JCSP character management tool

[jcsp]

I've written a web-browser-based GURPS character sheet program. I have actually been working on this thing for years, on and off, but it's fairly complete at this point. I'd like some feedback. Take a look: www.cox-thurmond.net/jim/jcsp/.

This thing is meant to compete with GURPS Character Assistant and similar programs, except it's easier to use (I hope) and much more portable because it's also just a web page. That being said, it encompasses all the (3rd and 4th edition) rules found in the Basic Sets, and can be customized. You can create, save, etc. in most browsers now. It's "read-only" on mobile devices, unless you can save (you can't on Apple devices), or get to saved files there. You can download a set of files to use the package on your own computer, if you like.

Please let me know what you think - thanks!

Jim

[JMD]

I took a look at this and it seems pretty nice. Is it still in development? Any plans to further enhance it? If anyone finds bugs, where should be report them?

Thanks for making this. More options for GURPS is always a good thing!

Edit: You may consider saving the character on your own server if you have a db. Webpages lose a lot of their portability when you have to track and move around your own save file.

If you just took the full character object and serialized (or ajax.stringified) it I bet you could fit the whole thing in one blob/navarchar(max) field. Of course then you'd need a log in for users to reload the character.

[jcsp]

Originally Posted by JMD

I took a look at this and it seems pretty nice. Is it still in development? Any plans to further enhance it? If anyone finds bugs, where should be report them?

Still under development, for sure. Currently developing the machinery for importing supplemental rules libraries, for instance. I'm the sole developer, so reporting bugs to me here will work fine.

Originally Posted by JMD

Edit: You may consider saving the character on your own server if you have a db. Webpages lose a lot of their portability when you have to track and move around your own save file.

I'll consider this. I use things like DropBox routinely myself so that my files follow me around, but even that doesn't work with my tool on a mobile device. Saving to a DB on my site would solve this problem; it's just a chunk of work to set up.

[brianfb]

Great tool. Here are a few issues I found.

I tried to take the bow skill, and it only allowed me to select 1, 2, or 4 points. I had to manually adjust it to higher points after adding, there is a workaround, so minor.

I dont see Illiteracy in the disadvantage list

I wanted to take Nightmares with a higher activation, but it would not allow me to select a multiplier

Pacificm would not allow me to select the Modifier of Cannot Harm Innocents

[jcsp]

Originally Posted by brianfb

I tried to take the bow skill, and it only allowed me to select 1, 2, or 4 points. I had to manually adjust it to higher points after adding, there is a workaround, so minor.

My thinking was that a long menu for points would be cumbersome, and most people would be creating beginning characters, so having only a few choices made sense. As characters develop, changing points on the sheet makes more sense. Would you prefer a longer menu of point options when taking a new skill?

Originally Posted by brianfb

I dont see Illiteracy in the disadvantage list

Do you know if you were creating a character using the 3e rules or the 4e rules? Under 4e, Il/literacy is handled when choosing languages, not as a standard disad. Under 3e, both LIteracy and Illiteracy are listed.

Keep in mind that you may have a 3e character even though you are using a 4e sheet, or vice-versa. You can change the ruleset a character uses under Edit -> Edit Game Info.

Originally Posted by brianfb

I wanted to take Nightmares with a higher activation, but it would not allow me to select a multiplier

Pacificm would not allow me to select the Modifier of Cannot Harm Innocents

Any Ad or Disad can be taken with any Multiplier or Enhancement/Limitation; click on the little "+" next to "Multipliers:" or "Enhancements/Limitations:" to add a custom one. I didn't want to include every possible modifier for all Ads and Disads; it looked confusing, I thought. Suggestions are welcome: more instructions? etc?

[brianfb]

Originally Posted by jcsp

My thinking was that a long menu for points would be cumbersome, and most people would be creating beginning characters, so having only a few choices made sense. As characters develop, changing points on the sheet makes more sense. Would you prefer a longer menu of point options when taking a new skill?



Do you know if you were creating a character using the 3e rules or the 4e rules? Under 4e, Il/literacy is handled when choosing languages, not as a standard disad. Under 3e, both LIteracy and Illiteracy are listed.

Keep in mind that you may have a 3e character even though you are using a 4e sheet, or vice-versa. You can change the ruleset a character uses under Edit -> Edit Game Info.



Any Ad or Disad can be taken with any Multiplier or Enhancement/Limitation; click on the little "+" next to "Multipliers:" or "Enhancements/Limitations:" to add a custom one. I didn't want to include every possible modifier for all Ads and Disads; it looked confusing, I thought. Suggestions are welcome: more instructions? etc?

Ok, ill try again on the nightmares and pacifism. It opened a windiw with a multipliers check box and a set of radio buttons to choose the subitem, but none of them were selectable.


EDIT: Tried and tried, I could not figure out how to select those radio buttons. Tried on my windows 10 PC, and my windows 8.1 phone. Its either broke, or I'm dense. Likely the latter.

[Dragondog]

I had no problem with the check marks or radio buttons on Pacifism. I'm using Chrome on a PC. Unfortunately, it was worth 0 points. And I couldn't change that. I had to delete it. I should be able to change the particulars of a trait without having to delete it and start over.

Edit: After doing that again, I note that it's always worth 0 points, unless I manually change it to something else. The value of the disadvantage should change automatically as I select which type of Pacifism I want. It's the same with Phobia. Is it the same with all such disadvantages? Destiny works though, but it uses a menu list instead of radio buttons. But Regeneration does use radio buttons and does change the cost.

Originally Posted by jcsp

Keep in mind that you may have a 3e character even though you are using a 4e sheet, or vice-versa. You can change the ruleset a character uses under Edit -> Edit Game Info.

That should change automatically if you swap between editions.

It would be good if we could move the "Select Advantage/Disadvantage" window so that we can see what's being written in the "Ads, Disads, Perqs, Quirks" column, which probably should be renamed (perks not perqs) too.
Edit: It seems that you always spell perk as perq, so it should probably be changed everywhere.

When you select Sort by Origin, what is your sorting criteria?

When you sort by type, what is the PM type (Telecommunication seems to be the only trait that has it)? Should it be MP?

I find it interesting that you include the some of the perks from the Basic Set in the "select advantage/disadvantage" window, but not all of then, nor any of the quirks.

When you sort by anything other than Name, it would be nice if each subcategory was sorted by name.

[Captain Joy]

This is impressive.

Feature Request: Height and Weight

1. have height and weight adjust when you change your ST.
2. when you click on your height or weight, allow for increasing or decreasing from the norm for your ST, but staying within RAW guidelines.
3. allow an option to go beyond RAW guidelines.
4. allow an option to fix height and weight so it doesn't auto-adjust with ST changes.

[mook]

Originally Posted by Captain Joy

This is impressive.

Looks promising!

JCSP, maintaining the prog for both 3rd and 4th editions... well, let's just say you're a better man than I. :)

[jcsp]

Originally Posted by mook

Looks promising!

JCSP, maintaining the prog for both 3rd and 4th editions... well, let's just say you're a better man than I. :)

The result of being a long-time frustrated GURPS gamer in a town where no-one has ever heard of GURPS. I moved here before 4th edition came out, so ALL of my stuff is 3rd edition. I have never actually played using 4th edition rules!