Calibre & TTRPGs

I’m going to talk about how I use Calibre to organize all my files for tabletop rpgs. If you don’t know, Calibre is a program for organizing ebooks that’s available for PC, Mac, Linux, and even as a portable version. I’m not going to go through everything you can do in it, because it has good documentation and a helpful forum.

It’s great because you can have multiple libraries (I have books, comics, sewing & embroidery patterns, papercraft – those two could be another post – and games). And in each library you can have “virtual libraries” to divide them further, along with saved searches, tagging, and the expected metadata. For my games, I pretty much just use the tags and metadata.

Calibre main menu

I keep my ttrpgs on an external drive so I can work with them from both my laptop and desktop. This works perfectly with Calibre as long as the drive has the same drive letter on all computers. I currently have about 600 files in Calibre with a couple hundred more that I need to go through before putting in there. (There is so much free content out there, folks)

side menu in Calibre, showing Authors, series, formats, Publisher, tags, and saved searches)

My content is split into games (tagged ttrpg, physical game, or system for stuff like Fate or Dungeons and Dragons which has a ton of supplementary content), adventures (mostly dungeons because I love dungeon crawls), and resources (monsters and creatures, tables to randomly pick from, gm-ing tips, and other behind the scene stuff).

Everything gets tagged with where I got it (usually itch.io or drivethrurpg) and a genre if possible. For adventures and resources I just have to tag what it is (dungeon crawl, monsters, NPCs, fantasy, horror, etc) and what system or game it was made for. Games are the easiest to tag, but also get the most tags. Here’s an example:

Dragonhearts cover with the Author and tags.

For games I tag:

  • genre
  • Game Jam or similar – like the Bundle for Racial Justice & Equality (2020)
  • system (Firebrands Framework, Belonging Outside Belonging, Fate Core, PbtA, FitD, etc)
  • what the gm situation if it’s not the standard gming (gm-optional, gmless, rotating gm)
  • number of players if it tells me or I can guess (solo, 2 players, etc)
  • equipment needed (diceless, d6, tokens, index cards, card deck, loads of dice, etc)
  • themes (collaborative, storytelling, empathy, humor, communication). This is the hardest to tag
  • info like minimalist, one-page, two-page, supplement, hack, etc
  • stuff that’s in it like goblins, dragons, crows, rodents, etc. (A game where I can play as a rat is a must-buy)

I also tag stuff as played once I’ve played it, because I have so much that I want to get to.

I only put the main file in Calibre and note in the description that there are multiple files. Character sheets, alternate formats, handouts, gm helpers, and other miscellaneous stuff goes in a folder. Alternative playbooks for things like PbtA games or Troika! get added to Calibre.

I don’t have to have very many folders. Currently I have 40.

Example of some of the folders – side bar shows separate folders for solo games, adventures, and resources, and then folders for specific games. Main area shows the files for Fate Core, including different formats, tutorials, and character sheets.

Aside from that, I get the description from wherever I got the files, add the authors and publisher (often the same name), and a cover if it doesn’t have one. If I’m really good, I mark the date it was published so I know what version I have (sometimes I put the version number in the description too.) I get that from more information drop-down box on itch.io (you may have to hover over the updated section to get the date instead of the number of days ago) or on drivethrurpg, in the right hand side product menu bar.

Here’s a good example of one that’s done (also, an excellent game and I recommend joining its Discord for more resources)

Mausritter with the author, tags, format, publisher, published date, and description shown. This one I actually did make sure the date was correct.

You can see:

  • this was by Isaac Williams, aka Losing Games.
  • It takes 3 to 6 players.
  • It’s fantasy, with mice.
  • I got it in the Bundle for Racial Justice & Equality on itch.io (although I believe it’s also on drivethrurpg)
  • It’s an osr (old school renaissance) and SwordDream game.
  • I’ve played it.
  • Since it wasn’t tagged otherwise, it needs a gm.
  • … I didn’t mark the equipment – it basically needs a standard set of 7 rpg dice
  • It was update in Jun 2020

All in all, it’s pretty easy except for the loads of files I need to do. (I still have 65 folders of stuff to do just from the Bundle for Racial Justice.) Let me know if you have any questions or if you want to see more examples. Also, if you find this helpful, consider buying me a ko-fi

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