Hybrid gamebook

A hybrid gamebook consists of the printed book and the phone companion. The book carries the game. The phone keeps track of inventory, puzzles with hints, quests, relationships and time, and saves calculating on paper. How the phone itself works is described under Phone and QR code. This page shows how you prepare the volume for printing.

You open the page in the editor with the Hybrid gamebook button.

Fully playable without a phone

If you offer the book as fully playable without a phone, turn on This volume is fully playable without a phone. The page then checks everything that does not work without a phone and names it with a jump to the section:

• Puzzle without a path in print: The solution leads to no section, or the number of the target section does not fit the solution. In print the number of the target section is the solution. For a number it is the number, for a word the sum of the letter positions (A is 1, B is 2 and so on).
• Puzzle without a way out: The puzzle has no section for readers who do not know the solution.
• Time event without text: An event from a counter value on has no text. In print only a general sentence appears then.
• Combination without a complete table: An item of the combination is missing in the rule set. The table in the rules section cannot name it.
• Message only on the phone: A section has a message that is not in the book. Copy the text into the section.
• QR code as the only way: The QR code of a section leads to a message that exists only on the phone.

If the setting is turned on, the print check records these places as errors, and the publishing assistant shows them under Readiness. If it is turned off, they are only notes.

QR codes of individual sections

Besides the QR code on the The phone as a companion page, you can place a QR code of its own for individual sections in print. It opens the phone companion directly at this place, for example at a puzzle with hints. Choose the sections in the list. The number after the list tells how many sections have a code.

The code is placed below the text of the section, is 0.95 inch in size and has a quiet zone of four dots. It is never split across a page break. The print check verifies that every code leads to the right number and that its dots are large enough to be read reliably. A printed code stays valid even if you change the volume afterwards. If the number of the section changes, the Spielbuchschmiede creates a new code with the next package.

Following volumes

The character code of a volume carries over level, stats, weapons, items and the choices that your rule set defines as to be carried over. On the phone you create it on the Code tab, as text and as a QR code. In the following volume you read it in on the same tab, either by typing it in or by scanning the QR code with the camera of the phone on which you play the following volume. If a volume queries choices from the previous volume, the Spielbuchschmiede automatically prints a page for the stats from the previous volume. Whoever plays without a phone copies the stats from their sheet.

Continuing on another device

On the phone the saved game is in the browser. On the Code tab there are two ways for another device:

• A Continuation code of eight characters. It contains no personal details, is valid once and for 14 days and is entered on the other device on the same tab.
• A Saved game in the account. Whoever is signed in saves it there and loads it on any device. The library shows these saved games.