What's a good program to make character sheets with?

[Narf the Mouse]

I'm on a budget; I can stretch it with time.

(If Open Office is one of them, please tell me how - I already have it)

Thanks.

[Levi Kornelsen]

I use MS Publisher (NOT CHEAP, unless you already have it).

What's the game? I know a few places...

[Narf the Mouse]

Self-made RPG.

So far, it looks finishable and workable.

[Narf the Mouse]

It seems like you have to pretty much build your index yourself in open office - Is there a faster way than using 'Find All' to add individual entries?

[Levi Kornelsen]

Self-made RPG.

So far, it looks finishable and workable.

Awesomesauce!

Hm. Okay, I hear many good things about Scribus for writing. Regarding Open Office... Dunno. I do know that indexing is often enough of a pain in the ass that a lot of game companies farm out that work (not kidding), which tends to indicate that indexes are The Suck.

[Narf the Mouse]

Thanks for your help.

[Narf the Mouse]

How do you export editable .pdfs in Scribus?

[Levi Kornelsen]

How do you export editable .pdfs in Scribus?

I don't know that you can... So far as I know, you need to use Acrobat to turn on digital rights, or get a service to do it for you, or use some really hinky cobbled up stuff that... er, you can only get to with an Onion Router. *cough*

However! I may just be ignorant!

A fair few of the Indie game designers hang out at http://www.story-games.com/, and it's there that I have heard the praises of Scribus sung most often. They're likely to know. And, hey, looks like you're an independent designer your own self.

[Narf the Mouse]

Oh - I have to turn on security. Now I just have to figure out how to make it saveable.

...Which might have something to do with what you're saying about digital rights? How do I do that?

Having trouble with the scripting. It shouldn't be this hard to multiply by 0.5.

And thanks.

[Narf the Mouse]

Finished the preliminary character sheet. I'd attach it, but it likes neither zip nor 7z.

Silly file attachment system.

...So instead, I'll give you a preview. I'm running the numbers as I post; I've only eyeballed these:

Code: Select all

Turtle-Stabbing Rapier: +5 To-Hit, 5/Major ignore Armor, -2 Damage, 1.6 lb, 0 CP
Cost: 7 – 3 = 4 (74 gp)
Mass: -20 (1.6 lb) Shift: -2
To-Hit: 3 – Mass Shift = 5/+2 (Second number for success rolls, much like 'A well-known RPG', d6-d6)
Bonus: 5/Major ignore Armor, -1 cost shift (Half damage to armor, half damage to squishy bits. Does not ignore shields - They are not armor)
Damage Increase: 0 – Mass Shift = -2 (On average damage, enough to kill an unarmored NPC of strictly average health in five rounds, provided you don't miss. Given that we're presuming an unarmored commoner, you have a miss chance of 41.6~% - With no Grace bonus. For an average starting melee character, 25%)
Damage: Strength + Damage Increase + Misc. Total of about +1 for an average starting melee character, or enough to kill said NPC in almost 3 rounds)

Vorpal Greatsword: -7 To-Hit, 19 Damage, 5.4 lb, 250 gp
Cost: 12 – 3 = 9 (250 gp)
Mass: -11 (5.4 lb) Shift: +7
To-Hit: 0 – Mass Shift = 7 (-3) (About a 83% miss chance versus said commoner - Defenders win ties)
Damage Increase: 12 + Mass Shift = 19 (Average damage of 17.5 times the above rapiers' damage. Multiply by hit chance and it's an average of x2.916~ damage - For x3.378~ of the price)
Damage: 

Phasing Greatsword: -7 To-Hit, 10/Total ignore armor, 10 Damage, 5.4 lb, 250 gp
Cost: 12 – 3 = 9 (250 gp)
Mass: -11 (5.4 lb) Shift: +7
To-Hit: 0 – Mass Shift = 7 (-3)
Bonus: 10/Total ignore Armor, -1 cost shift (Totally ignores armor)
Damage Increase: 3 + Mass Shift = 10 (x5 above rapiers' damage. By hit chance, 0.83~ of it's damage - For x3.378~ of the price. This is not a peasant-killing weapon by any means. You'd be better off with the free rapier (I don't see the point in putting prices on starting gear) But! Versus someone who's lugging around an equal worth of plate armor? x3.5 efficiency...For a final result of 2.905. And that's before you factor in any defensive penalties from heavy armor)
Damage: 

What do I find neat about this? I was trying to break the system...

[Narf the Mouse]

Just to give you an idea of how the system and flavor is working out.
I know no chinese - No idea if the name means anything.

Turtle-Stabbing Rapier
Master Smith Fu Lung had a problem; for three days, an armored brute had laid challenge on a bridge Fu Lung had need to cross. The brute could barely move under the weight of his armor.
Never give a Master Smith three days to work on a challenge of steel.
Stats: To-Hit +5, Damage -2, 1.6 lb, Armor Piercing 5 / Major / 50% - 100 gp

And, in the 'Would your villian character buy this' category...

Dread Rapier of Vacaisco
Count Vacaisco du Cavikai was known for being arrogant, violent, treacherous, abusive to his people and a conquering tyrant. He was also rumored to be a diabolist and vampire (Or your campaign equivalents). The sword that he invented does nothing to dispel those rumors....
Stats: To-Hit +5, Damage -2, 1.6 lb, Vampiric 10 / Total / 100%, -Severe Social Penalty (Not Vile), Severe Social Bonus (Vile), 52 gp

[Tom the Fanboy]

There is one easy way to make a PDF.

Adobe has an online conversion service called "Create PDF Online".
http://createpdf.adobe.com/

Sign up with your email address and you will get 5 free conversions. The file will be emailed back to you and it will be available on the website for about a day afterwards. If you have a bunch of files you've been wanting to convert then you can pay a small monthly fee.

It's one of the cheapest ways to legally convert a file to pdf, it's definitely the cheapest of the Adobe pdf conversion tools.

Just don't expect any fillable forms.

[Thenodrin]

There are some great D20 character sheets in Excel on Yahoo. A friend of mine developed them and maintains the group so that others can modify them for other campaigns and settings. Depending on the mechanics of your self-made system, it couldn't hurt to check it out.

As far as pdf-ing goes, I was shocked to discover that if I use my office's fax machine to send to my email address then the document arrives in a pdf file. Depending on where you work, that might be an option.

Theno

[Narf the Mouse]

Thanks. D20 could work, if the sheet was vague enough - 4e and my system are in the same 'genre' - but I'd rather have something specifically made.

Unfortunately, I am unemployed; although sane, that is in part due to being on pills for sciziophrenia and new ones for my major depression, which somehow I wasn't on. This system is a bit of a gamble; I'm hoping that once I'm stable on good anti-depressants, I'll be able to work on it consistantly. So far, these are working, except for a sleep cycle made of elastic.

Which may be more than you're interested in. I can tend to ramble on...

I've got a good feeling on this; I've gotten farther, in terms of pages, than anything else, in a shorter amount of time and with a stable system, and so far, the basic system is working for generating numbers-stuff.

So...Any comments on what I posted?

[Levi Kornelsen]

That's... a lot of math. Woah.

[Martenzo]

I recommend PCGen. It's at http://pcgen.sourceforge.net/
I'm not sure how it handles 4e (if at all), but for 3.5e, it's possible there's nothing better around. The only drawback is, it doesn't handle houserules well. Oh, and it's won an EN award, too. It works for other systems too, but I haven't tested it.

[Narf the Mouse]

That's... a lot of math. Woah.

It is a rules-heavy game, but it plays lighter than it looks, so far.

You don't actually need all that math, unless you're making 3rd-party stuff; in which case, I can generally stat new stuff in a few minutes.

For a longsword, for example, all you need to know is 'To-Hit +2, Damage +1, 2.1 lb'.

Don't know if I said this, but it took me about thirty seconds, each, to write up skeleton and zombie minion stats in the playtest - And that includes adding in a special of 'Fragile' for the skeletons and 'Slow' for the zombies that I created on the spot.

Scary chart, too. Takes up all of half a page.

My real worry is it'll be too simple for people who like Rolemaster and look too complex for the people who like 'That other RPG'.