Forum > General Discussion
Character software from concept
GrumpyOldFart:
I'll freely admit I know basically zilch about software. My knowledge extended to "barely competent" back in the days of ones and zeros, and hasn't progressed much since. What I do know is that using an already existing template for something similar but not the same often creates its own problems later down the road. This is why the designers of the space shuttle had to deal with the aftermath of decisions made by Roman chariot-road builders. So instead of taking an already existing pencil-and-paper character sheet and lumping all my "it needs to do this" assumptions into just pointing at the character sheet and saying, "like that," I decided to start a thread to actually state explicitly what an RPG player's and/or GM's program or app should do.
All you guys feel free to jump in, but I'll start with the notion that made me begin this thread.
The core of what a character is, is a list of skills. Yes, there are stats and talents and etc, but the bottom line of a "character sheet" is to put the player's perception of the character, "He likes to _____", "He's good at _____", into terms you can add to a dice roll. Depending on the game system, that list can get pretty long and intimidating, and a player can get plenty frustrated trying to pick out the one skill he needs from such a list. So to that end, what about a... comparison log, I don't know what else to call it, that tracks how often the player references each skill, and changes the font color of the skill total accordingly? Skills you never use are in black, the most used 1/6th or so are in red, and it works its way through the spectrum down to the least used (but actually used) at violet.
Don't feel like you have to comment on that idea in particular, don't be bashful about "for my money, character software needs to _____" that's completely different, that's what this thread is for.
TerryTee:
A character sheet needs to make it really easy to access more information about what ever is on the character sheet. So a skill in the skill list should have a link (right click the mouse etc) to the skill description and relevant rules. A spell needs a link to the spell description and a piece of equiment a link to more details about it then what is listed directly on the sheet.
-Terry
GrumpyOldFart:
--- Quote from: TerryTee on July 07, 2011, 04:27:07 PM ---So a skill in the skill list should have a link (right click the mouse etc) to the skill description and relevant rules. A spell needs a link to the spell description and a piece of equiment a link to more details about it then what is listed directly on the sheet.
--- End quote ---
Ideally, every block that is part of a skill total should have such a link. That way the brand-spankin-new player can not only right click on Perception and see what the skill is, he can right click his way through each block, from number of ranks, skill total, stat bonus, etc. so he can tell where all the parts of that total came from. This would take a lot of the weight off the GM to teach him how to make "intelligent" decisions regarding character development. What the GM considers an intelligent decision may not fit the concept logic of the character.
providence13:
Even if it is just for info, we could do something similar with wiki.
Take a RM character sheet (even home made) and give it hypertext look-up...
markc:
I think the main problem with the above idea is that it is essentially the book and a PC gen program combined. That is great for the game do not get me wrong but it can be $$ for the people to buy as you have the programming cost as well as the material in the book cost.
I personally think it is a great idea and can work well for an all electronic group or even a partially electronic group. Each e-player would have a copy of the program on their device that may hook up to the GM program to run the game.
MDC
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