RPTools.net

As you stated, it's "no character creators of any kind", but also as you point out, that's the GSL.

Why not just use the one WoTC provide.

It's really good. It auto links into all the PHB123, dragon and other reference, it gives decent descriptions of all the things you'd like to know, makes print outs etc. It also auto updates to the latest feats/powers that have been published.

Also it makes a *really good power sheet* for your char. Rather than generic powers, they are customized with the to hit and damage of your character. I fail to see why so many ppl make posts on power cards and char makers when the WoTC one, which is also free levels 1-3 is excellent.

people want other options becuase 1) its not free, and 2) its not platform agnostic, i.e. windows only.

This

And also 3) it doesn't integrate with any other tools they may be using

Well you *can* download and use it free to *Create* your character. I'm doing it right now, just download the "fast start" from the wizards website.

Since 1-3 is free, new low level character you create is free. Since the PDF print out sheets are quite clear, you can just drag and drop them into rptools. All you then have to do is update the +7, +8 or whatever on your character sheet.

If your using Linux, I guess the usual Wine is an option. Nothings stopping anyone making yet another Char Creator, but there seem to be little point. The best ones I've used in the past have just been spreadsheets in Open Office. Moreover, if you do it this way, you can export into XML for the ulitmate in cross platform import/export if thats your thing.

Character Builder does not work on linux, or any other platform that does not have .NET 3.5. Mono currently can only do 3.0 and not all of it. However, you can use Virtualbox, which I do. Also, if Character Creator has all of the capabilities that DDI does, I would much rather use and support it than a proprietary creator.

Ok here are the three points again
1) its not free
Levels 1 - 3 free is not the same as free, honestly if I want some that is free and
I cant use it for > 3 for free I am not going to use it for levels 1 - 3 because then I
would just have to change.
2) Using wine for linux is not the same as having an application that runs on the
platform, it doesn't look as good or integrate as well. As well as many other
reasons to favor applications that run on your platform (plus many Mac users don't
want to bother with wine).
3) Its still not integrated, you cant just drag the pdf into rptools and update it, and
even if you could that is NOT integrated. Even something that simply read the
campaign file and updated the character sheet would be more integrated than
this.

The above are the reasons that people would be willing to create a character creation tool.

And while I know there are some good tools that use spreadsheets I can not think of a more painful way to do some sort of smart or semi generic character sheet, if you have the programing knowledge then any other way is better than a spreadsheet, it really amazes me the amount of effort people put into creating all sorts of complicated and convoluted tools when it would take a lot less effort to do things.

And this is why I quite updating my spreadsheet for 4E Character Creation. It is easier to just contribute to CT by hacking text files.

And someday I promise to get an editor for them. So far it has just been easier for me to do them by hand which is why it has taken me so long. If anybody has any ideas on how to make CT create characters easier just start a thread their and we can discuss them.

Why not write a 'blank creator' that does all the calcs but only uses abbreviations for labels and has no descriptions. Leave the label and description fields editable so end users can put in as much or as little of the content they seperately bought as they like.
Even make the editing user friendly so you can save all the changes in a 'update' file.

It is legal to make a 4e character generator. Woflair have done this for the ENnie winning HeroLab (and full disclosure, my friend is the lead programmer). They ship it with no content and it uses your DnD Insider login to get the information from the Wizards site, which is perfectly legitimate.

But no, shipping a character generator that has the 4e rules built in looks like it's not going to be a good idea.

Am I the only one that dreams of an open gaming system (as in Open Source) that satisfies our tastes and can be used as basis for interactive tools and potentially commercial ones without the fear of being persecuted? I know many have invented their own rules always claiming "mine is better than yours" but the real problem is not the quality of the rules (which is indeed a problem but probably not the greatest) but how much they are adopted, and the RPTools community could really give a turn to it.

Apparently I am, or most likely this is not the correct thread for such topic

I've always thought that is what RPTools is shooting for. The tools themselves are fairly agnostic, but that leaves a lot for individuals to do for their games.

But there is nothing done in that matter, right? Or I have missed something?