Landscape Character Sheet - PRAC

[thc1967]

Unsure if that's the right acronym - PRAC - but please read and comment anyway.

I devised this character sheet because I have zero faith that the DDI will do what I need it to and I already know it costs way more than I want to pay for a character maintenance tool.

I also devised it specifically for the possibly unique attributes of my gaming group, which are:

• Several players don't much care about all the math behind the rules. If they see more information than exactly what is important, they get very confused.
• We manage our characters electronically, so we don't really need to have all the math on the character printout.
• We are very likely to use Power Cards with 4e to make the intricate details of each power more readily visible and available.

The level of technology behind this is moderate. The whole sheet application consists of:

• Race and Class data in the form of XML files.
• A character maintenance spreadsheet in the form of a macro-enabled Excel file.
• A printout template in the form of an XSL file.

The speadsheet is set up to do a bunch of auto-calculation and help fill in race and class values. Features include:

• Open a dialog to select Race and Class. Once you do that, it auto-fills as much information as it can for you including ability bonuses, skills, feats, vision type, defense bonuses, and more.
• Auto-calculate as much info as possible based on entry into other fields, including all Defenses aside from Resistances, Health block, Skill bonuses / totals, equipped gear's impact on abilities and defenses, and more.
• It even lets you select a portrait for your character and forwards that off to the printout.

For the moment I'm interested in feedback on the printout, attached below. I'm looking to create a layout that's very efficient for encounter resolution, whether that encounter is combat or RP or whatever. To do that, I wanted to focus the front of the sheet on only (but all!) the information needed to resolve the majority of encounters, and use the back of the sheet to record "the rest of it".

So... how would you move blocks around, add data, refine data... change the sheet overall to achieve that goal?

Once release comes and if there's enough interest here, I'll certainly be willing to post up all the files I use in this for the community's benefit.

Thanks!

 

[Bagpuss]

I'd shift Languages, and even Class and Progression to the second page, and make the Equipment section bigger. I'd probably split Racial and Class benefits from the Feats, have them as two sections.

I'm not sure why Favourite Attacks is separate from Powers, all your attacks (even basic ones) are effectively Powers. And if you are going to use Power Cards, that seems a waste.