How do you make/maintain a houserule compendium?

[Larkas]

Pretty much what the title says! I've been meaning to make a houserule compendium to facilitate information access to my prospective players and to organize and standardize those rules for myself. I've been considering using some sort of Wiki software, as I have some experience with MediaWiki, but while that will certainly keep things organized for me, I don't know how accessible the information would be to the players without some very specialized tables of content. I want to keep things easy, not make character creation a chore involving constant cross-referencing (D&D example: "Oh, I want to use X spell. Eeep, I have to check if it's been banned/modified."). It would also be specially nice to let the players know in advance what has been buffed, since a less-than-stellar option that would rarely be considered in a RAW game could now be a worthy choice!

Do you guys have any experience with this? Any pointers or pieces of advice?

PS: As a side note, I'd wager that making some particularly nice pieces of homebrew available in such a compendium would not only be a method of preemptively accepting them into your game, it would also be a good way to make the players aware of it, even encouraging its use, since you would be making them "semi-official" to the campaign of sorts. That's another plus in my book.

[Rhynn]

RTF file, BOLDED CAPITALS for topic headers (COMBAT, etc.), bolded subheaders for specific entries (Shields, etc.), short description of rule.

The secret, of course, is not having a lot of rules replacements or changes (starting with a simple system helps), but mostly using rules additions. Most of the time, when I come up with a replacement houserule, I abandon it because I doubt I'd even be able to keep track of it, but using rules additions is easy, because they're for things that didn't have rules.

[valadil]

I'd definitely go with a wiki or Google Docs. Both will allow a ToC.

To easy accessibility, I'd give it the same structure as the PHB. Character creation, feats, skills, classes, spells, in that order (or whichever the PHB uses, it's been a while).

I'd probably also make subsections for each of the items that's changed. IMO, you should be able to look at the list of changes, find "spells", then find "Mages Disjunction", (possibly with a level 9 section in the middle), and click on that to see the change. Being able to scan that other list quickly should help a lot.

[Jay R]

I give my players a written 3-6 page document at the beginning of the game, before they create characters. It includes both background material and special rules.

(I've never needed more than that, so careful annotation has not been necessary. If I ever needed much more, I'd probably conclude that I was running the wrong system.)

[Larkas]

Thanks for the replies so far, guys!

RTF file, BOLDED CAPITALS for topic headers (COMBAT, etc.), bolded subheaders for specific entries (Shields, etc.), short description of rule.

Hmmmmm, that would work too, I guess. I wanted something more interactive, however. How do I put it... Something more handleable?

The secret, of course, is not having a lot of rules replacements or changes (starting with a simple system helps), but mostly using rules additions. Most of the time, when I come up with a replacement houserule, I abandon it because I doubt I'd even be able to keep track of it, but using rules additions is easy, because they're for things that didn't have rules.

True that. I want to have several replacements, however. At least they should be something mostly static: from character abilities to special skills. The most "dynamic" ruling I'd like to have is defining "critical fumbles" (that is, you only automatically miss on a 1 if you confirm that miss).

I'd definitely go with a wiki or Google Docs. Both will allow a ToC.

To easy accessibility, I'd give it the same structure as the PHB. Character creation, feats, skills, classes, spells, in that order (or whichever the PHB uses, it's been a while).

I'd probably also make subsections for each of the items that's changed. IMO, you should be able to look at the list of changes, find "spells", then find "Mages Disjunction", (possibly with a level 9 section in the middle), and click on that to see the change. Being able to scan that other list quickly should help a lot.

Hmmm, great points all around! I also like the idea of a "list of changes", but how would one go about making it? Create a master document/page succinctly describing the changes and another one with the full, textual changes?

I give my players a written 3-6 page document at the beginning of the game, before they create characters. It includes both background material and special rules.

(I've never needed more than that, so careful annotation has not been necessary. If I ever needed much more, I'd probably conclude that I was running the wrong system.)

That certainly works, and I've used it myself. However, my main system (D&D 3.5) is a robust system, but full of flaws (IMHO, at least). I see myself using the same fixes over and over again, and a neater and more permanent way to keep and present them would be a nice idea - even if I keep distributing the small documents prior to the start of the campaign containing all the most relevant changes.

[Bulhakov]

Pencil write-ins and sticky notes inside the actual book/manual

[Larkas]

Pencil write-ins and sticky notes inside the actual book/manual

Now that, unfortunately, wouldn't work for me. First, because I want all my players to have access to information simultaneously, and that implies they should have their own goddamn books, and not be using mine. Second, I'm extremely cautious with my books, to the point of not opening them all the way to preserve the book spine. Not an extremely healthy habit, I'm aware, but I like to keep my books in pristine form. I wouldn't write on their pages or stick anything to them.

[tasw]

I use google drive. Being able to share the docs with anyone else who has google has made it a breeze to communicate new rules or interpretations and get fast feedback.

[valadil]

I also like the idea of a "list of changes", but how would one go about making it? Create a master document/page succinctly describing the changes and another one with the full, textual changes?

So I was actually conflating wiki with another doc I'd written when I was thinking of that. Using LaTeX I've created PDFs with built in tables of contents. When I do that I write out the text as usual and then have "\chapter{Spells}" to indicate the spells chapter. This happens right in the middle of the text. "\section{Level 1}" and "\subsection{Magic Missile}" would be other directives to label the different parts of the text.

Using these directives not only formats those items, but puts them in a conveniently linked table of contents, so you get a heading for each of these items. I think maintaining two separate lists is a nightmare. I'm not sure LaTeX is the best format for this, it's just the one that comes to mind.

[Kol Korran]

My group makes a wiki for every campaign. Part of it is "the campaign's player handbook" in with we divide the house rules according to the chapters in the book ( general, races, classes, skills and so on) each chapter has it's own page or section (depending how many housewives you have) and we try to keep things In categories. (Such as fighter feats, Meta magic, skills feats and so on. Other than that it's just trying to keep things organized and making sense.
here I ad one example I'm quite pleased with about a pirating campaign, with quite a lot of however. (But it's the organization that counts for this example)

[Larkas]

I use google drive. Being able to share the docs with anyone else who has google has made it a breeze to communicate new rules or interpretations and get fast feedback.

Hmmm, if I go the "static document" route, I think that's what I'll be doing! Literally the best way to communicate changes in those.

So I was actually conflating wiki with another doc I'd written when I was thinking of that. Using LaTeX I've created PDFs with built in tables of contents. When I do that I write out the text as usual and then have "\chapter{Spells}" to indicate the spells chapter. This happens right in the middle of the text. "\section{Level 1}" and "\subsection{Magic Missile}" would be other directives to label the different parts of the text.

Using these directives not only formats those items, but puts them in a conveniently linked table of contents, so you get a heading for each of these items. I think maintaining two separate lists is a nightmare. I'm not sure LaTeX is the best format for this, it's just the one that comes to mind.

Hey, that's interesting! Alas, I don't have even the slightest experience with PDF making... What is this LaTeX stuff?

My group makes a wiki for every campaign. Part of it is "the campaign's player handbook" in with we divide the house rules according to the chapters in the book ( general, races, classes, skills and so on) each chapter has it's own page or section (depending how many housewives you have) and we try to keep things In categories. (Such as fighter feats, Meta magic, skills feats and so on. Other than that it's just trying to keep things organized and making sense.
here I ad one example I'm quite pleased with about a pirating campaign, with quite a lot of however. (But it's the organization that counts for this example)

Wow, that's neat! What's the wiki software you're using? MediaWiki is as complete as it gets, but with completeness comes complexity. I just need to make a "network" of files, but I don't need to give permission for anyone other than me to edit the files, for example. While that's something easily achievable with MediaWiki, I'd rather have something simpler.

[Ashtagon]

I'd avoid a wiki for this. You ideally want it to be a single document that people can read through from beginning to end and know from that what changes have been made. That best suits a wordprocessor of some sort.

By all means wikify it at the end, but the "flatfile" version should also be available.

[Larkas]

I'd avoid a wiki for this. You ideally want it to be a single document that people can read through from beginning to end and know from that what changes have been made. That best suits a wordprocessor of some sort.

By all means wikify it at the end, but the "flatfile" version should also be available.

Hmmmm, good point. I've heard of ways to collect some wiki pages in a PDF format automatically. Maybe that's the way to go?

[Kol Korran]

Wow, that's neat! What's the wiki software you're using? MediaWiki is as complete as it gets, but with completeness comes complexity. I just need to make a "network" of files, but I don't need to give permission for anyone other than me to edit the files, for example. While that's something easily achievable with MediaWiki, I'd rather have something simpler.

I use http://pbworks.com/ It's very easy to use, free, and have served my group well. There are wikis more specialized for RPGs like obsidian portal but I haven't gotten round to trying them yet. They have some very nice looking campaign sites there though...

I think it's less about the wiki you use, but it's ease of use and how you organize your material on it. That is key. I hope this helps,
Kol.

[Larkas]

I use http://pbworks.com/ It's very easy to use, free, and have served my group well. There are wikis more specialized for RPGs like obsidian portal but I haven't gotten round to trying them yet. They have some very nice looking campaign sites there though...

I think it's less about the wiki you use, but it's ease of use and how you organize your material on it. That is key. I hope this helps,
Kol.

Ooooh, gotcha! Thanks for that! I'll be sure to check them both out. I was aware of Obsidian Portal, but didn't think to use it for that purpose!

[Kadzar]

Hmmm, if I go the "static document" route, I think that's what I'll be doing! Literally the best way to communicate changes in those.

I'm not sure Google Docs are "static" in any sense of the word. They update in real-time, as in if you shared a document with someone and they have it open, they can see your words being typed as you type them. And, if you give someone permission to edit the document, you can also see their words being typed out while they see your typing.

[Larkas]

I'm not sure Google Docs are "static" in any sense of the word. They update in real-time, as in if you shared a document with someone and they have it open, they can see your words being typed as you type them. And, if you give someone permission to edit the document, you can also see their words being typed out while they see your typing.

Oh, seriously? I never used it that way! That's so very neat!

[Jay R]

One thing to remember is that every homebrewed rule has a cost, in increased complexity and difficulty. It's not enough for your rule to be better than the rule in the book. It has to be enough better to offset this cost.

The larger your personal ruleset gets, the more important it becomes to ask, "Is this rule necessary?"

[Larkas]

One thing to remember is that every homebrewed rule has a cost, in increased complexity and difficulty. It's not enough for your rule to be better than the rule in the book. It has to be enough better to offset this cost.

The larger your personal ruleset gets, the more important it becomes to ask, "Is this rule necessary?"

Oh, that's a given. I mostly want to fix/ban broken stuff, at most point out a variant I'm going to use.

[tasw]

I'm not sure Google Docs are "static" in any sense of the word. They update in real-time, as in if you shared a document with someone and they have it open, they can see your words being typed as you type them. And, if you give someone permission to edit the document, you can also see their words being typed out while they see your typing.

Yeah its really a great tool for collaborative work on rules or settings. between that and hosting PDF's of various books on dropbox we've all been able to really help create homerules and a setting that works for all of us

[Larkas]

Yeah its really a great tool for collaborative work on rules or settings. between that and hosting PDF's of various books on dropbox we've all been able to really help create homerules and a setting that works for all of us

That's encouraging! Thanks for all the help, guys!

[valadil]

Hey, that's interesting! Alas, I don't have even the slightest experience with PDF making... What is this LaTeX stuff?

LaTeX is a typesetting language. In a word processor you'd indicate a new chapter by writing the chapter title, making it big and bold, and centering it in the middle of a page. In a typesetting environment, all you do is say that it's a chapter and you let the typesetter worry about how that's displayed. I find it helpful when making documents because a) it automatically looks great and b) I don't have to think about the details. I entitle my chapter and get back to writing. There's no time sync in getting the formatting right.

Unless you have another use for LaTeX, it's probably overkill here.

[Larkas]

LaTeX is a typesetting language. In a word processor you'd indicate a new chapter by writing the chapter title, making it big and bold, and centering it in the middle of a page. In a typesetting environment, all you do is say that it's a chapter and you let the typesetter worry about how that's displayed. I find it helpful when making documents because a) it automatically looks great and b) I don't have to think about the details. I entitle my chapter and get back to writing. There's no time sync in getting the formatting right.

Unless you have another use for LaTeX, it's probably overkill here.

Ah, a pity. I'll be sure to check it out sometime, though, you sparked my curiosity!

[AuraTwilight]

My group just has handouts posted in roll20 (which is also where we hold our games, so hey).

[Seharvepernfan]

Check out mine in my sig. Sensitive readers may complain about "wall-of-text" or a lack of formatting, but I think it works fine.