3EProfiler/PCProfiler

[MJEggertson]

Hi all,

Both PCProfiler and 3EProfiler have moved to the rpgprofiler.net domain.

3EProfiler is a resource that allows you to share your 3ED&D character sheets online. It's designed to compliment form or irc based gaming, but is also useful as a backup if you just don't want to be caught without your character sheet at your next PnP session.

PCProfiler is a more generic version of 3EProfiler, that keeps track of character sheets on your computer. The character sheets are edited just as easily, only they are stored locally on your computer. PCProfiler is also driven by a template system that allows you to design your own character sheet templates for whatever you wish...

Those are the two sites. I think both tools have their uses. I'm particularly fond of the no-nonsense, direct write approach. Sometimes, you just don't want to deal with a generator, you just want a way to record-keep via the computer.

Hopefully, word will spread. I believe most of my users come from enworld, since this is really the only place I've ever mentioned the project. But since the move and Morus' announcment in the news section, the traffic through my site has still been *really* low, about 5% of what it used to be... I'd hate for all the people that were using either resource to just think that they were gone.

 

[Cergorach]

Kewl! Looks excellent!

Now a question, any chance that we'll be able to run 3Eprofiler on our own servers?

My D&D group would love something like this, but would never use this when on anything but our own password protected site...

 

[MJEggertson]

I'm thinking about it, you're not the first to ask.

Releasing the code so you could have your own 3EP would involve minimal changes. The major thing is, I'm not a professional programmer, and I'm hesitant about the inherrent vulnerabilities of releasing the source code.

We'll see...

 

[peregrine]

!

I kept forgetting to actually post this on your OWN local boards... hopefully this won't be missed here.

To be totally honest, most of the 'paperwork' for my online games is done in just a basic text file. Master Tools was pretty close to what we (myself and the folks I game with) could use but was too restrictive for a lot of the stuff we incorporate. Too much trouble to add PRCs, etc etc.

So what I'm actually driving at is that PCProfiler is probably the only app I've ever found that actually does what I want. Much like you said, none of us want to deal with a generator, we just want a clean record keeper. The ability to tweak the templates is a major bonus.

That said, the _only_ thing that prevents me from using it all the time is the fact that I can't export the sheets as an html file. Any idea how hard this might be to incorporate? Seeing as how it uses IE5 to display I'm wondering if it might not be that big a deal.

We exchange a lot of information via locally hosted webservers so it'd be way handy to just be able to save it straight to html and display rather than hafta send them the actual PCP file.

As an aside, 3EProfiler is pretty nice too, but we tend to prefer to keep stuff local, making PCProfiler far more attractive (the customization of PCProfiler templates helps there as well).

Good to see the project is still alive!

 

[MJEggertson]

Not a bad idea. Not a bad idea at all.

Re-generating as html shouldn't be that hard...I'll look into it.

 

[tburdett]

I'd just like to take this opportunity to thank you!

As a DM it is very nice to be able to have all of the PC's stored online where they can be accessed from any computer.

I also like the fact that there is very little that is hard coded. I've looked at a few of the other online PC storage apps and they've all been to rigid to support the wide variety of PrC's out there.

I'd also like to see some type of export function built into the online app. It's a major duplication of effort to have to update the characters (8 characters at the present time) both on AND offline. Being able to update the online character and then export it to the offline app would be great!

Thanks!

 

[MJEggertson]

Heh, no problem. Thank you for the support.

I'm already planning on having version 2 of PCProfiler have the ability to import directly from it's online counterpart, 3EProfiler. The process will be as simple as providing your username/password, and then you'll be prompted to choose from your available characters. It should be pretty cool, especially with some of the other goodies I'm hoping to add...

I'm glad you like the lack of hard-coded stuff. Some people target the two apps for this very reason, saying that they're essentially useless. But they've missed the point. The software isn't a generator: there are already several good generators out there, I have no desire to try to take them on. The point of either app is to provide an easy, direct draw approach (opposed to dialog interfaces) to creating characters. Where you define the content, not some ruleset that will inevitably not have all the features you want. PCProfiler lets you do this locally on your computer, 3EProfiler lets you do this online, and share the sheets with others.

I started the online app two years ago because there was nothing like it. Two years ago, your only options were swapping word-processor or text files via email. So, I made a cgi that would eventually evolve into 3EProfiler. At that time, it was just a Perl app that was hosted (illegally) on my home computer and was probably only online 8 hours a day...

PCProfiler came considerably later, after I learned some new languages, and saw that I was using 3EProfiler for data keeping that wasn't mean't to be shared at all. I also recognized the power that Microsoft built into Explorer and said to myself, "Wouldn't it be cool if..." So, I built a more flexible offline version of 3EProfiler, that allows almost complete user customization.

Glad you like 'em. I had a blast creating the tools, and I'm glad others find them useful too.

-Mike