A book is a single piece that holds an ordered list of page images plus a shared page cursor. On the table it renders as a 3D book: a page block with a beveled spine along its right and bottom edges. A book is its own piece category, distinct from stacks and decks. Its pages are not cards; they belong to the book and turn in place rather than being drawn, dealt, or shuffled.
Books are made for rulebooks, reference booklets, story books, and any ordered run of pages that players read together during a session.
Creating a book
A book can be created three ways: by uploading pages manually, by importing a game from The Game Crafter that contains a book, or through the REST API. The first two are described below. The API path is documented in the Books API.
Manual upload
Open Imported Pieces, choose Manual Upload, and select the Book tab.
- Upload your page images. Each image becomes one page.
- Set a Book Name so the book is easy to find later.
- Set the Source DPI so the pages are sized to their real-world dimensions.
- Reorder pages with the up and down controls until they are in reading order. Page 1 is the cover.
- Choose Create Book.
The finished book appears in the Books section of Imported Pieces.
From The Game Crafter
Importing a Game Crafter game that contains a booklet, coilbook, or perfectbound book brings the book in automatically. After the import completes, the book appears in the Books section of Imported Pieces alongside any books you uploaded by hand.
Placing a book on the table
Open the Add Entities browser and find the book under Books. Its thumbnail is page 1. Add it to the table the same way you add any other piece.
Reading a book on the table
A book opens, turns, and closes directly on the table surface.
- A closed book shows a single page, page 1 (the cover), on the right, with the 3D spine.
- Opening the book reveals two facing pages. The binding (the center seam) stays fixed in place, and the newly revealed page folds out to the left, so the book never slides as it opens.
- The last page of an odd-length book sits alone on the left, mirroring the lone cover on the right.
To turn a page, tap a page on the table. Tap the right page to go forward and the left page to go back. The turn plays a card-style flip animation. Because the binding stays put, the book stays anchored where you placed it while the pages move.
Page turns are shared. Every player sees the same page in real time, and a turn can be undone like any other action.
To move the book, drag its spine, the thick right and bottom edge, the same way you move a deck by its edge. Tapping a page turns the page rather than moving the book, so the spine is the handle for repositioning.
Action Dock verbs
With a placed book selected in Interact mode, the Action Dock offers page-navigation verbs:
| Action | What it does |
|---|---|
| First | Jumps to the cover (page 1) and closes the book. |
| Prev | Turns back one spread. |
| Next | Turns forward one spread. |
| Last | Jumps to the final spread. |
| Go to Page | Prompts for a page number and jumps straight to the spread that contains it. |
Like tapping a page, every verb syncs to all players in real time and is undoable.
Editing a book's pages later
A book's pages stay editable after it is created. Open Imported Pieces, select the book under Books, and you can:
- Reorder pages so they read in the right order.
- Replace an individual page with a new image.
- Delete an individual page.
- Rename the book.
- View debug information about the book.
Changes to a book's pages apply to the book wherever it appears.