Automated Character Sheet

hcobb · 12-12-2018, 02:33 PM

This would be a PDF that recorded what the character did each combat round.

It would track that the character fell down or was at a DX minus for hits taken.

Each turn you enter the number of hexes moved and engagement status. The character sheet then fills in a drop down box with the allowable actions and you select one.

At advanced levels you'd click on a spell, note the distance, the sheet would roll the result and mark off the proper number of fatigue points.

It could also automate character creation, noting the prerequisites for each talent or spell. And then present a list of potential weapons that match the character's ability. Or just hit the random button to see what it generates.

platimus · 12-12-2018, 02:39 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by hcobb

This would be a PDF that recorded what the character did each combat round.

How? Seems like I'd have to manually give it some input.

Quote:

It would track that the character fell down or was at a DX minus for hits taken.

Maybe I'm starting to understand you. I have to click on something in pdf and tell the pdf that I've taken X number of hits and it will tell me if I've fallen down or sustained a DX penalty?

Quote:

Each turn you enter the number of hexes moved and engagement status. The character sheet then fills in a drop down box with the allowable actions and you select one.

At advanced levels you'd click on a spell, note the distance, the sheet would roll the result and mark off the proper number of fatigue points.

It could also automate character creation, noting the prerequisites for each talent or spell. And then present a list of potential weapons that match the character's ability. Or just hit the random button to see what it generates.

Yes! Now you are making sense to me!

platimus · 12-12-2018, 02:42 PM

Would this be easier for you to do in PDF or spreadsheet? Seems like spreadsheet would be easier to build-in the functionality but harder to "make it pretty".

BTW, this would make an excellent smartphone app!

hcobb · 12-12-2018, 03:17 PM

My use case has a tablet at the gaming table that may be disconnected from the Internet at that moment.

I could do all of the above with a cached webpage, but it would be cleaner to use PDF javascript.

Speaking of PDFs, has anybody else renamed the cover page to "i" so that the page numbers aren't off by one?

platimus · 12-12-2018, 03:44 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by hcobb

My use case has a tablet at the gaming table that may be disconnected from the Internet at that moment.

I could do all of the above with a cached webpage, but it would be cleaner to use PDF javascript.

iPad or Android tablet? or Windows? I've heard that android apps (what I meant by "smartphone" app) are mostly written in javascript.

hcobb · 12-12-2018, 03:48 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by platimus

iPad or Android tablet? or Windows? I've heard that android apps (what I meant by "smartphone" app) are mostly written in javascript.

Microsoft is moving Windows apps to Javascript.

https://electronjs.org/

platimus · 12-12-2018, 06:25 PM

Android uses Java. My bad. Still though, Java...Javascript. Pretty similar.

XRaysVision · 12-13-2018, 05:49 AM

Sounds ok I guess...but it seems a little like guiding the lily since the game is so simple to begin with.

I think that part of the player involvement is scribbling down stats on a 3x5 card and wearing out the eraser on a pencil during a game making updates.

But I do love my tech.

I’ve done something very, very simple. I just made an image out of the character pad PDF doubled the width (placed the artwork on the left and left the right blank). Then I copied it into Notepad on my iPad Pro.

Now I can use my Apple Pencil in Notepad to scribble all over the character sheet on the right side of the screen and keep notes (stuff carried, prone, etc.) on the left.

Best of both worlds.

platimus · 12-13-2018, 08:11 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by XRaysVision

Sounds ok I guess...but it seems a little like guiding the lily since the game is so simple to begin with.

I think that part of the player involvement is scribbling down stats on a 3x5 card and wearing out the eraser on a pencil during a game making updates.

But I do love my tech.

I’ve done something very, very simple. I just made an image out of the character pad PDF doubled the width (placed the artwork on the left and left the right blank). Then I copied it into Notepad on my iPad Pro.

Now I can use my Apple Pencil in Notepad to scribble all over the character sheet on the right side of the screen and keep notes (stuff carried, prone, etc.) on the left.

Best of both worlds.

I love that! I've seen similar things accomplished with a MS Surface tablet and Surface Pen. If I had one of these devices, I would do this.

XRaysVision · 12-14-2018, 04:47 AM

In my feeble mind, it serves to keep that old school paper & pencil feel and yet carry around all my characters on my iPad and in the cloud. Along this theme, I went one better last night and put six sheets, with extra room below for notes, on an 8.5 x 11 in Apple Pages (which now allows the use of the pencil to annotate documents right there in pages!) So now I can keep my whole party in front of me on a single page and scribble all over it.

Let me tell you a story...

Many years ago, my brother and I were going to play darts, and we decided to use use my TRS-80 to keep score and tell us want series of scores we would need to double out. Well, in those days there were no “apps.” If you wanted to o something like that, you wrote a program. Well, we ended up spending the entire evening writing the code to do the end game math instead just doing the much simpler subtraction from 501 and doing the rest in our heads. We never did play a game of darts. The moral of the story is that it’s easy to be blinded by what you can do with tech instead of using it to simply do what you should.

12-12-2018, 02:33 PM	#1
hcobb Join Date: Aug 2004 Location: Pacheco, California	Automated Character Sheet This would be a PDF that recorded what the character did each combat round. It would track that the character fell down or was at a DX minus for hits taken. Each turn you enter the number of hexes moved and engagement status. The character sheet then fills in a drop down box with the allowable actions and you select one. At advanced levels you'd click on a spell, note the distance, the sheet would roll the result and mark off the proper number of fatigue points. It could also automate character creation, noting the prerequisites for each talent or spell. And then present a list of potential weapons that match the character's ability. Or just hit the random button to see what it generates. __________________ -HJC

12-12-2018, 02:42 PM	#3
platimus Join Date: Dec 2017 Location: behind you	Re: Automated Character Sheet Would this be easier for you to do in PDF or spreadsheet? Seems like spreadsheet would be easier to build-in the functionality but harder to "make it pretty". BTW, this would make an excellent smartphone app! __________________ Miranda Warning: Anything you say can and will be used against you in a forum of rules-lawyers.

12-12-2018, 03:17 PM	#4
hcobb Join Date: Aug 2004 Location: Pacheco, California	Re: Automated Character Sheet My use case has a tablet at the gaming table that may be disconnected from the Internet at that moment. I could do all of the above with a cached webpage, but it would be cleaner to use PDF javascript. Speaking of PDFs, has anybody else renamed the cover page to "i" so that the page numbers aren't off by one? __________________ -HJC Last edited by hcobb; 12-12-2018 at 03:42 PM.

12-12-2018, 06:25 PM	#7
platimus Join Date: Dec 2017 Location: behind you	Re: Automated Character Sheet Android uses Java. My bad. Still though, Java...Javascript. Pretty similar. __________________ Miranda Warning: Anything you say can and will be used against you in a forum of rules-lawyers.

12-13-2018, 05:49 AM	#8
XRaysVision Join Date: Jul 2018	Re: Automated Character Sheet Sounds ok I guess...but it seems a little like guiding the lily since the game is so simple to begin with. I think that part of the player involvement is scribbling down stats on a 3x5 card and wearing out the eraser on a pencil during a game making updates. But I do love my tech. I’ve done something very, very simple. I just made an image out of the character pad PDF doubled the width (placed the artwork on the left and left the right blank). Then I copied it into Notepad on my iPad Pro. Now I can use my Apple Pencil in Notepad to scribble all over the character sheet on the right side of the screen and keep notes (stuff carried, prone, etc.) on the left. Best of both worlds.

12-14-2018, 04:47 AM	#10
XRaysVision Join Date: Jul 2018	Re: Automated Character Sheet In my feeble mind, it serves to keep that old school paper & pencil feel and yet carry around all my characters on my iPad and in the cloud. Along this theme, I went one better last night and put six sheets, with extra room below for notes, on an 8.5 x 11 in Apple Pages (which now allows the use of the pencil to annotate documents right there in pages!) So now I can keep my whole party in front of me on a single page and scribble all over it. Let me tell you a story... Many years ago, my brother and I were going to play darts, and we decided to use use my TRS-80 to keep score and tell us want series of scores we would need to double out. Well, in those days there were no “apps.” If you wanted to o something like that, you wrote a program. Well, we ended up spending the entire evening writing the code to do the end game math instead just doing the much simpler subtraction from 501 and doing the rest in our heads. We never did play a game of darts. The moral of the story is that it’s easy to be blinded by what you can do with tech instead of using it to simply do what you should.