A netbook (sometimes also referred to as a net.sourcebook) is an electronically aggregated, maintained and disseminated collection of submissions on a specific theme, an electronic sourcebook most often for use in role-playing games, e.g., collections of user-created spell formulae, prayers, potions, magic items, weapons and equipment, NPCs, bestiaries, etc. Netbooks used to be generated largely by RPG listserv subscribers and were distributed by email and ftp (often in LaTeX and raw postscript formats, to print as "real" books, hence the derivation of the name, also a back-formation from "spellbook" and "prayerbook"), but many now are maintained as or as part of web sites, or are available for http download in various text and document formats for current word processors.
Examples
Online Directories of Netbooks
- Blue Troll's Netbooks - www.fortunecity.com/victorian/byzantium/55/index.htm
- Fantasy Netbook Community Council - www.enworld.org/fancc/netbook/
- NetRPG - www.netrpg.com/netbooks.html
- Olik's Archive - www.acc.umu.se/~stradh/dnd/mirror/Ezra/books/olear/ADnD/NetBooks.html
- Plastic Warriors (Shadowrun) - plastic.dumpshock.com/shadowrun/
- Ravenloft Netbooks - www.kargatane.com/sotk/netbook/netbook.html
- Rondak's Portal - www.rondaksportal.com/public/resources/netbooks/index.php3
- Strolen's Citadel - strolen.com/netbooks/index.php
- The Wraith Project: Netbooks - www.pondside.com/wraith/wraith/WPnetbooks.html