[HN Gopher] LaTeX for tabletop
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LaTeX for tabletop
Author : gaws
Score : 92 points
Date : 2023-09-17 16:56 UTC (6 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (vladar.bearblog.dev)
(TXT) w3m dump (vladar.bearblog.dev)
| zzo38computer wrote:
| I use Plain TeX (I have tried to use LaTeX once and I found Plain
| TeX easier to work with and get right how I intended). I have
| written macros to do what I wanted, including headings, automatic
| table of contents, cross-references, and also black bars on the
| edge of the page to indicate chapters and sections so that they
| can easily be found by the edge of the book.
|
| Since \write in a page is only valid if the page is shipped out,
| and the references of pages will need to be known before they are
| printed, so instead I used insertions for this, and the insertion
| contains altnerating marks and penalties, which are then using
| \vsplit in the output routine to extract the marks and execute
| them without shipping out the page during the first pass.
|
| Another use of insertions is tables that span multiple pages,
| that it may automatically add "(continued on next page)" and
| repeat the table headings on the top of the next page.
|
| And, it is also helpful to include mathematical equations in the
| text; in my opinion that is one of the problems with many other
| RPG systems that doesn't have enough mathematical equations.
|
| It is not yet completed, but it is (and will continue to be) 100%
| public domain.
| forgotpwd16 wrote:
| >It is not yet completed, but it is (and will continue to be)
| 100% public domain.
|
| Where can it be found?
| bovermyer wrote:
| I used to use LaTeX for RPG manuscript formatting. I still do,
| for some small side projects.
|
| Thing is... while it's good for consistency and tracking changes,
| it's horrible for the creative process, layout-wise. Visual
| editors like Affinity Publisher are much better for other-than-
| trivial layout concerns.
| wyldfire wrote:
| I _love_ the way LaTeX output looks and so I 've dabbled. I've
| been very happy with the results using templates written by
| others. But I occasionally need something slightly customized and
| I feel a bit hopeless. I've just never taken the time to get
| comfortable with the details.
| blitzar wrote:
| I too love the way LaTeX output looks and it blows my mind that
| I can not make things that look as good with other tools.
| bombcar wrote:
| There is a LaTeX package called "memoir" which is basically a
| "modpack" for LaTeX - and it has a detailed manual on how to do
| various customization things.
|
| Or you can use its beautiful defaults.
| timvdalen wrote:
| I've been doing this for a while now. Initially, it was an easy
| way to generate good-looking screen PDFs, but I've even branched
| into print-ready files now.
|
| https://wealdham.timvdalen.nl/mitsp
| https://wealdham.timvdalen.nl/aawp
| https://wealdham.timvdalen.nl/eee
| thangalin wrote:
| For my novel, I wanted to have a different style for
| conversations (or events) that are happening simultaneously. And
| I wanted to use Markdown. Rather than sprinkling TeX commands
| throughout the document, I use annotations, which were introduced
| by pandoc. Annotations resemble: :::
| {.concurrent title="Hacker News Thread 1"} I'm writing in
| an HN thread. ::: ::: {.concurrent
| title="Hacker News Thread 2"} This is a separate thread.
| :::
|
| This gets styled in the PDF as:
|
| https://i.ibb.co/ZfZXmDn/output.png
|
| Later, I could opt to format the concurrent threads as two-column
| text ... without changing the Markdown source file.
|
| Various styles are packed in themes, which the user can select
| when exporting to PDF. At present, there are only three themes:
|
| https://github.com/DaveJarvis/keenwrite-themes/tree/main/exa...
|
| There other styles in the Boschet theme, such as speech bubbles,
| TODOs, and so forth: ::: bubbletx
| Speech sent from the device. ::: :::
| bubblerx Speech received by the device. :::
|
| Here's a video showing how they appear in the preview window:
|
| https://youtu.be/7icc4oZB2I4?list=PLB-WIt1cZYLm1MMx2FBG9KWzP...
|
| Creating a theme for tabletop role-playing games would take some
| elbow grease. When finished, it'd mean people could write their
| documents in Markdown and reuse the same theme, without having to
| know how TeX commands work. Knowing TeX commands is a barrier to
| entry for a lot of people.
| starkparker wrote:
| > Creating a theme for tabletop role-playing games would take
| some elbow grease
|
| The article links to several, including a convincing
| reproduction of basic Wizards of the Coast house style for D&D
| 5E:
|
| https://github.com/rpgtex/DND-5e-LaTeX-Template
|
| Here's another 5E one with additional sidebar styles:
|
| https://github.com/anoderay/DND-5e-LaTeX-Template/
|
| Also 5E-inspired, with a template for card accessories:
|
| https://github.com/Krozark/RPG-LaTeX-Template
|
| A 5E-compatible character sheet:
|
| https://github.com/matsavage/DND-5e-LaTeX-Character-Sheet-Te...
|
| CTAN also has packages for Basic D&D-inspired typesetting (rpg-
| module, also linked from the article), GURPS (gurps), generic
| hex boards (hexboard), and wargame hex boards with counters
| (wargame).
|
| There are also indie TTRPGs that've shipped using custom LaTeX
| templates; this one has CC-BY licensed source:
| https://github.com/ludus-leonis/nipajin
|
| And the blog author's own, with a more restrictive CC-NC-SA
| license: https://github.com/Vladar4/itdr
|
| From personal experience, the biggest struggle is non-
| rectangular text wrapping around images.
| adiM wrote:
| I often wonder, if one is going to add such tags anyways, why
| not directly use LaTeX, ConTeXt, XML, ... for example
|
| \begin{conccurrent}{Hacker News Thread} I'm writing in an HN
| thread. \end{concurrent}
|
| is not so different from the markdown source. All the benefits
| you mention are simply from using semantic markup.
| bombcar wrote:
| I understand the desire to use Markdown - if you're not using
| an editor that will dump the "begin/end" for you with a
| keystroke or two it feels faster.
| thangalin wrote:
| \begin{concurrent}
|
| Such commands tightly couple a particular typesetter, add
| verbosity, alienate non-programmers, introduce document
| parsing complexity for real-time previews, and inevitably
| lead to putting presentation logic inside the document.
|
| KeenWrite converts Markdown documents into XHTML, then
| ConTeXt transforms the XML into TeX commands. The Markdown
| document can be rendered using ConTeXt, LaTeX, SILE, a
| JavaScript library, or any other typesetting system. By
| writing in LaTeX instead of Markdown, for example, swapping
| typesetters is not feasible.
|
| KeenWrite mostly implements the "proposed" architecture in
| the following diagram:
|
| https://raw.githubusercontent.com/DaveJarvis/KeenWrite/main/.
| ..
|
| To each their own, though.
| velcrovan wrote:
| This is the kind of thing that is ripe for Typst
| (https://typst.app/home). There is a CLI interface as well as a
| web app.
|
| I've recently been working on a book using Typst after hacking
| LaTeX for many years. Through some examples and the docs I've
| already been able to accomplish much more customization on my
| own, rather than cargo-culting 20-year old snippets and packages,
| and the results are readable and maintainable. I don't know if
| Typst will completely supersede LaTeX, but this point I think it
| is capable of doing so and I will be upset if it doesn't.
| bombcar wrote:
| I've been doing LaTeX for some major portion of its life and
| I've see so many "LaTeX killers" come and go. But my documents
| from 25 years ago still compile and render.
| CJefferson wrote:
| Every time I see typist, I see offline support is "coming
| soon", and immediately move on.
| figomore wrote:
| Web app is not needed. You can write using any editor and
| compile locally using the typist cli.
| ladyanita22 wrote:
| A web app? That won't work.
|
| If these guys are for the money, Microsoft and Google have them
| covered. If they're for Open Source, Latex lets you do it
| locally.
|
| In my experience, these attempts to provide some open-source-
| yet-somewhat-vendor-dependent solutions don't work.
| piperswe wrote:
| It has a web app and a CLI. LaTeX also has both - it's just
| that the Typst web app has better integration with the actual
| engine than the various LaTeX web apps.
| joseph8th wrote:
| And here's an Emacs org-mode compatibility layer to make writing
| your own D&D-style campaigns or handbooks even easier (if you
| grok Emacs):
|
| https://github.com/xeals/emacs-org-dnd
|
| Written around the same DND-5e-LaTeX-Template as the OP article:
|
| https://github.com/rpgtex/DND-5e-LaTeX-Template
| tofof wrote:
| Sadly very light on the subject matter of the title, mostly just
| a very brief LaTeX introduction page. The interesting content is
| the outlinks in the intro, existing templates that mimic D&D,
| either old school 2e style[1] or modern 5e aesthetics[2].
|
| [1] https://www.ctan.org/pkg/rpg-module - click the PDF link to
| the package documentation to see the style
|
| [2] https://github.com/rpgtex/DND-5e-LaTeX-Template -- with great
| looking preview in readme
| forgotpwd16 wrote:
| Yeah, article disappointingly doesn't have much related to
| title. Was expecting something that would lead creating
| something like the linked template.
| mock-possum wrote:
| Man for a second I thought that that first package on ctan
| actually included defining the map as well - looks like it's
| just a static image though. They really did nail the design.
| bombcar wrote:
| I seem to remember a dungeon map generator, but I can't
| recall if it abused LaTeX to do so.
| [deleted]
| clircle wrote:
| I have no idea where this idea that latex allows you to forget
| about formatting and just focus on the content, but it the
| greatest lie about latex
| irusensei wrote:
| I kinda want to publish a CV now that looks like the standard 5e
| definition of a monster manual creature.
| vorpalhex wrote:
| Markdown based 5e theme exists:
| https://homebrewery.naturalcrit.com/
| iroddis wrote:
| I love this idea so much. It's a shame that it would all get
| lost when passing through a recruiter or when needing to re-
| enter all the info on applications.
| jxf wrote:
| "Str 6, Dex 8, Int 18..."
| 0xEF wrote:
| Let's normalize this.
| j7ake wrote:
| Would have been nice if they started with an example pdf of what
| the output would look like, rather than just give a bunch of code
| and ask us to compile it ourselves.
| forgotpwd16 wrote:
| Here's the resulted pdf: https://files.catbox.moe/r7sarc.pdf
| blamestross wrote:
| If you are after a D&D feeling document check out
| (Homebrewery)[https://homebrewery.naturalcrit.com/]
|
| Overleaf (which a recommended as a latex tool) has a (5e style te
| mplate)[https://www.overleaf.com/latex/templates/d-and-d-5e-latex
| -te...] too.
| kleiba wrote:
| The Overleaf one is really good, IMO. Most links I've clicked
| on in this comment section are close, but still feel a little
| off in terms of the final PDF. It's small things like spaces
| and fonts, but enough to give the result an uncanny valley kind
| of feel: you know you're supposed to look at a 5e document, but
| it's just not quite the same.
|
| The Overleaf package, however, comes very close if you ask me.
| kcartlidge wrote:
| If you're looking for a GUI editor for your LaTex content,
| personally I like Lyx [1]. It's featuresome, easy to use, and
| also includes outline navigation.
|
| [1] https://www.lyx.org/
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(page generated 2023-09-17 23:00 UTC)