Image Rulebooks
A rulebook here is something you turn on the table, not a file players download. There are two kinds, and a page is one or the other for its whole life:
- An image rulebook, where every page is a picture. That is this article.
- A text rulebook, written in Markdown and rendered live. Those are searchable, editable at the table, and cost no storage.
Pick an image rulebook when the pages are already designed: a laid-out PDF, exported page art, or a book that came in with a Tabletop Simulator import. Pick a text rulebook when the rules are still being written.
Ways to build one
- From a PDF, in one go. Every page of the file becomes a page of the book. This is the usual route and the rest of this article is mostly about it.
- From a Tabletop Simulator import, which brings a mod's rulebook in as page images automatically. It uses the same renderer, so a book built either way behaves identically afterwards.
- By hand. In a room, place an Image Rulebook from the components panel and you get an empty book. Right-click it and use Pages ▸ Add Page from Image… to put artwork on a page, or Add Blank Page for a placeholder to fill in later.
- In the full editor. Right-click a book and choose Component ▸ Edit Rulebook… to work on the whole thing at once: its name, its shared physical size, its description, and every page's image, name and order, including adding and removing pages. Host only. A text rulebook opens the same panel as Rulebook Details, without the artwork controls.
Building it from a PDF
From the Component Wizard
Start a new component, choose Rulebook, and use Build it from a PDF on the pages step. Give the book a name first if you want one; if you leave it blank the file's own name is used.
You are asked which folder in your files the pages should go to, the same as any other upload. Nothing else on that step is needed. You are returned to the components page while the pages are rendered.
By dropping it on the table
In a playtest room, drag a PDF from your desktop onto the table, exactly as you would drop an image. You are asked which folder to store the pages in, then the pages are rendered in the background and the finished book is placed where you dropped it.
Images become a single component; a PDF becomes a whole rulebook. Dropping files on the table is host-only.
Replacing a book you already have
Editing your rules and re-exporting the PDF is the normal case, and importing it again under the same name adds the new pages to the end of the old book. That is deliberate, because it is also how you add a chapter. To overwrite instead, tick Replace the pages of "…" on the PDF step.
The checkbox only appears once the name you typed is already one of this project's rulebooks, so there is nothing to tick until there is something to replace.
- Page 1 of the PDF is written over page 1 of that book, page 2 over page 2, and so on.
- The pages keep their identity, so a book already on a table or in a saved setup is not broken by this and never needs re-linking. It stays exactly where you put it.
- If the new PDF has fewer pages, the leftover pages are deleted. A 40-page book replaced by a 20-page PDF is a 20-page book, not 20 new pages followed by 20 stale ones.
- If it has more, the extra pages are added to the end as usual.
Replacing uploads a fresh image for every page, and the images the old pages used stay in your files, exactly as they would if you deleted those components by hand. So replacing the same book repeatedly does add up against your storage; tidy the old ones from My Files when you no longer want them.
A book that is already on a table still shows the pages it was placed with, because a placed book carries its own copy of them. Use Resync in the room to pull the new pages in, the same as for any other component you edited while a room was open. See Component Sync.
The name is matched ignoring capitals and surrounding spaces, so "quick start" finds "Quick Start", and the book keeps its own spelling rather than being renamed to what you typed.
Dropping a PDF on the playtest table asks the same question, at the moment you drop it: if the file is named after a book you already have, you are offered Replace pages or Add to the end before anything is uploaded. A file with a new name just builds a new book, with nothing to answer.
What happens next
Rendering is done in the background, because a long book takes a while and every page is an upload. You can keep working; the book appears on the components page when it is done, and the project's activity panel shows it while it is running.
Each page becomes its own rulebook component, all sharing the book name. That is what makes them one book to the Deck & Stack Builder, the components page and the room's page-turning alike. You can rename, reorder or delete individual pages afterwards like any other component.
Page size is taken from the PDF, so a landscape book comes out landscape rather than letterboxed inside a square.
PDF limits
- Very long PDFs stop at 60 pages by default. You are told when this happens, and how many
pages were built, so a shortened book is never a surprise. (Self-hosting? The limit is the
PDF_MAX_PAGESsetting.) - A PDF larger than 100 MB is refused.
- Pages are rendered at 150 DPI, which is sized for reading on screen rather than for print.
Storage
Every page of an image rulebook is a picture, so pages count towards your storage like any other artwork, in the folder you chose. That is true however the page got there: rendered from a PDF, brought in by a Tabletop Simulator import, or picked by hand. Move or delete them later from My Files.
A text rulebook is the alternative when that matters: its pages are text, so they cost nothing.
If it does not work
- "That PDF could not be read." The file is password-protected, damaged, larger than the limit, or not really a PDF. Nothing is left behind in your project when this happens.
- A storage message instead of a book. The pages would have taken you past your storage limit. Free some space or add a Storage Add-on and try again.
- Nothing happens at all. PDF rendering needs a tool installed on the server. If TTS rulebooks also come in without pages, that is the same cause; report it.