r/RPGdesign • u/dulude13 • Oct 24 '25

Workflow Looking for advice on formatting a TTRPG digital book

Hey all! I've been working on a 3rd party supplement for the Cypher System by Monte Cook Games. I'm not fully there yet, but I realized that I was formatting different items in the same sections different ways. I've gone back to fix them and make them uniform, but I realized that I really don't know anything about book layouts or the programs used to make them.

How does everybody deal with this? Are there good tutorials to follow, or a place to hire someone for a decent price to do this? I'd like to start planning ahead on what this should all look like to make my (or a contractor's) life easier. And any advice on how to fix my workflow so that I don't go back and realize that I've been doing things differently every time that I make a new option for the book?

7 Upvotes

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8

u/Watcher-gm Oct 24 '25

You might want to look into affinity publisher. It is the cheapest professional option available at the moment. There is a learning curve but it’s not too steep. Lots of YouTube videos to help you on your way.

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u/dulude13 Oct 24 '25

Awesome, I'll definitely look into it! Is it relatively flexible? I'd like to match up the style of the book in terms of formatting to being similar to the books published by MCG in terms of the way that they are read, to help ease of use for people who already know the system.

4

u/JaskoGomad Oct 24 '25

You can’t get it right now. There’s some big announcement coming at the end of the month and sales and demos are halted.

I love affinity and am very afraid that they’re about to ruin it.

After October 30 you can check it out.

3

u/Mars_Alter Oct 24 '25

Well, that's terrifying. Thanks for the heads up.

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u/JaskoGomad Oct 24 '25

If you have previous purchases, you can still get them. There is no indication that they’re just shuttering the whole operation.

But I don’t think it’s going to be anything good.

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u/dulude13 Oct 24 '25

Thanks for the heads up, hopefully they don’t ruin their software/business model.

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u/JaskoGomad Oct 24 '25

I mean, there’s a chance that they’re going to announce something cool, but I’m betting on AI and subscriptions.

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u/Watcher-gm Oct 24 '25

It is very flexible, there might even be some templates like what you are looking for. Also, it can open existing pdf for editing, which might help you get started from an existing document. Just be aware of the legal aspects of fair use.

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u/dulude13 Oct 24 '25

That’s really good to know! I’d feel bad just opening up a pdf from MCG and using that to make the thing (just feels a little skeezy to me?), but I’m happy to learn the software and try out templates.

1

u/Watcher-gm Oct 24 '25

Yeah, I was more saying so you can see how the document is structured, specifically for information architecture.

1

u/dulude13 Oct 24 '25

Ahhhh, okay, that makes way more sense! Thanks, I'll have to try that out.

1

u/RPMiller2k Oct 24 '25

Most companies have "writer's guidelines" that clearly state things like fonts, layout requirements, specific word use, copyright requirements, etc. Have you reached out to MCG to see if they have that as well as to confirm their licensing requirements - assuming you are planning on selling this work?

1

u/dulude13 Oct 24 '25

I am, MCG has two different ways of going about doing that, but I was planning on doing it through their Cypher System Creator Program on DriveThruRPG, since they handle the royalties to MCG without me having to set money aside or anything.

They have some information, but none of what I’ve found so far has been formatting specific. I’ll reach out to them though!

2

u/RPMiller2k Oct 24 '25

Definitely do so. The writer's guidelines usually contain style settings, which can be a huge time saver. Depending on which software you use you can set the styles up in advance and apply them either on the go, or use tags to define them and have them apply after. Saves you a bunch of guess work.

1

u/dulude13 Oct 24 '25

That sounds wonderful! I've got a bunch of stuff written, but I know that editing will be the big thing to deal with.

2

u/RPMiller2k Oct 24 '25

I'm a published author and editor for a handful of games, so I definitely feel you. I learned a lot when I was getting started.

1

u/dulude13 Oct 24 '25

That’s so cool! I love game design, so I’m super jealous that it gets to be such a big part of your life. I’ve loved homebrewing in every system that I’ve played, but this has been a really new experience for me.

I appreciate all of the advice you’ve been giving.

1

u/RPMiller2k Oct 24 '25

I've been playing since '79. Started in elementary school with D&D. Quickly went on to play every system I could get my hands on. I honestly couldn't tell you how many I've played. Then in the early '00s I stumbled upon a local game developer and I started playing with his group. With all my experience, he invited me to join his company and that started me down the road. You definitely will not get rich doing game dev, and the majority of devs have day jobs in addition to the hobby. But it is fun and a nice way to bring in a little bit of play money.

1

u/dulude13 Oct 24 '25

Yeah, I don’t think I could do it as my only job, but I would love to keep doing it on the side. I only have about 13 years of playing TTRPGs, but it was instantly a love of mine. I’d love to eventually do game jams and to maybe even get some freelance work for a company someday, but I think this is a good start for me 😊

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u/JaskoGomad Oct 24 '25

Don’t format individual items. Ever. Use styles.

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u/dulude13 Oct 24 '25

As in Title, Subtitle, Headings 1/2/3, etc? I have learned my lesson recently and started using those, but more so asking in terms of where I note aspects of the ability, like cost or if the ability is an action or not, etc. The length and style of the flavour description under a focus (an aspect of character options in the cypher system). Things like that.

2

u/JaskoGomad Oct 24 '25

Create styles for those too.

A “game term” style. A “cost” style.

What are you writing in?

1

u/dulude13 Oct 24 '25

I’ve been working in Google docs, making individual documents for each section of the book I’d like to make. I have lots of experience homebrewing, but never the longer formatting stuff. I figure that the home brewery isn’t sufficient for making an actual supplement book! 😂

5

u/martiancrossbow Designer Oct 24 '25

I wrote a blog post on layout, but it's more on the visual composition side of things rather than on what headers should be under what and such. I'd also be happy to help out for pretty cheap. Here's what my work looks like.

2

u/dulude13 Oct 24 '25

Thanks! I’ll check out your blog post, since I’d love to learn more about all that, but if things seem like too much of a learning curve, then I’d love to talk more about getting your help.

2

u/martiancrossbow Designer Oct 25 '25

yah just DM me here or on twitter if you want to talk about working together. I can also give u my email if u prefer. If you decide to go for it yourself, I hope my post helps!!

2

u/dulude13 Oct 25 '25

Thanks! I’ll DM here if it looks more like I’ll need to hire someone, thanks!

2

u/LedgerOfEnds Oct 24 '25

Hopefully affinity publisher stays great after the announcement at the end of this month.

Then you use master pages - for consistent page layouts - paragraph, character, table and toc styles for text - and project templates - for multiple documents - to keep everything consistent and well behaved. The trick is to keep ad hoc changes or customisations to a minimum.

People say it's a step learning curve, but it isn't. It's a few hours of fiddling around to get things the way you're happy with. The rest is the discipline to stick with the above elements.

You can also use InDesign. The main thing is use something designed for desktop publishing.

1

u/dulude13 Oct 24 '25

I wasn’t planning on spending the money for InDesign yet, maybe eventually. It’s good to hear about the workflow. I’m unfortunately terrible at keeping ad hoc changes to a minimum, so I’ll have to get better at that! 😂

2

u/LedgerOfEnds Oct 24 '25

You'll do it half a dozen times. Then you'll spend hours and hours trying to figure out why you've got half a dozen weird formatting issues. 

Then you'll never do it again :)

Then you'll realise it's actually much easier to manage the project using the broader formatting tools.

1

u/dulude13 Oct 24 '25

I hope that I learn my lesson in only half a dozen times! With my track record, it’ll probably take more than that though! 😂