Character Sheet Tool

[Amaril]

We always make them separate tools because different people use them. CT is designed more for players while IT is designed for GMs. The biggest difference is that CT is designed to control one character while IT is set up to show and control a lot NPC's and Characters. The CT is actually being used as a library by IT so they are very much alike when you are just looking at a single character. You can even use the same forms for IT and CT. Eventually there will be plugins into MT for both tools and then they can share values. That is the plan anyway.

Jay, if IT can import CT, this would be an excellent way for players to create their own combatants, save to a single file and send the file to a GM. The GM would then be able to import the individual CT file as a combatant within a group in IT.

[jay]

We always make them separate tools because different people use them. CT is designed more for players while IT is designed for GMs. The biggest difference is that CT is designed to control one character while IT is set up to show and control a lot NPC's and Characters. The CT is actually being used as a library by IT so they are very much alike when you are just looking at a single character. You can even use the same forms for IT and CT. Eventually there will be plugins into MT for both tools and then they can share values. That is the plan anyway.

Jay, if IT can import CT, this would be an excellent way for players to create their own combatants, save to a single file and send the file to a GM. The GM would then be able to import the individual CT file as a combatant within a group in IT.

IT and CT will have interchangeable data. They already share the same game settings file. Sometime soon I want to switch from the current character files to MT's token files. That way a single file can be used and passed around to all of the tools.

[Zerianthekeeper]

Jay, been playin with chartool for about a week now, lovin what I see so far. I do have a question though; is it possible yet to alter the sheets or design new sheets to use? If so, is it something you need java experience to do?
I would love to put together a SWSE character sheet for our new campaign next month.

Thanks
ZK

[Amaril]

Jay, if IT can import CT, this would be an excellent way for players to create their own combatants, save to a single file and send the file to a GM. The GM would then be able to import the individual CT file as a combatant within a group in IT.

IT and CT will have interchangeable data. They already share the same game settings file. Sometime soon I want to switch from the current character files to MT's token files. That way a single file can be used and passed around to all of the tools.

Very cool. I can't wait.

[jay]

Jay, been playin with chartool for about a week now, lovin what I see so far. I do have a question though; is it possible yet to alter the sheets or design new sheets to use? If so, is it something you need java experience to do?
I would love to put together a SWSE character sheet for our new campaign next month

You can design your own sheets w/o Java experince. There is a tool called Abeille that is used to create the sheets. It lets you place all the needed fields on the sheet. All you need to do is to give the component a name that matches the name of a property in the game settings file. The code will automatically link the two and show your data. You can do more complicated things if you want to try writing JavaScript in the components. If you need any help just email me or post it here.

Is SWSE Savage Worlds? If so I would be interested in seeing the final product. I've started a new one that is the basic 'orange' sheet from the SW website.

[Zerianthekeeper]

You can design your own sheets w/o Java experince. There is a tool called Abeille that is used to create the sheets. It lets you place all the needed fields on the sheet. All you need to do is to give the component a name that matches the name of a property in the game settings file. The code will automatically link the two and show your data. You can do more complicated things if you want to try writing JavaScript in the components. If you need any help just email me or post it here.

Is SWSE Savage Worlds? If so I would be interested in seeing the final product. I've started a new one that is the basic 'orange' sheet from the SW website.

Thanks jay, that is great to hear! I know a little about javascript, but by no means am I an expert (or competent really). Sorry SWSE is not Savage Worlds, its Star Wars Saga Edition. I have not had the chance to play Savage Worlds yet. Im will be working on this character sheet, and I have 4 weeks to put it together. once im done i'll post it.

thanks again
ZK

[SodaBob]

Don't know if this has been discussed in detail, sorry if this is rehash of previous discussions in this thread (my eyes started to glaze over after the 3rd page of 19 pages of posts... heh heh heh).

At any rate, RedBlade CG looks really good, but unfortunately it looks like vaporware. Not to complain, because the tool (if/when released) will be free, but it's sad that this project is not yet completed (especially since it's a 3.5 d20 character generator and 4th edition is almost here).

http://about.redblade.org/redbladecg.php

I haven't seen any official notices about RedBlade CG development since Feb of 2007, when daan (the RedBlade developer) mentioned he was "still alive" and that he would "post an update soon," and a month earlier when he said the program would "definitely" be released in 2007 (oops). Over a year later and not only no program released but not even any forum updates on the progress of development. Again, no complaints here, he and his team are doing the work for free, just sad.

http://community.redblade.org/index.php ... =showPosts

I mention this because perhaps the RPTools folks could partner with daan (the RedBlade lead developer) and his folks to expedite development, or take over development all together, in order to bring this great looking tool to the masses and perhaps also make it compatible with 3rd, 3.5 and 4th editions. Here is daan's contact info...

http://community.redblade.org/index.php ... rofile;u=2

Or perhaps the RPTools developers could start from scratch, but I think a character generator would be a huge project and I'd hate to see time taken away from development of MapTool (which totally rules, btw).

Bob.

[Amaril]

Meh. There hasn't been a single character generator since 3e was released that has seen completion and fully functioning capabilities. PCGen fans will argue otherwise, but my experiences with PCGen haven't been all that great.

[jay]

Thanks jay, that is great to hear! I know a little about javascript, but by no means am I an expert (or competent really). Sorry SWSE is not Savage Worlds, its Star Wars Saga Edition. I have not had the chance to play Savage Worlds yet. Im will be working on this character sheet, and I have 4 weeks to put it together. once im done i'll post it.

Neat! Somebody else has been working on SWSE as well. Maybe you and he can collaberate. His forum id is drswoboda. He had some sheets completed for IT. CT can use those sheets as well. Here is the thread.

I would love to put a SWSE game settings file with the default game settings files I have for D&D, SW, and Hero. Do they publish any rules or subset of the rules on the web? I don't want anybody to get mad at me

[SodaBob]

Meh. There hasn't been a single character generator since 3e was released that has seen completion and fully functioning capabilities. PCGen fans will argue otherwise, but my experiences with PCGen haven't been all that great.

E-Tools was actually half way decent once Code Monkey fixed it, but continued to be flaky even after their fix. It works okay still for core rules characters and any rules db expansions that Code Monkey sold; but it doesn't do customization very well, though some things like deities and gear, weapons, and other items it does a pretty good job with. Unfortunately, it's now abandonware.

The RedBlade 3.5e generator is halfway decent, but also not very good for customization. The CG version looked awesome if it was half as good as advertised, but as mentioned I haven't seen any visible development on it in over a year now.

Bob.

[Amaril]

Meh. There hasn't been a single character generator since 3e was released that has seen completion and fully functioning capabilities. PCGen fans will argue otherwise, but my experiences with PCGen haven't been all that great.

E-Tools was actually half way decent once Code Monkey fixed it, but continued to be flaky even after their fix. It works okay still for core rules characters and any rules db expansions that Code Monkey sold; but it doesn't do customization very well, though some things like deities and gear, weapons, and other items it does a pretty good job with. Unfortunately, it's now abandonware.

Bob.

That and CMP's datasets are littered with omissions and errors.

[SodaBob]

...CMP's datasets are littered with omissions and errors.

Yeah, certainly not ideal, but okay for core rules. This is why I was excited about RedBlade CG, because it was advertised as very customizable and expandable. Oh, well.

Bob.

[huhlig]

So, out of curiosity, I know I tried chartool a long time back, has a beta been released in my absence? I begin a game in 3 months or so and have enough time to be of some use again.

[trevor]

So, out of curiosity, I know I tried chartool a long time back, has a beta been released in my absence? I begin a game in 3 months or so and have enough time to be of some use again.

It's had some work done on it since then, you might check it out. It hasn't been officially released yet.

[UntoldGlory]

Is chartool still in development? I wanted to ask before I dug through a 19 page thread that hasn't been replied to in a couple months...

Oh, and 4e char gen looks a WHOLE lot simpler. I won't say better, but simpler.