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I've been working on a fan RPG lately (which I unfortunately don't plan on making public) and I've discovered that I love using InDesign! If you're a #DMsGuild or #RPG designer, consider learning InDesign! Your product quality will instantly skyrocket compared to using MS Word.
Adobe Creative Cloud is expensive as heck, so try to take advantage of student discounts if you can. Together with free tutorials on YouTube, InDesign + Illustrator + Adobe Fonts + Adobe Stock Images' 1-month free trial has made making this lil fan RPG a ton of fun.
I'll add this: one thing that has made this whole process a lot easier is being very familiar with how D&D books are laid out. How outlines work. How images slot into the pages.
RPG books are built with information hierarchies:
header 1 -> body text -> header 2 -> body text -> header 3 -> and so on.
If you want to write for RPGs, any RPG, then study how your favorite RPG manuals are outlined!
header 1 -> body text -> header 2 -> body text -> header 3 -> and so on.
If you want to write for RPGs, any RPG, then study how your favorite RPG manuals are outlined!
Try to put art on every page to keep interest, but also try to make sure ideas are laid out concisely and conveniently. I worked very hard to put the core of this fan RPG's rules on a single 2-page spread... and also get art on each page!
For those of you searching for that all-important lifeblood of RPGs: art on no budget. https://twitter.com/jamesjhaeck/status/1265506653585248259
No matter what game you're designing for, one feature you should familiarize yourself with INSTANTLY are InDesign's Paragraph Styles and Character Styles.
Ask yourself what a standard body paragraph of your text looks like. What font? What size? Does it indent after a Return press? Does the first paragraph after a header have an indent, or not? (e.g., D&D books don't indent after a header, but always indent subsequent body text.)
What do the headers in your information hierarchy look like? D&D has five main headers: chapter, h1, h2, h3, and inline subheader (that slick bold-italic text). Each header looks different, but is clearly nested beneath "superior" headers.
Do your headers hyphenate and allow words to spill over onto a new line? (D&D's don't). Do they use the same font as your body text? (D&D's don't).
Read your favorite RPG and pay close attention to these details. They're more than just smoke and mirrors: these details help make your books comprehensible!
