New Template: DM Guild style guide

[G-Ambatte]

A suggestion from the sub Reddit today - a template that conforms to the posted Dungeon Master's Guild style guide and Publishing Specifications.

[G-Ambatte]

My immediate thought is that such a template should be more easily added after the launch of the v3 editor, so tagging this one as "blocked" until the new editor is live.

[Gazook89]

What particular style guide would a template work for? I looked at the linked style guides (DMG has 4 bundled together) and it seems all of that is 'content oriented' rather than rules about graphic style. I'm not sure how a template could be made to satisfy those rules/suggestions.

[G-Ambatte]

At this point, the template might consist of page 1 being the front cover, numbered i, page 2 being the rear cover, numbered ii; the front cover containing the required DM's Guild logo; a location for a personal brand/logo on one of the first internal pages (as per DMG guidelines, personal brands are not permitted on the cover), and so on.

A better template is here, under 5E_DMGuild_SPECS.docx, which shows headers, subheaders, sidebars, etc. It's definitely the best guide to what such a template might look like - at least, that I've found thus far.

[jeddai]

I'll add that adding theme templates styled similarly to various other WOTC books like Xanathar's Guide to Everything, the Dungeon Master's Guide, or Tasha's Cauldron of Everything would likely be very welcome additions.

[calculuschild]

This is all waiting for better metadata handling on #1838

[5e-Cleric]

If this theme is done, would it replace the PHB theme as default? Most of our users develop stuff specifically to share it in that platform.

[dbolack-ab]

Replace it as the default new theme, if we don't shift that to Blank. I would be drop the existing 5e theme.

[Gazook89]

I wouldn’t put blank as the default. For many users, I think, the utility of HB is that it is mostly set up and easy to start, and gives a good result from the start. And the largest audience is 5e.

And I think people come to HB to begin writing because they benefit from the visual representation of their work. If they wanted to start with a blank white page, they’d go to any number of editors.

THAT SAID…. Starting with the 5e PHB theme and then deciding later to check out other themes can cause problems because 5e theme has snippets that won’t always translate to other themes. So maybe an agnostic theme that only has the same snippets as Base, but is still styled fancifully, would be a good default. Then, switching to any other theme will only ever expand the options rather than find broken options.

More to 5e_clerics question, I don’t see much benefit in switching the default between current and this new one. Rather, I see some benefit, but the disruption I think would be large, and I’m not sure the gain is important enough. Especially if an agnostic theme as described above is later made default.

[5e-Cleric]

those are some more than valid comments, default snippets not being translated is a problem...

Another point is users think this tool only makes PHB content, or only CAN make phb content because that is what they see

We could introduce something about themes in the homepage.

[Gazook89]

maybe if theme could be a URL parameter, one could include it in links they share. So someone in the pathfinder community can share a /new&theme=pf2 link in their circles and visitors would go straight to the pf2 theme with a new brew.

The normal link without the extra parameter would be the “generic” theme

[ericscheid]

I like it.

• /new?theme=pf2
• /new/:id?theme=pf2

[5e-Cleric]

right, using the css routes

We are looking into that with brew themes, well, not exactly that, but could be the way.