Demand for Online Character Sheet creator...?

[NCSUCodeMonkey]

Ever since I lost one of my favorite characters about two years ago, I thought it would be really nifty if there was some magical place online where you could archive your character and retrieve it whenever you wanted to. I thought about writing such a utility, got lazy, and dumped it. Since then I've returned to the idea several times, but I never really gave it that much effort. In the interm, great services like KillaCampaigns, 3EProfiler, the Game Hub, etc. were developed that did what I imagined...almost.

See, as a software nut, I've always thought that the problem with creating RPG tools is that they are invaribly not flexible enough. RPG systems are frustrating to implement in software because the very idea of an RPG is to extend the core rules. Any time that you have to put down the software and use another tool, there's little use in having the software at all. This happened to me when I tried to use KillaCampaigns to archive my Geomancer online. At the time, they didn't support the character class (MotW was too new, I guess), so my character could not be saved as a Geomancer.

So what has been in my mind for the last week is an on-line character sheet creator. Notice I didn't say character creator, because that requires a good bit of metadata about races, classes, and pre-requisites. What I am envisioning is a on-line site where you could create a character sheet, save the data, and retrieve it from any location (including WAP devices), or print it out in PDF format. I also want it to be possible for users to share character sheets, so if you find a sheet you like better, you can simply apply the design to your data. If at any time you wanted to create a new field, say a box for your lycanthropy skill or a campaign specific stat, it would be an easy matter to add it in. But at this stage, nothing beyond simple calculations would be supported.

For a simple example of what I am thinking about, imagine a version of Mad Irishman's PDF Form character sheet that you could edit to include whatever fields you saw fit.

What I am asking for from the community is simply a response to how much you like the idea of an on-line community for sharing and saving character sheets/designs, or if you think it would be no more than eye-candy if the calculations aren't handled for you.

Matt

 

[Valmur_Dwur]

It certainly sounds good to me The ability to print it out is a plus

 

[El Seso]

My friends and I have been playing with Dungeon Manager, and it seems to be what you're looking for. It does some calculations, but very few. It lets you fill in pretty much everything, from class to race to skills. The sheet is not perfect, espcially when you work with spells, but it's pretty good. Doesn't let you export to a .pdf, but you can print straight from the site.

 

[NCSUCodeMonkey]

My friends and I have been playing with Dungeon Manager, and it seems to be what you're looking for. It does some calculations, but very few. It lets you fill in pretty much everything, from class to race to skills. The sheet is not perfect, espcially when you work with spells, but it's pretty good. Doesn't let you export to a .pdf, but you can print straight from the site.

I had overlooked this one, and it is pretty similar to what I am thinking. The only thing that I can see that it's lacking is the ability to customize the sheet layout and add things that aren't skills, feats, etc., which I like to do because I put random things on my sheet to reduce lookup times. The DungeonManager also seems to be D&D specific, although I do see that the author is looking to include support for Star Wars and Modern. A site where you can create your own sheet would not be limited by system, or even to character sheets, but could include spell sheets, adventure logs, etc.

Once again, DungeonManager seems like an excellent utility, but what does everyone think about something even more...freeform?

Matt

 

[DDK]

Once again, DungeonManager seems like an excellent utility, but what does everyone think about something even more...freeform?

I think it'd be fantastic if you could pull it off. Though it sounds like a lot of work for very little reward (aside from seeing your work benefit others).

 

[gariig]

Something like this?

http://pcp.rpgprofiler.net/

 

[Drawmack]

maybe you should check out the files on enworld - http://3ep.rpgprofiler.net/

 

[NCSUCodeMonkey]

I looked at the files on ENWorld before I posted, and nothing really matches what I am talking about. 3EProfiler was one of the sites I mentioned that did not do what I am discussing because it doesn't allow you to edit the character sheet (that I can find).

PCP is neat looking, but it doesn't save the sheets on-line, and you have to have the software to view them (and run Windows, which I personally don't). I probably sound very contrary, but I simply haven't found an application that stores editable character sheets online.

What I want to know is would anyone else use such an application? Especially if it delivered to WAP devices such as cell phones. Thanks to the people who have given positive responses. Makes me think that I'm not alone in liking spiffy sheets

Matt

 

[Lalato]

Old thread, but you may want to check out 3eprofiler again... it just went Open Source...

--sam

 

[Calico_Jack73]

I like the Redblade character generator since it can output the character sheet in HTML format which can then be easily imported to a webpage.