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Character sheet -- comments requested


Chris Goodwin

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Working in a printer test lab as I do, it's easy to have the time and the resources to come up with stuff like this, print out a copy to see how it looks, fix the problems, print it out again, repeat 40 or 50 times. So I've done that. It's a Word document, two pages. One page is a very basic sheet with little more than spaces for Characteristics, Powers, Skills and Disadvantages, intended more for design work; the other is more of a reference sheet, with most of the stuff you'll need for playing (I tried to put the characteristics and stuff you're most likely to refer to in big bold letters to make it easy to locate in a flash). It doesn't include space for any artwork or logos or any background info (or even a description, though it is a work in progress). It's not intended for filling out online; it is intended for printing out and filling out in pencil.

 

I'm not a layout guy, and Microsoft Word has at best rudimentary layout tools, but I think the first page doesn't look half bad. I'm not a hundred percent satisfied with the second, but it's definitely getting there, and should be at least usable.

 

Comments, suggestions, feature requests, constructive criticisms, etc. are very much requested and appreciated.

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Re: Character sheet -- comments requested

 

I like it a lot. You know why I like it? Because the first page is laid out fundamentally like the old 2nd edition sheets (which I like the best of all the versions of Champions Character Sheets). Cha upper left, Disads lower left, Powers on the right with lots of room.

 

C

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Re: Character sheet -- comments requested

 

I like the idea and it has a lot of potential. I may take a stab at producing an Export Format like this. If you do decide to make this something that someone could use in Word itself, instead of the individual underscores try 2 tabs with underline formatting. That would allow someone to type between the tabs and the line wouldn't expand (depending on how mauch the add of course). I like the idea of the second page a lot as well. For an uncluttered fast reference it is well done.

 

Chessack, I am about 50% of the way through reproducing the 2nd edition char sheet export for HD, I have 100% duplicated the layout and now I'm just working with the tags and making the output work.

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Re: Character sheet -- comments requested

 

Chessack, I am about 50% of the way through reproducing the 2nd edition char sheet export for HD, I have 100% duplicated the layout and now I'm just working with the tags and making the output work.

 

You are my hero. :)

 

HTML I can somewhat do, but RTF I just have no clue about.

 

I tried building something in word and doing an RTF export but, at least with Word 97 (which is what I still have) it just makes a mess.

 

C

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Re: Character sheet -- comments requested

 

I like it a lot. You know why I like it? Because the first page is laid out fundamentally like the old 2nd edition sheets (which I like the best of all the versions of Champions Character Sheets). Cha upper left, Disads lower left, Powers on the right with lots of room.

 

That was my favorite layout of all of them. It more closely resembles the layout I would use when I would make characters on loose leaf notebook paper.

 

Updated version coming momentarily (the first page has no changes).

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Re: Character sheet -- comments requested

 

Well, like I said I'm using Microsoft Word, which has not much in the way of layout tools. I did download and install Scribus on my machine at home (a Linux box), which is a layout tool -- and I'm having the devil's own time getting the file into a format I can import. So I won't be able to do anything with it at the moment.

 

Looking at the hit location table, I'm sure there is space I could consolidate it into, and I could probably shrink the Combat Maneuvers table as well. We'll see.

 

I did the whole thing without reference to any existing character sheets; the only things I had access to were the hit location table (copied from John Kim's web site) and the combat maneuvers (which I wrote down at home and took with). That's partly why the second page is the way it is; I know I could have done better. OTOH, I am pretty happy with it.

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Re: Character sheet -- comments requested

 

That's a very nice and simple character sheet. Kudos!

 

RPMiller, I'm very interested in seeing your HD version of the 2nd edition sheet. While I like the snazzy and flashy 5th edition sheets, all you really need during game play are the names and numbers, and a 2nd edition-like sheet is ideal. Currently, I'm using a variation of the 4th edition sheet in HD and it works okay (click here for an example exported to html), but due to formatting all the text is really small and it's sometimes hard to find, specific info in the jumble. Something easier to read would be great!

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Re: Character sheet -- comments requested

 

Yes that is why I like 2nd edition sheets... critical info, and no fluff.

 

The problem I have with all 3-column formats is the squeezing that occurs with things like powers. I find it much harder to read long word-wrapped power listings than the more spread out versions.

 

C

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Re: Character sheet -- comments requested

 

Yes that is why I like 2nd edition sheets... critical info, and no fluff.

 

The problem I have with all 3-column formats is the squeezing that occurs with things like powers. I find it much harder to read long word-wrapped power listings than the more spread out versions.

 

C

 

Agreed. My favorite 4th edition sheet was the one that has two columns, moving all of the information from where the 3rd colums was to the bottom of the page. The only problem with that format was not having enough lines to enter a character's Powers when they had a lot.

 

Seems like there is no single layout that will accomadate all characters, even within the same genre/campaign. I'd like to see a flexible sheet or sheets that is/are easily modified, but still all have the same general format so when anyone looks at two different character sheets for the same campaign, and even though there are slight differences in the formatting, it's easy to locate all the important information.

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Re: Character sheet -- comments requested

 

You asked for it so here is a quick teaser. Obviously there is a lot of formatting that still needs to get cleaned up and I need to figure out how to get the over flow from the powers section to move to another sheet. At least it looks like 2nd edition wouldn't you say? :D

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