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LaTeX for tabletop

15 Apr, 2023

    LaTeX, which is pronounced "Lah-tech" or "Lay-tech" (to rhyme
    with "blech" or "Bertolt Brecht"), is a document preparation
    system for high-quality typesetting. It is most often used for
    medium-to-large technical or scientific documents but it can be
    used for almost any form of publishing.^1

There are multiple RPG-oriented LaTeX templates: from old-school^2 to
contemporary^3 ones. What are the Pros and Cons of using this
academia-oriented tool for writing your tabletop rulebooks,
adventures, or zines?

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Pros

Consistent Style

Just as I write this blog in Markdown, and the site's engine fashions
it with consistent margins, fonts, and colors, LaTeX does the same
(and much more) for the PDF it outputs. You specify the visual style
once and forget about it (until you decide to shake things up a
little), which allows you to concentrate on the writing.

Automation

LaTeX does all the boring tasks for you. Table of contents? Index?
List of tables? All will be accounted for and updated on its own.

Macros

Not only LaTeX has a vast library of commands, but you could create
your own, suited for your specific needs, including math operations
and simple programming procedures.

Version Control and Collaboration

Since the LaTeX source files are plain text, they are perfect for
version control systems like Git.^4^,^5^,^6 You'll have all the
chronology of edits done you your documents, as well as benefits of
working on a different branches and along with other people.

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Cons

Learning Curve

You need to know the syntax in depth to get the most of the LaTeX
experience. You don't need to learn it all at once though -- just
extend your knowledge base when needed.

Installation Size

TeX Live distribution with additional packages that I use to compile
ItDR takes almost 2 GB of space. Maybe not that much by modern
standards, but you should keep that in mind.

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Starting point

It is not hard to find a LaTeX beginner-level tutorial. Here's one
from the NYU. Also, some kind of cheat sheet will be useful.

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Editor

There are multiple editors available. My editor of choice is
TeXstudio, but you might find than another one will suit you better.

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STY files

It is quite useful to keep all of your custom formatting parameters
and macros in a separate file. Here is a quick reference on how to
write your own packages.

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Example

So, with that information in mind, here's a minimal working example
of a LaTeX document.

example.tex

\documentclass[10pt,twoside,twocolumn,openany]{book}
\usepackage{example}
\usepackage[utf8]{inputenc}
\usepackage{lipsum}

\title{\scshape\LaTeX~Example}
\author{Vladar}

\begin{document}

\maketitle

\chapter{Example}

Here's an example of a custom command defined in \verb|example.sty| that formats a monster stat block:

\statblock[d6]{Orcs}{MV 40'; AC 6; HD 1; AB +1; \#AT 1 scimitar (1d8); SV F1; AL C; Int 7; ML 8; XP 10.}{}

\vspace{\baselineskip}

What follows is a dummy ``Lorem ipsum'' text.

\lipsum[1-4]

\end{document}

example.sty

\ProvidesPackage{example}

\RequirePackage{xcolor}

% \statblock[number]{Name}{stats}
% Outputs a monster statblock.
\newcommand{\statblock}[3][1]{%
    \noindent
    \colorbox{black!20}{%
        \parbox{0.98\linewidth}{%
                \textbf{#2 (#1)} #3
        }% parbox
    }% colorbox
}

Now try to compile it and see what you'll get!

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With this information, you can start tinkering with LaTeX and adapt
it for your specific purposes. In the future I will highlight
specific use-cases and some useful packages.

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Discuss this post on Reddit

end illustration

 1. https://www.latex-project.org/about-

 2. https://www.ctan.org/pkg/rpg-module-

 3. https://github.com/rpgtex/DND-5e-LaTeX-Template-

 4. https://git-scm.com-

 5. https://github.com-

 6. https://gitlab.com-

#software #guide #ttrpg #gamedev #latex

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