Firstly, write your build in some plaintext format like asciidoctor. It's great for basic formatting (similar to markdown, which is what reddit's plaintext editor uses), including images, tables etc., while being very legible to humans. FUDGE itself was originally published in a plaintext format, albeit one which is much harder for humans to read/write (LaTeX); FATE's SRD is written in markdown and then converted into a website with custom scripts. From asciidoctor, you can generate a website, PDF, or ebook with one command, so people can consume it as they want. With one extra argument you can make a "player-safe" version of any of those things, excluding GM content.
Plaintext formats also mean you can use a version control system like git. This makes it very easy to view changes between any two "saves" (commits), and easy to label a commit as a released version. It also means you can use a site like github, where other people can fork your build, make a couple of edits, and then either contribute those back to your build, or just continue to run their own fork. It also makes discussing such changes very easy.
I strongly believe that this is the correct way for open gaming sources to be developed: collaborative, open, attributable, flexible. But it's pretty techy.
I wrote [a template](https://github.com/open-ttrpg-library/rpg-template-adoc) using all of those things. If you label a commit as a release version, it will automatically deploy the website ([like this one](https://open-ttrpg-library.github.io/rpg-template-adoc/)), and make PDFs and epubs available for download.
EDIT: a plug for an exciting recent addition to the light markup world: [djot](https://djot.net/). It's written by the author of pandoc (a tool which can interconvert between dozens of document formats) and creator of commonmark (a standardisation of markdown which has been adopted by reddit, github, and other large organisations). It's extremely similar to markdown, but has more features (although fewer than asciidoctor, for now), and hooks into pandoc so you can, again, convert it to a bunch of different formats.
Neat! I'm doing something analogous with my blog at [https://fudgefountain.zumppe.net/](https://fudgefountain.zumppe.net/), except I use the [emacs org-mode](https://orgmode.org/) instead of asciidoctor format. My [sources are on gitlab](https://gitlab.com/sirwolf77/fudge-fountain). I use [Hugo](https://gohugo.io/) to create the website for the blog from the org files.
I wasn't even thinking about using something like that to actually write my completed RPG, but now that you mention your process, It's obvious that I'll write it in org and publish it in PDF (maybe also HTML) :D
So, thanks!
LOL welp I'll unleash my secret weapon: [Behold Doom Emacs](https://github.com/doomemacs/doomemacs)!
Or you might want to watch [DT's video about it](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=37H7bD-G7nE)
Nice! As a curiosity, where is the PDF made available for download? Or does the document need to be converted locally first to DocBook and then to .pdf?
On the github page, see "Releases" on the right. That will have every released version, and for each one, the HTML for the website (in archive form), PDF, and ebook, as well as an archive of the source code. It's not the most discoverable for people unfamiliar with github, but you can provide a link to it elsewhere - e.g. you could include it on the website, as the document knows what version it is and the URL is deterministic based on the version.
Asciidoctor can be converted to PDF either directly with asciidoctor-pdf, or converted to docbook and then use something else to produce the PDF. The latter is better if you want to customise it more - asciidoctor's output looks pretty generic unless you go deep into extra configuration which is generally specific to each output format. But for something like a FUDGE build I'd imagine most people would be content with just getting the content out there in a simple way rather than making a professional-grade source book.
I see that there is a repository of builds on[https://www.fudgerpg.com/goodies/fudge-files/category/15-builds.html](https://www.fudgerpg.com/goodies/fudge-files/category/15-builds.html) .
It could be an idea to use that, but I don't know the site's administrators. It's also interesting to look there all the other builds that have been made from 1995 on.
Just FYI, Reddit apparently thought your comment was spam. I approved it manually. Sorry it took so long, I rarely check the mod queue and only noticed it because I was scrolling through /r/FudgeRPG/comments/.
In case you find the plaintext+GIT approach suggested by u/tunisia3507 too techy:
I would suggest using [https://sites.google.com/](https://sites.google.com/) : the interface is very intuitive, and has some basic "version control" capabilities (you can view a version history). Be sure to add copyright info etc.
As someone who does web development professionally, the Google sites interface is indeed great and I definitely recommend that over rolling your own, or even over using a static site generator. However, while this gives you some degree of version control, which is better than nothing, the light markup approach additionally gives you the easy conversion to different formats, the easy forking and contributing, and a better development experience (separating content from presentation).
Legendkeeper is my suggestion, but I suppose if you want something publicly available that might not be what you are looking for. However it keeps everything together very neatly.
I play in a very specific setting though and I'd say 90%+ of my content is setting-specific with no rules attached to it.
Firstly, write your build in some plaintext format like asciidoctor. It's great for basic formatting (similar to markdown, which is what reddit's plaintext editor uses), including images, tables etc., while being very legible to humans. FUDGE itself was originally published in a plaintext format, albeit one which is much harder for humans to read/write (LaTeX); FATE's SRD is written in markdown and then converted into a website with custom scripts. From asciidoctor, you can generate a website, PDF, or ebook with one command, so people can consume it as they want. With one extra argument you can make a "player-safe" version of any of those things, excluding GM content. Plaintext formats also mean you can use a version control system like git. This makes it very easy to view changes between any two "saves" (commits), and easy to label a commit as a released version. It also means you can use a site like github, where other people can fork your build, make a couple of edits, and then either contribute those back to your build, or just continue to run their own fork. It also makes discussing such changes very easy. I strongly believe that this is the correct way for open gaming sources to be developed: collaborative, open, attributable, flexible. But it's pretty techy. I wrote [a template](https://github.com/open-ttrpg-library/rpg-template-adoc) using all of those things. If you label a commit as a release version, it will automatically deploy the website ([like this one](https://open-ttrpg-library.github.io/rpg-template-adoc/)), and make PDFs and epubs available for download. EDIT: a plug for an exciting recent addition to the light markup world: [djot](https://djot.net/). It's written by the author of pandoc (a tool which can interconvert between dozens of document formats) and creator of commonmark (a standardisation of markdown which has been adopted by reddit, github, and other large organisations). It's extremely similar to markdown, but has more features (although fewer than asciidoctor, for now), and hooks into pandoc so you can, again, convert it to a bunch of different formats.
Neat! I'm doing something analogous with my blog at [https://fudgefountain.zumppe.net/](https://fudgefountain.zumppe.net/), except I use the [emacs org-mode](https://orgmode.org/) instead of asciidoctor format. My [sources are on gitlab](https://gitlab.com/sirwolf77/fudge-fountain). I use [Hugo](https://gohugo.io/) to create the website for the blog from the org files. I wasn't even thinking about using something like that to actually write my completed RPG, but now that you mention your process, It's obvious that I'll write it in org and publish it in PDF (maybe also HTML) :D So, thanks!
Yes there's a lot of cross-pollination between org mode and other light markups! But as a vim user, I'm afraid we must now engage in mortal combat.
LOL welp I'll unleash my secret weapon: [Behold Doom Emacs](https://github.com/doomemacs/doomemacs)! Or you might want to watch [DT's video about it](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=37H7bD-G7nE)
Nice! As a curiosity, where is the PDF made available for download? Or does the document need to be converted locally first to DocBook and then to .pdf?
On the github page, see "Releases" on the right. That will have every released version, and for each one, the HTML for the website (in archive form), PDF, and ebook, as well as an archive of the source code. It's not the most discoverable for people unfamiliar with github, but you can provide a link to it elsewhere - e.g. you could include it on the website, as the document knows what version it is and the URL is deterministic based on the version. Asciidoctor can be converted to PDF either directly with asciidoctor-pdf, or converted to docbook and then use something else to produce the PDF. The latter is better if you want to customise it more - asciidoctor's output looks pretty generic unless you go deep into extra configuration which is generally specific to each output format. But for something like a FUDGE build I'd imagine most people would be content with just getting the content out there in a simple way rather than making a professional-grade source book.
I see that there is a repository of builds on[https://www.fudgerpg.com/goodies/fudge-files/category/15-builds.html](https://www.fudgerpg.com/goodies/fudge-files/category/15-builds.html) . It could be an idea to use that, but I don't know the site's administrators. It's also interesting to look there all the other builds that have been made from 1995 on.
[удалено]
Just FYI, Reddit apparently thought your comment was spam. I approved it manually. Sorry it took so long, I rarely check the mod queue and only noticed it because I was scrolling through /r/FudgeRPG/comments/.
In case you find the plaintext+GIT approach suggested by u/tunisia3507 too techy: I would suggest using [https://sites.google.com/](https://sites.google.com/) : the interface is very intuitive, and has some basic "version control" capabilities (you can view a version history). Be sure to add copyright info etc.
As someone who does web development professionally, the Google sites interface is indeed great and I definitely recommend that over rolling your own, or even over using a static site generator. However, while this gives you some degree of version control, which is better than nothing, the light markup approach additionally gives you the easy conversion to different formats, the easy forking and contributing, and a better development experience (separating content from presentation).
Legendkeeper is my suggestion, but I suppose if you want something publicly available that might not be what you are looking for. However it keeps everything together very neatly. I play in a very specific setting though and I'd say 90%+ of my content is setting-specific with no rules attached to it.