  • Clear description of what the customer is getting.
  • Clearly chosen filters that match what the setting and game system is.
  • Attributing inspiration.

Eldritch Sands - Campaign Setting for 5th Edition | Poison Potion Press

  • Beautiful graphics to accompany descriptive text.
  • Previews enabled.
  • Promotes other titles they've published.
  • Clear description of what the customer is getting.

Virtual Tabletop / TTRPGs

Dragonix | Monster Manual Expanded II

  • Very clear that it is for Roll20
  • Link to the PDF version up top.
  • Preview of spreads in the book.
  • Preview of the game on Roll20.
  • Testimonies from industry peers and professionals.
  • Video to support the game.

Maps

Heroic Maps | Storeys: The Lost Library

  • Hook at the top to grab the customers' interest.
  • Clear listing of size, file type, and where they can be used.
  • Gif of different maps along with graphics previews.
  • Footer at the bottom to promote other titles.

Loke Battlemaps | Cyberpunk Neon Alleys

  • Hook at the top to grab the customers' interest.
  • Clear listing of size, file type, and where they can be used.
  • Gif of different maps along with graphics previews.
  • Footer at the bottom to promote other titles and a free map and encounter to expand their customer base.

STL Files

Fat Dragon | Cavern Starter

  • Clear description of what the customer is getting.
  • Full preview of all pieces as well as previews of the actual printed tiles.
  • Optional ways to utilize the STL files.
  • Consistent branding on graphics.
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