Antarctic Adventure Jam Style Guide
As I solidify the formatting of the Antarctic Adventure Anthology and work on editing submissions, I've been developing a style guide. In the interest of clarity and collaboration, I have compiled it here.
The goal is to bring a sense of harmony to the diverse AAJ entries without imposing uniformity.
Future submissions to the Antarctic Adventure Jam will be expected to make a (reasonably good-faith) effort at sticking to these guidelines. Perfection is not required, but the more of these you adhere to, the faster you will see your work in print.1
If you have any questions, please let me know. I will keep this page updated in response to feedback.
Document Structure
The Antarctic Adventure Anthology uses the following hierarchy:
- Level 1 Headings denote large regions. These are either multiple subregions by one author, or a collection of one-off subregions by various authors.
- Level 2 Headings denote sub-regions OR complex hexes like detailed settlements and multi-page dungeons. Subregions usually share an encounter table and a general "theme". Your entry needs to be organized into subregions, and the subregions should be small enough so that a labeled map is legible when printed on an a4 page.
- Level 3 Headings are used for standard hex entries, and any sub-entries in supplementary material
- Level 4 Headings are for sub-points of interest in a hex
- Level 5 Headings are for explanations of monsters, magic items, magic swords, NPCs, spells, etc. (See below).
If you are using Google Docs, please make sure your headings are properly flagged as Heading 2, Heading 3, etc. Do not manually apply bold text, and do not type out the # symbol -- the markdown export will do this for you.
Hexes will be presented in the Anthology in order of rows, then columns. I have a way to sort hexes automatically, so you don't have to, but don't write something that relies on presenting the hexes in a different order.
General Body Text Style
When referencing a hex in the body of a hex description, please format it as Hex XXX-YYY. Keep in mind that the PDF will auto-link the name of the targeted hex -- thus, writing out Hex 003-420 - The Blue Castle will render redundantly as "⬡003-420 The Blue Castle (p. 24) - The Blue Castle"
Capitalize the entirety of monster names, and prefer "natural-language" names in cases where modifiers are listed first.
- Preferred:
12 Moss Zombies - Discouraged:
12 moss zombies,12 Moss zombies,12 Zombies, Moss
Capitalize game terms.
- Preferred:
Spikes fly out of the trap after one Turn (Save vs. Breath or die). - Discouraged:
Thusla Doom is a fourth level anticleric.
For settings that use gold pieces, silver pieces, and copper pieces, append the denomination without a space to the end of the number. Use commas for numbers > 1,000.
- Preferred:
438gp,14,000sp - Discouraged:
217 g.p.,1245cp
Capitalize and italicize spell names.
- Preferred:
Akiro, Wizard of The Mounts can cast _Cure Serious Wounds_. - Discouraged:
She has a spell scroll (esp, magic missile, levitate).
Use the New York 1d6.
Instead of using parentheses for in-line monsters stats, use a level-5 heading at the bottom of the hex entry (see below).
Hex Headings
Please make sure every hex has a name, and do not put dashes or colons between the coordinates and hex name.
- Correct:
### 23-437 The Wheel of Pain - Incorrect:
### 108.345 Temple of Set,### 55-47 - Atlantean Barrow,### 101-102 The tree of woe
It's helpful if names include keywords that will help the webmap match an appropriate map symbol. In particular, villages, town, and cities should be introduced as such (e.g. instead of "Hommelet", do "Village of Hommelet" so it shows up as a house icon on the map)
Hex Subheadings
For complex hex descriptions, you can use level 4 (####) and level 5 (#####) markdown headings. Level 4 should usually be used for sub-locations (like if there are multiple separate points of interest in a hex, or districts of a city, or levels of a small dungeon) and level 5 should be used for "annotation" paragraphs giving detailed descriptions of a monster, NPC, spell, ingredient or similar (see below).
Please avoid using inline bold text with a colon as a pseudo subheading -- instead, use a level 4 or level 5 heading, which will render inline in the text but will be properly linked in the pdf.
Preferred:
### 101-345 The City of Zamora
It's a city, blah blah blah.
#### The Marketplace of Zamora
Merchants with gold teeth sell strains of cannabis from every celestial body imaginable.
#### The Zamoran Docks
Burly sailors get drunk & have crazy fistfights every day...
Discouraged:
### 101-345 The City of Zamora
It's a city, blah blah blah.
**The Marketplace of Zamora:** Merchants with gold teeth sell strains of cannabis from every celestial body imaginable.
**The Zamoran Docks:** Burly sailors get drunk & have crazy fistfights every day...
Level 5 Heading Symbols
Thanks to some nifty code written by EvilTables, level 5 headings are set to use Typst's text-replacing features to render certain words (followed by a colon) as emoji symbols.
In the example above, the pentagram was the result of typing ##### NPC Cultist: They of The Magnanimous Cipher, Evil Curate, and the harp replaced ##### Magic Item: The Jade Mask of The Void Shepherd.
These should be thought of as fancy endnotes -- use a level 5 heading when you want to provide a detailed description of something mentioned in the main body of a hex's description. For example, the "monster" symbol (👾) should be used for a unique monster's statblock, not for every sentence mentioning a monster.
They can also be used to denote highly formulaic sections of a hex.
The use of symbols for these is optional, though for the sake of consistency I recommend at least using the symbols for monster, spell, and ingredient.
Currently, the following symbols are implemented:
#show "Treasure:": [#text(font: "Noto Emoji")[💎]]
#show "Monster:": [#text(font: "Noto Emoji")[👾]]
#show "Info:": [#text(font: "Noto Emoji")[📜]]
#show "NPC:": [#text(font: "Noto Emoji")[🧙♂️]]
#show "Magic Weapon:": [#text(font: "Noto Emoji")[🗡️]]
#show "Firearm:": [#text(font: "Noto Emoji")[🔫]]
#show "Magic Item:": [#text(font: "Noto Emoji")[]]
#show "Trap:": [#text(font: "Noto Emoji")[☢️]]
#show "Hazard:": [#text(font: "Noto Emoji")[☢️]]
#show "Shrine:": [#text(font: "Noto Emoji")[🕯️]]
#show "Merchant:": [#text(font: "Noto Emoji")[⚖︎]]
#show "Spell:": [#text(font: "Noto Emoji")[✨]]
#show "Ingredient:": [#text(font: "Noto Emoji")[⚗️]]
#show "Potion:": [#text(font: "Noto Emoji")[🧪]]
#show "Timeline:": [#text(font: "Noto Emoji")[⏳]]
#show "Fighting Technique:": [#text(font: "Noto Emoji")[⚔️]]
#show "Fighting Style:": [#text(font: "Noto Emoji")[⚔️]]
#show "Book:": [#text(font: "Noto Emoji")[📖]]
#show "Lodging:": [#text(font: "Noto Emoji")[🛌]]
#show "NPC Mage:": [#text(font: "Noto Emoji")[🧙♂️]]
#show "NPC Armiger:": [#text(font: "Noto Emoji")[🛡️]]
#show "NPC Armsman:": [#text(font: "Noto Emoji")[🛡️]]
#show "NPC Fighter:": [#text(font: "Noto Emoji")[🛡️]]
#show "NPC Hierodule:": [#text(font: "Noto Emoji")[🙏]]
#show "NPC Cleric:": [#text(font: "Noto Emoji")[🙏]]
#show "NPC Cultist:": [#text(font: "Noto Emoji")[⛧]]
#show "NPC Unclassed:": [#text(font: "Noto Emoji")[👤]]
#show "NPC:": [#text(font: "Noto Emoji")[👤]]
#show "NPC Robot:": [#text(font: "Noto Emoji")[🤖]]
#show "NPC Assassin:": [#text(font: "Noto Emoji")[🥷🏻]]
#show "NPC Thief:": [#text(font: "Noto Emoji")[🥷🏻]]
#show "NPC Proboscidean:": [#text(font: "Noto Emoji")[🦣]]
#show "NPC Brain:": [#text(font: "Noto Emoji")[🧠]]
#show "NPC Geometer:": [#text(font: "Noto Emoji")[📐]]
#show "NPC Monarch:": [#text(font: "Noto Emoji")[👑]]
#show "NPC Elf:": [#text(font: "Noto Emoji")[🧝]]
#show "NPC Dwarf:": [#text(font: "Noto Emoji")[⛏️]]
Tables
Please format random tables as markdown tables rather than numbered lists. Markdown tables can be tricky, so consider using an online tool.
Preferred:
| 1d4 | Wandering monster |
| --- | ------------------------------------------------------- |
| 1 | Damp skeleton |
| 2 | Ochre marmelade |
| 3 | Bolbi the Litigious, nobbit |
| 4 | Tiger, sabre-toothed, gelatinous, mummified, cybernetic |
Discouraged:
Wandering monsters (1d4):
1. Damp skeleton
2. Ochre marmelade
3. Bolbi the Litigous, nobbit
4. Tiger, sabre-toothed, gelatinous, mummified, cybernetic
Table headers should capitalize the first letter and any proper nouns.
- Preferred:
Wandering monster - Discouraged:
wandering monster,Wandering Monster
Illustrations
If an illustration is just a general illustration, make sure it has a newline before and after and has alt text defined: . This will render in the pdf as a 'float' with a caption appended below.
Captions are strongly encouraged. Captions should include the row-col index of whatever hex(es) they reference, and credits if the artist is not the same as the region's author.
Dungeon Keys
Smaller dungeons can be presented within their hex entry. In this case, level-4 headings can be used for dungeon levels, and level-5 headings for named rooms (if applicable). Otherwise, room keys should usually use numbered lists. Additional information (encounter tables, unique monsters, lore) should usually go under a level 4 or 5 heading.
For keys that use numbered lists, lists nested beneath a numbered room entry should usually not be numbered.
Example 1 (valid):
### 873-998 The Minaret of Suponez
| d4 | Wandering monster |
| --- | ------------------------------------------------------- |
| 1 | Damp Skeleton |
| 2 | Ochre Marmelade |
| 3 | Bolbi the Litigious, nobbit |
| 4 | Sabre-toothed Gelationous Mummified Cynbernetic Tiger |
#### Lore
All his neighbors say that the Wizard Suponez was doing some "really fucked-up shit" in his basement. Then one day, *poof!* he blows the whole damn thing up. Wizards, man.
#### Level 1
1. 12 Damp Skeletons, being damp.
- One of the skeletons is a head taller than the others & carries a +2 Axe.
2. Magic orb that turns you into a particularly ugly goblin.
Example 2 (also valid):
### 873-998 The Minaret of Suponez
| d4 | Wandering monster |
| --- | ------------------------------------------------------- |
| 1 | Damp Skeleton |
| 2 | Ochre Marmelade |
| 3 | Bolbi the Litigious, nobbit |
| 4 | Sabre-toothed Gelationous Mummified Cynbernetic Tiger |
#### Lore
All his neighbors say that the Wizard Suponez was doing some "really fucked-up shit" in his basement. Then one day, *poof!* he blows the whole damn thing up. Wizards, man.
#### Level 1: Damp Skeleton Lair
##### 1. Damp Skeleton Room
12 Damp Skeletons, being damp. One of the skeletons is a head taller than the others & carries a +2 Axe.
##### 2. Suponez's Goblinoculum
Magic orb that turns you into a particularly ugly goblin.
Larger dungeons should be broken out into a separate markdown file.2 In this case, the name of the dungeon should go at the top of the document in a level-2 heading, level names with a level 3 heading, named rooms with level-4, etc. The dungeon's hex entry should simply say "See dungeon entry for Hex XXX-YYY." (This will cause it to auto-link to the correct page).
Quotes
In markdown, you can create a block quote using the > symbol:
> They stood listening. “She loves playing,” he whispered. “I’m glad we taught her to play.” Presently he whispered again, “_Les Barricades Mystérieuses_. What inspired Couperin with that enchanted name? And only you and I know what it really means. _Les Barricades Mystérieuses._”
They stood listening. “She loves playing,” he whispered. “I’m glad we taught her to play.” Presently he whispered again, “Les Barricades Mystérieuses. What inspired Couperin with that enchanted name? And only you and I know what it really means. Les Barricades Mystérieuses.”
This should generally only be used for quotations, whether of diegetic texts or utterances or from real-world sources.
I have hacked together some code to style quote blocks using different fonts by appending a word in curly braces to the front of a quote.
> {Hieratic} The road of excess leads to the palace of wisdom.
> He who desires, but acts not, breeds pestilence.
> The pride of the peacock is the glory of God.
> The lust of the goat is the bounty of God.
> The wrath of the lion is the wisdom of God.
> The nakedness of lover is the work of God.
>
> Excess of sorrow laughs, excess of joy weeps.
>
> The roaring of lions, the howling of wolves, the raging of the stormy sea, and the destructive sword, are portions of Eternity too great for the eye of man.
>
> -- Prayer to THE ADVERSARY[^1]
Right now the following are implemented:
{Hieratic}uses the font in the example above.3{Handwritten}is self-explanatory.{Book}uses the Charter font by Matthew Butterick to evoke a respectable, serious book.{Robot}uses the Syne Mono to evoke a (slightly distorted) computer readout.{Pulp}uses the TT2020 to resemble a typewritten document.{Inscription}uses Cormorant Smallcaps to evoke a serious stone inscription.
These are totally optional and a bit silly, but they are available (and I can implement new fonts if desired).