Obsolete required packages

[mohrcas]

At least one required package has been rendered obsolete. For example, the ms package has been split into multiple different packages; some these packages have been updated beyond what is available in the legacy ms package, and some of these packages are themselves required packages (ragged2e in particular).

Would it make sense to re-evaluate the loaded packages to ensure: (a) compatibility with newer installations of *TeX; and (b) there are no conflicts? I'm happy to start chipping away at this if it is a desirable course of action.

[BrianCriswell]

Between this and #374 , a general update is in order, but non-breaking changes with earlier versions of TexLive are important when possible.

I don't see a lot of new development on this code base. I think the next step is to create a generic class to help RPG book designers with game-system specific packages that use it and add their system-specific methods so that we can support multiple versions of D&D, Pathfinder, etc.

[mohrcas]

General update it is! What were you thinking regarding scope?

How are you imagining splitting the method load between the base class and the system-specific packages? Also, would the system-specific packages be distributed with the base class, or would they each be housed elsewhere? If we're distributing everything together, I am concerned that we'd run into copyright issues. Distributing tools for multiple systems covered under multiple licenses could get complicated; for example, I don't think that WotC's Fan Content Policy plays well with Paizo's Compatibility License.

[BrianCriswell]

I won't be able to dig into the code base to see where the separation of concerns would be. LaTeX already makes many things pretty flexible, so a generic base class might be pretty light weight. I could see it having helper functions for things like static image placement (or a full-page background image) that any document author might want to use.

I'm not concerned about licenses. We don't distribute content from WotC, Paizo, or anyone else. We make a tool that allows authors to make beautifully typeset documents in a style that would be recognizable by readers as content intended for a certain game system. Those authors decide what content to include in the document, and it is their responsibility to abide by any licenses.

Any more discussion on this should go in #369 as this is getting a bit off topic.