LitRPG Necessity (Menus and Tables)

[Evil_Ginger]

Yeah, it doesn't get any simpler when having to change websites or carry over content to expose your work in more areas. Then again, making a table was something I could never do. I looked up tutorials and asked questions in dozens of places, but I always got confused and I was never satisfied with how they would come out.

At one point, I attempted to use Microsoft Office and create my own menu, save it as an image, then upload as a file within the chapter, but is that really the only alternative? Are there other ways for a story to feel like a representation of an MMO without the almighty tables?

And if not...link us to a place you would recommend we learn tablemaking from. Hopefully, it would be easier to understand. Totally not creating this thread for myself.

 

[lnv]

Yeah, it doesn't get any simpler when having to change websites or carry over content to expose your work in more areas. Then again, making a table was something I could never do. I looked up tutorials and asked questions in dozens of places, but I always got confused and I was never satisfied with how they would come out.

At one point, I attempted to use Microsoft Office and create my own menu, save it as an image, then upload as a file within the chapter, but is that really the only alternative? Are there other ways for a story to feel like a representation of an MMO without the almighty tables?

And if not...link us to a place you would recommend we learn tablemaking from. Hopefully, it would be easier to understand. Totally not creating this thread for myself.

Most WYSIWYG editors make table building pretty simple.

The only thing is, maintaining the table data gets annoying so what I did was make my own menu generator

https://codepen.io/anon/pen/odXQaR/right

Saves me the time of constantly modifying the tables

 

[Evil_Ginger]

Most WYSIWYG editors make table building pretty simple.

The only thing is, maintaining the table data gets annoying so what I did was make my own menu generator

https://codepen.io/anon/pen/odXQaR/right

Saves me the time of constantly modifying the tables

That's cool, but does this mean I have to go into your line of code and fiddle with it for it to display the information I want it to?

The reason I found it so difficult was because of all the coding and keywords to memorize. My brain can't understand it very well. And I took a couple programming courses, too...

 

[lnv]

That's cool, but does this mean I have to go into your line of code and fiddle with it for it to display the information I want it to?

The reason I found it so difficult was because of all the coding and keywords to memorize. My brain can't understand it very well. And I took a couple programming courses, too...

If you are just doing it manually, you can simply use a WYSIWYG html editor, and its mostly merging and resizing cells. Then you just copy and paste the table.

What I'm doing is a step further where I am just entering the data into a JSON file and it automatically generates the menu for me. This is mostly to save time. (cause it took me as much time to do it manually as to write an entire chapter, but that is mostly cause my menu is extremely complex. Specifically the dynamic stats such as mana and hp regen)

 

[Evil_Ginger]

If you are just doing it manually, you can simply use a WYSIWYG html editor, and its mostly merging and resizing cells. Then you just copy and paste the table.

What I'm doing is a step further where I am just entering the data into a JSON file and it automatically generates the menu for me. This is mostly to save time. (cause it took me as much time to do it manually as to write an entire chapter, but that is mostly cause my menu is extremely complex. Specifically the dynamic stats such as mana and hp regen)

I think I am supposed to run this on a computer, huh? What a time to not have one, lol

 

[lnv]

I think I am supposed to run this on a computer, huh? What a time to not have one, lol

You write on a cellphone/tablet?

 

[Evil_Ginger]

You write on a cellphone/tablet?

Yeah, it is why I mentioned in my first post that I used Microsoft Office to create 'menus', screenshotting it and then adding it to the chapter as an attachment. It was obnoxious.

 

[lnv]

Yeah, it is why I mentioned in my first post that I used Microsoft Office to create 'menus', screenshotting it and then adding it to the chapter as an attachment. It was obnoxious.

Yeah, that complicates things a lot. Why not get a cheap laptop? Even a chromebook would work fine.

 

[Evil_Ginger]

Yeah, that complicates things a lot. Why not get a cheap laptop? Even a chromebook would work fine.

I plan on getting a full computer when my financial aid comes in.

 

[Ai-chan]

Yeah, it doesn't get any simpler when having to change websites or carry over content to expose your work in more areas. Then again, making a table was something I could never do. I looked up tutorials and asked questions in dozens of places, but I always got confused and I was never satisfied with how they would come out.

At one point, I attempted to use Microsoft Office and create my own menu, save it as an image, then upload as a file within the chapter, but is that really the only alternative? Are there other ways for a story to feel like a representation of an MMO without the almighty tables?

And if not...link us to a place you would recommend we learn tablemaking from. Hopefully, it would be easier to understand. Totally not creating this thread for myself.

Some sites have different features. Like one of the sites Ai-chan post my stories at uses drupal, and for some reason, they have a problem dealing with space and line breaks. So when Ai-chan made tables, stuff went wrong.

Royalroad specifically made tables easy, but their tables won't work on other sites. Well, bbcodes work for all forums that use bbcodes, but although the codes work, the appearance are likely different. Then there's also the < { [ stuff that differ from site to site.

So to save time and keep the nice stuff Ai-chan made fit everywhere, making it an image such as PNG or JPEG is the best method. Such as below:

And since Ai-chan is skilled with photoshop, stuff like this is very easy. Much easier than making tables work for different sites. It doesn't matter how the same codes behave differently on different engines. Unless you use google's dastardly new format webp, image files will always work and show the same everywhere.

 

[Evil_Ginger]

Yeah, that complicates things a lot. Why not get a cheap laptop? Even a chromebook would work fine.

Yeah, so back again. Got myself a computer. How do I import my information? Or does it run like a command prompt?

 

[kenamoru]

@above
There are a couple of ways to transfer files between your devices

• Use a cloud to store your files. This is probably the best long term solution if you will need to exchange files a lot.
• Mail yourself the files then open them on your computer. Quick and easy solution
• Use a usb drive. ( Requires the devices to have a usb port )
• Connect the two devices with a usb cable. ( Requires the correct usb cable )

Answering the OP, You could use a list instead. Example:

Kenamoru's Status​

Health: 100/100​

Mana: 20/20​

Strength: 20​

etc.​

This is actually the way almost all of the play-by-post rpg groups do it, because it doesn't require any special formatting

As an aside, you should avoid posting full stat updates as much as possible anyway. In real rpg's you don't re-post your stats every time it changes, you just say that you got a +10 bonus to speed or that you lost 20 hp. Only post stats when you need to, and only post the stats that you need to. Don't needlessly info-dump the stats of every character in the story.

 

[lnv]

Yeah, so back again. Got myself a computer. How do I import my information? Or does it run like a command prompt?

What are you trying to do? Use my auto stat table generator?