All shall tremble before the superior typesetting experience.
Just a guy, bout to get my PhD in experimental particle physics. I like hockey, basketball, DND, science, and audio equipment.
Go Nuggets! Go Avs!
All shall tremble before the superior typesetting experience.
Thanks! If you end up using it, let me know!
It was funky and felt distinctly un-LaTeX with the pdf cropping and graphic declarations, but was super fun. Way different from academic writing or even hobby typesetting with normal, pre-made classes (the DnD 5e LaTeX Template by rpgtex is a gamechanger for homebrewed dnd content and was the catalyst for this). The standalone
document class is really weird to work with, and using tcolorboxes as the main document content feels like I am fitting a square peg into a non-euclidean hole, but it is still working!
I am just glad I decided to use LaTeX and not python for this.
They are, and will always be, iconic. I only used one other source when making this, mainly for the font pack and the potential to add a texture map to the text block in lieu of solid gray.
LaTeX is a typeset that is written in plain text with Markup language. Word, docs, acrobat are all WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) editors, so you type the words and use toolbars to edit formatting. In markup, what you write is what you get: you type everything, including the commands for alignment, spacing, etc. It makes control and customization of your document easier. If you ever have tried to use MS Word to make a good looking equation and wanted to die when it messed up your images and spacing 10 pages back, markup typesetting is the solution.
My tip would be to find a few templates on overleaf that you might find useful and just mess around and try to come up with what you want to see. Could be for work documents, could be for a hobby, whatever. Overleaf, the website I shared this project on, is great because it handles the backend stuff like compiling, software installs, etc. and allows you to easily copy templates over from premade projects in the gallery.
I learned to use it for writing scientific publications, but eventually I used it for all my homework, making ‘official’ looking DnD content, keeping a log of my work; basically most documents that are longer than 1 page. It is particularly good for science and math writing, but is almost as versatile as HTML for whatever you want to make.
Regarding not being familiar with LaTeX, I have already successfully used this template alongside chatGPT to convert items from a block of poorly formatted text to a finished card in just a few minutes. All you have to do is feed chatGPT the item’s description and the contents of the TeX files contained in the package (itemcard.tex, itemCommands.tex, tcolorboxSettings.tex) and it will do a pretty bang up job of formatting your item to match the template.
Not only can I not draw, I apparently can’t even figure out how to properly attach an image using kbin. Example item card: https://imgur.com/a/QIgFZ6n
My research collaboration is based out of Spain. My boss is British. After traveling to Spain with him, the word guiri is now my favorite and how I refer to him when he is being overly British.
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I printed the map using a poster/plotter printer in two sections that I split up in photo shop, scaling the map size and resolution to fit a 1in player grid (the grid marks are there, but faint).
I then taped 12 2ft×2.5ft foamcore boards together and glued down the map, using gluesticks for the majority and hot glue to keep the edges down. I taped it so that it is a trifold, condensing down to a single 7ft×21in panel for storage and transport.
Someone else here in the comments suggested cottons balls for fog of war, so I am gonna get those and some poster tack to keep it all vertical. I am gonna track their progress by making player tokens and using poster tack to keep them on the board.
It can be downloaded from drivethruRPG here: https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product_reviews_info.php?&reviews_id=446386&products_id=299103
I got the maps for free because my dad backed the project in development and it came with the digital maps, but he had no use for them.
Poster board! It is foldable too, condenses to a single 7ft×21in panel for storage/transportation
The map is on paper, using a poster/plotter printer I have access to through work, and the backing is foamboard. Only $40 in materials all said and done.
I had been struggling with figuring that out, but cotton balls with a bit of poster tack to keep them attached will be perfect! Thanks for the idea. I was going to do black cardstock with each room cut out, but your suggestion is 1,000,000× easier
My thought was to make player tokens and use poster tack to move them around as they explore, keeping it all vertical.
I just finished it this morning at 2:30, so I still haven’t worked everything out, but the first reveal will be today, even if I don’t think they will start using it today.
The reason I did it was because the group wanted a world map poster of my homebrew setting to put up on the wall, but I am not a skilled enough artist to make it look nice enough. Professional, pre made maps ARE withing my skillset to make a massive poster from.
Not dumb at all. If you aren’t familiar with latex, the easiest way to use it would be to make an overleaf account, open the template, and follow along through the comments in the document. Most everything is formatted for plug-and-play entry, so you just fill in the required fields. It is a bit technical, but should be mostly readable even without markup experience. You can also copy the text from the .tex files (itemcard.tex, ItemCommands.tex, and tcolorboxSettings.tex) into chatGPT along with your item description and it will convert it for you.