Discussion: Use of Google Spreadsheets in Place of Wiki Character Sheets

Kalidrev · Mar 18, 2010

Scorp: I created a Half-Orc monk and entered it into your sheet. As far as power structure goes, it's not optimal, BUT here's what I did to make it work for me:

For the standard action attack power, I filled it out as normal. THEN, in the Special section, I put in the rules for the Movement action. For the action type at the top of the power block, I simply put "Standard/Move". Again, this isn't optimal, but it works (and I think it is clear enough for someone to figure out).

I fully support this option in replacement of Wiki blocks. Thanks for all of your hard work getting this put together!

covaithe · Mar 18, 2010

ScorpiusRisk said:
File -> See Revision History

There will then be a drop down menu in the middle. Select a save point. The sheet will appear in grayscale and any differences will be highlighted.

This is grayed out for me on both of the sheets I looked at (Raiko and Atreus).It sounds awesome, but does it require special sharing permissions or something?

ScorpiusRisk · Mar 18, 2010

I would not have expected that to be the case, but it sounds like it from your description covaithe. That means we need to amend the instructions slightly, so that people need to make their sheets public when getting the link. Just a checkbox really.

ScorpiusRisk · Mar 18, 2010

Here we go. A fresh version, with that instruction added. I renamed it as a fresh copy so there's no revision history of all the changes made to get it to this point.

Google Character Sheet

stonegod · Mar 18, 2010

What about wizard/artificer/druid summoning powers?

ScorpiusRisk · Mar 18, 2010

You could copy and paste the attack/damage lines a second time at the bottom of the power. That seems the simplest solution to me.

How does the wiki handle them now?

Moon_Goddess · Mar 18, 2010

Does the google spreedsheet keep revision history?

who edited what, when and what changes they made? I don't think it does, if it doesn't we really need to stick with the wiki.

ScorpiusRisk · Mar 18, 2010

It does. In fact if you read the last few posts I just told covaithe how to see the revision history. I then edited the instructions to make sure any users properly marked their sheets to allow the judges to see that history.

EDIT: In fact if you want to see what it looks like, I just made the following public.

Scorpius a 4th level dhampyr elf druid done in the LEB style. This sheet is obviously incomplete.

Raiko my current lvl 1 Paladin. This sheet was done on a previous version, and does not contain all the current sheet changes.

Moon_Goddess · Mar 18, 2010

Sorry My mistake, I just skimmed the thread and missed it.

I only brought it up becuase I recently had a client complaining about google docs becuase it didn't have revision history...

ScorpiusRisk · Mar 18, 2010

No worries Darwin. I meant no criticism. More of a 'funny you should ask'.

You're client may have been referring to the fact, as covaithe discovered, that you can't view that history unless you have rights to edit. Which of course is no different than the way our wiki is set up now.

I just realized that Tondrek has summons and looked at his sheet. I know a little CSS but not a allot. Did you guys alter the wiki when summoning was introduced? Or is there something more dynamic in play on the LEB side?

When it comes to stuff like that I will repeat an earlier statement. I think we should give people enough tools to make due no matter what WoTC throws at us and offer help to do better when individuals ask. I do not think it's in the communities interest to update the default character sheet (or the wiki template) every time a new concept is introduced.

If someone did not want to deal with copying and pasting a few rows, they could certainly make liberal use of the Special line.

That being said I will bow to the will of the community. We could certainly include a few example blocks of uncommon powers, such as summons and monk attacks, and then continue to update with new material. I just don't think thats the best idea.