Welcome!

jay · Post by **jay** » Thu Jun 19, 2008 1:01 am

Welcome to the Character Tool forum! Like all of the other RPTool forums this forum is for the discussion of your thoughts, ideas, help requests, sharing data files and bug notices. Please share your input with the group so that Character Tool can be made better.

Steel Rat · Post by **Steel Rat** » Thu Jun 19, 2008 1:27 am

Sorry, I guess I should have posted my question here.

I haven't kept up with the char tool thread, so perhaps a sticky with a quickstart guide is in order. Are there sheets already built? I see the game system selection, but fail to see how that is used.

Steel Rat · Post by **Steel Rat** » Thu Jun 19, 2008 1:31 am

Aha! Shazam! By just clicking around and trying to figure what to do, I found that there was a draggable section that was actually the bottom of the character sheet. Meaning I couldn't see anything because the bottom of the current sheet was dragged all the way up to the top from the start, hiding all the content.

So there's one feedback point

Steel Rat · Post by **Steel Rat** » Thu Jun 19, 2008 1:35 am

In the skills matrix, some of the columns are left justified, some are right justified. They should probably be consistent for readbility.

thelevitator · Post by **thelevitator** » Thu Jun 19, 2008 1:41 am

Nice job Jay! By the way, are we going to be able to create sheets for our own systems, or do we need to make requests here? I'd love to consolidate all of the current tools to use with my new FUDGE-based game. It has waaayyy less character info than D&D or GURPS, so I'm hopeful that creating a character sheet for my game will be really easy.

jay · Post by **jay** » Thu Jun 19, 2008 1:43 am

Heh, thanks. Wonder why that doesn't happen for me? I just checked the documentation on the splitter and it seems I'm setting it up correctly. I've added some code to set a default size and arrange the splitter based on that.

jay · Post by **jay** » Thu Jun 19, 2008 1:48 am

thelevitator wrote:Nice job Jay! By the way, are we going to be able to create sheets for our own systems, or do we need to make requests here? I'd love to consolidate all of the current tools to use with my new FUDGE-based game. It has waaayyy less character info than D&D or GURPS, so I'm hopeful that creating a character sheet for my game will be really easy.

Thanks! You will be able to create sheets for your own systems. Next on my plate is working on the configuration editor so that it is easier to do. The only way to create one now is by editing the XML directly. It uses the same settings file that IT uses so I'm using that as a basis for the editor but that one had fallen way behind the functionality. I also need to start working on the documentation for editing these files.

jay · Post by **jay** » Thu Jun 19, 2008 1:52 am

Steel Rat wrote:In the skills matrix, some of the columns are left justified, some are right justified. They should probably be consistent for readbility.

The component that does that isn't accessible by Abeille so it uses the defaults. For the editable number fields that is on the right, for everything else, editable or not, it is on the left. Eventually I'll update the component to handle display details like that from inside Abeille.

Steel Rat · Post by **Steel Rat** » Thu Jun 19, 2008 1:57 am

I'm using Vista, so I don't know if that's got anything to do with it.

I agree though that it's an excellent start. And I'm this has been repeated over and over again, but simply by adding a node-based content tree to this and an overarching Campaign element, you've got yourself a campaign manager, where GMs can add in adventure text, player sheets, npc sheets, monster stats, etc ad infinitum all in a nice tree-based structure. Need to start another campaign for a different game system? no problemo, just click File>New Campaign, and there you go. Switch between campaigns with main tabs along the top.

This can go REALLY far!

Steel Rat · Post by **Steel Rat** » Thu Jun 19, 2008 2:02 am

Cool about the columns.

Are the abielle forms available for the sheets you've got made? I'd love to be able to look at them for examples on how to make my own and script things.

jay · Post by **jay** » Thu Jun 19, 2008 2:13 am

They are in the .rpgame file. On Windows XP they are located at C:\Documents and Settings\user_name\.chartool\game\ by default. Unzip that file using your favorite zip tool, you may have to change the extension first. The Abeille forms are in the form\ directory off of where you unzipped the files.

I've set up the scripting so that it can be attached to the properties for things that are common to a game or it can be attached to actual form for things specific to making the form work. The common scripts are attached to the form by just setting the name of the component to match the name of the script property. To attach scripts to the forms directly I've created a number of CharSheetXxx components. These have properties that allow you to write scripts directly within Abeille.

thelevitator · Post by **thelevitator** » Thu Jun 19, 2008 2:30 am

Steel Rat wrote:I'm using Vista, so I don't know if that's got anything to do with it.

I agree though that it's an excellent start. And I'm this has been repeated over and over again, but simply by adding a node-based content tree to this and an overarching Campaign element, you've got yourself a campaign manager, where GMs can add in adventure text, player sheets, npc sheets, monster stats, etc ad infinitum all in a nice tree-based structure. Need to start another campaign for a different game system? no problemo, just click File>New Campaign, and there you go. Switch between campaigns with main tabs along the top.

This can go REALLY far!

<Lev>

Having a complete campaign manager integrated with MT is the Holy Grail for a lot of us I think SR!

I've been using DM Genie for almost 5 years now, and it's great for 3.5. But now that I'm working up a new system based on a totally different mechanic and ruleset, I don't have a great way to manage everything right now. Currently I'm still using MT, but I need token resizing for gridless maps before I can really use it how I would like. I'm using Treepad+ for campaign planning currently, and it is very similar to the Campaign Manager in DM Genie, but with more features (like tables). I just started playing around with Initiative Tool, but I'm finding it a bit awkward to get the hang of, as CinEpic uses simultaneous rounds in 3 phases. But I'm going to try and implement as much of the RPTools programs as possible with the new system in the hopes that by the time I finish typing up the PDF and get enough playtesting in to call it a complete system, that some of the RPTools programs will all work together.

If there's anything I can do to "grease the wheels" on CinEpic character sheets being possible with Character Tool, just let me know Jay!

jay · Post by **jay** » Thu Jun 19, 2008 2:38 am

The easiest way to get me to work on that is to get me a (legal) set of the rules. I've been writing many of the game configurations from free Lite rules put out by the companies.

Also, if you can describe to me what 'simultaneous rounds in 3 phases' means I'll try to get Init Tool working for you as well.

Steel Rat · Post by **Steel Rat** » Thu Jun 19, 2008 2:46 am

Having a complete campaign manager integrated with MT is the Holy Grail for a lot of us I think SR!

Don't I know it! I was begging for it when I first arrived here.

thelevitator · Post by **thelevitator** » Thu Jun 19, 2008 3:08 am

jay wrote:The easiest way to get me to work on that is to get me a (legal) set of the rules. I've been writing many of the game configurations from free Lite rules put out by the companies.

Also, if you can describe to me what 'simultaneous rounds in 3 phases' means I'll try to get Init Tool working for you as well.

I tried to detail it in the IT thread. The nice thing about FUDGE-based systems is that they are very easy, so I don't really need a ton of automation on IT's part. At some point, when IT is integrated with MT, I would love to have a die roller that works in both programs.

I am really close on compiling my additions to the FUDGE Core rules. It's basically a lot of ideas from other published FUDGE-based systems. I can post the character sheets here.

It's a simple system compared to something like 3.5, but explaining it isn't always easy for me.