Google Doc's Templates! Hero System templates: Character Sheets, Combat Record, Etc.?

[Kaze9999]

I use Google's free Google docs suite and today on a whim I did a search in the user created, published template library for 'Character Sheet' and found tons of incredibly useful, free, interactive templates in Google Docs. But none for Hero System! The horror!

 

So right, in the spirit of Hero, I should just go build my own, but I thought I'd ask first if anyone else has already built anything for Hero System in Google Docs that they'd be willing to publish as a template?

 

For anyone who doesn't know what I'm talking about, here's a link; you do have to create a google account (gmail account) to create google docs, but not to use already created ones in your browser:

 

http://docs.google.com/demo/edit?id=scADRR92RzU4KYamCfv4S_lC9&dt=spreadsheet#spreadsheet

[NuSoardGraphite]

Re: Google Doc's Templates! Hero System templates: Character Sheets, Combat Record, E

 

Sounds like a plan. Get started!

[Kaze9999]

Re: Google Doc's Templates! Hero System templates: Character Sheets, Combat Record, E

 

Meh; I got the latest Hero Designer instead; who needs to make their own little spreadsheets when you got Hero Designer!

[Susano]

Re: Google Doc's Templates! Hero System templates: Character Sheets, Combat Record, E

 

Meh; I got the latest Hero Designer instead; who needs to make their own little spreadsheets when you got Hero Designer!

 

Agreed. Also, my website presents the HD file (if possible) for anything I post in it.

[RexMundi]

Re: Google Doc's Templates! Hero System templates: Character Sheets, Combat Record, E

 

Hmm...Free, or something I gotta pay for that doesn't do anything I can't already do with a spread sheet anyway (In otherwords, still not buying HD until the CO character generator is put into it to make up for my lack of artistic ability, heh).....

 

I'm down with Google doc's. Very handy set up, may need to play around making a few templates when I have more time and a better computer hook up.

 

~Rex

[Susano]

Re: Google Doc's Templates! Hero System templates: Character Sheets, Combat Record, E

 

Hmm...Free, or something I gotta pay for that doesn't do anything I can't already do with a spread sheet anyway (In otherwords, still not buying HD until the CO character generator is put into it to make up for my lack of artistic ability, heh).....

 

I'm down with Google doc's. Very handy set up, may need to play around making a few templates when I have more time and a better computer hook up.

 

~Rex

 

Then you'll never be buying HD because it's never going to have something like the CO character generator. That said, HD is an invaluable tool for me, as it has everything I need already in it -- powers, skills, complications, and so on. And it's the standard file format for character formats (well... it's the only format), so if I wrote something for HERO I need to put it into HD sooner or later. Making spreadsheets to do what HD does is simply a case of reinventing the wheel and means all of the character packs Hero (and others) make are useless to you.

[RexMundi]

Re: Google Doc's Templates! Hero System templates: Character Sheets, Combat Record, E

 

Mostly HD is useless for me, because I don't have a multi hundred to thousand dollar machine to run it on, yet, I've gotten by fairly well, with a 4 dollar notebook and a 2 dollar pencil.

 

I understand the attraction for a lot of people, but if it doesn't do Art, it doesn't bring anything to the table that I don't already have in my head. I know you HD guys think it's the Holy Grail of all gaming aids, hence, that's why I always make sure to have a few extra bucks to buy you all a beer when you hit a con and have to fight for power connections with WoW addicts, and or some Larper sits on your prize electronic piece of wizardry.....

 

A Google Doc template though would be something I could run into anyplace with wifi, and snag it, and or run over to any old Internet cafe or business center and snag it, has a lot of potential and certainly, would intrest a lot of folks especially considering the document sharing set up and a few other handy Google aids....*shrug*

 

If HD is someones thing though, more power to them. I can still do HERO math, what I can't do is Draw, but thanks to Greenshot and the F@P set up for CO, now I don't really have to draw at all.

 

If I were doing a Gigantic web site of stuff, I'd consider HD just to save transfer time, but for game play, it slows me down a lot. A Google Doc template though might allow me to make a character sheet as good as the old 4th Ed ones but set up for 6th Ed. That's all I really want in the end, my Silouhettes back....

 

~Rex

[Karmakaze]

Re: Google Doc's Templates! Hero System templates: Character Sheets, Combat Record, E

 

Mostly HD is useless for me, because I don't have a multi hundred to thousand dollar machine to run it on, yet, I've gotten by fairly well, with a 4 dollar notebook and a 2 dollar pencil.

 

....

 

A Google Doc template though would be something I could run into anyplace with wifi, and snag it, and or run over to any old Internet cafe or business center and snag it, has a lot of potential and certainly, would intrest a lot of folks especially considering the document sharing set up and a few other handy Google aids....*shrug*

 

What kind of machine do you have that can access Google Docs via wifi but can't run a Java application?

 

I mean, I get the idea of not paying for something that you can do for free, but I'm baffled by the implication that Hero Designer requires a high end machine to run. We're not talking about Photoshop or Champions online here. I can run HD off a thumb drive on a low-end netbook running the Ubuntu netbook remix, and you can't get much lower powered than that.

 

I actually did some of my early 5th to 6th ed conversions in Excel because I didn't want it all done for me - the only way for me to properly internalize the rules is to do it by hand. I wouldn't mind using something like Google Docs because it would allow me to keep character sheets online so both I and my players can reference the same sheet at the same time.

 

I'm going to see if I can attach the rudimentary excel sheet I used: [ATTACH]37978[/ATTACH] I'm pretty sure I have a more recent one around somewhere, but this should do.

[IndianaJoe3]

Re: Google Doc's Templates! Hero System templates: Character Sheets, Combat Record, E

 

What kind of machine do you have that can access Google Docs via wifi but can't run a Java application?

 

I'm guessing it's either an iPad or Android tablet.

[Tasha]

Re: Google Doc's Templates! Hero System templates: Character Sheets, Combat Record, E

 

Mostly HD is useless for me, because I don't have a multi hundred to thousand dollar machine to run it on, yet, I've gotten by fairly well, with a 4 dollar notebook and a 2 dollar pencil.

 

I understand the attraction for a lot of people, but if it doesn't do Art, it doesn't bring anything to the table that I don't already have in my head. I know you HD guys think it's the Holy Grail of all gaming aids, hence, that's why I always make sure to have a few extra bucks to buy you all a beer when you hit a con and have to fight for power connections with WoW addicts, and or some Larper sits on your prize electronic piece of wizardry.....

 

A Google Doc template though would be something I could run into anyplace with wifi, and snag it, and or run over to any old Internet cafe or business center and snag it, has a lot of potential and certainly, would intrest a lot of folks especially considering the document sharing set up and a few other handy Google aids....*shrug*

 

If HD is someones thing though, more power to them. I can still do HERO math, what I can't do is Draw, but thanks to Greenshot and the F@P set up for CO, now I don't really have to draw at all.

 

If I were doing a Gigantic web site of stuff, I'd consider HD just to save transfer time, but for game play, it slows me down a lot. A Google Doc template though might allow me to make a character sheet as good as the old 4th Ed ones but set up for 6th Ed. That's all I really want in the end, my Silouhettes back....

 

~Rex

 

Yeah, I could and have used both spreadsheets and Database programs to create Hero System characters. Yes, I can do most hero stuff in my head without looking at the books, but some of the power options I have to pull the book out for.

 

Hero Designer has all of the powers/Skills/perks/Advantages/Limitations etc in one place. I DON'T have to look stuff constantly to build characters. Also, because the program knows what options are possible for a particular power, I always know that characters built using it are "legal" characters and don't have hidden errors. I can output my characters to a Wide Variety of character sheet formats (made by the fine people who post on these boards), and also to a very nice PDF character sheet that resembles the "official" CS from the book. Also the sheet formats can be output in HTML, Txt, there's even a nice looking RTF format sheet.

 

It runs on really low end machines and does not require any network connection (unless you are DLing updates, character sheet(formats). It run on any machine that can run Java 6(Windows XP or later Mac OS X 10.4.6ish). Also the cost of HD covers all upgrades to it for 2 years. This has included the 5er upgrade, and the 6e upgrade. No other software available for 25 bucks has that kind of upgrade policy.

 

So I get all of this and unlike a Spreadsheet or Database, I don't have to build it myself. I also don't have to buy a commercial software package to run it.

 

BTW as an aside. Champions Online (which does require a decent piece of Hardware to run), has gone free to play. It has that nice character art generator you are craving. The Silhouettes are available on the online site and there is a website that has the original Mark Williams blank artwork for your marking privilege. Oh and HD supports the uploading of Jpg artwork to be printed out with your export template (assuming that the template author included the artwork tags).

 

There's really no logical reason to not own HD if you play Hero and own a computer capable of accessing websites.

 

Tasha

[Karmakaze]

Re: Google Doc's Templates! Hero System templates: Character Sheets, Combat Record, E

 

Ok, I tried importing my old excel sheet into google docs. It lost my merged cells, and I only put them back for the first column (Butterfly). A quick look-over shows most of the formulae still working. The link I put in should make this a public spreadsheet, so feel free to test it or use bits for your own attempts at a character sheet.

[RexMundi]

Re: Google Doc's Templates! Hero System templates: Character Sheets, Combat Record, E

 

'Aight, HD fans ......I understand your points. I'm willing to do battle with you guys in any room without an electrical outlet for you all to plug in whatever piece of electronic hardware you like running HD on. I get it, you like HD, it's great for you, and I know CO is free to play now and if I want to jump through a pile of hoops or fire up Greenshot or import etc etc etc .....I can get it to make espresso for me.

 

What I want, is One template, I can Print. Poof, Character sheet, maybe with a picture. No Muss no fuss no need to haul a lap/net/pad anything with me anywhere no worry about lack of power or places to plug in just run over to the business center type 4 words and have a pile of character sheets.... We're not here to talk about the pro's and cons of HD. It has it's own thread last I checked.

 

As I stated, unless I was uploading a pile of stuff to a website for perma display, it slows me down. I don't Care if I can import any picture I want it doesn't do it automatically. Just looking for a simple one stop, click print and poof I go play which a google template can do, and considering I use google docs and a lot of other google things for the admin functions of my considerably large and varied demo team, it's the right direction at the moment until I've got enough free cash to pick up 20 plus electronic widgets to run the electronic whatzit.

 

Nice to know though (thanks Karmakaze), that the import lost the linked cells, but if the formulae are still good I can work with that then everything else is cake. I'll have to find some time to fiddle with it all I suppose.

 

~Rex......or pie.....methinks pie is better then cake anyway. Anyway game to run players to TPK.

[Simon]

Re: Google Doc's Templates! Hero System templates: Character Sheets, Combat Record, E

 

I'm really failing to follow your logic here.

 

The argument that most folks are making is that they can create characters faster and more "accurately" (within the rules) with HD than with PNP.

 

You seem to be of the belief that they can then only use those characters within HD, which is just not the case. Creating a character with HD has nothing to do with requiring a computer during gameplay. You create the character and print it out in any of a multitude of formats. Don't like working with HTML? No problem, use any of the myriad RTF templates available. Or plaintext. Or the new(er) PDF exports that give you character sheets that are about asclose to those in the back of the books as you're likely to get. Want a picture with the character? Great! Just assign it to the character and it will print out with the character (depending, of course, on the export format you prefer).

 

You show up with a piece of paper (or multiple papers) representing your character. An HD user does the same. The primary difference is that theirs is more likely to be "rules-legal" (or for them to know where they've chosen to deviate from the rules) and to look a bit better. They will have also completed it in less time, as a general rule.

 

Is HD for everyone? Absolutely not. Many folks simply prefer to do things by hand. No arguments here. Say you prefer to work by hand and be done with it. But don't sit there making claims that using HD somehow changes your gameplay or prevents you from getting away from the computer during gameplay -- that's just plain wrong.

[RexMundi]

Re: Google Doc's Templates! Hero System templates: Character Sheets, Combat Record, E

 

I just want to talk about a google docs subject and not an HD subject. I like a lot of the aspects of HD, otherwise I wouldn't have shelled out the cash for it, but it doesn't work for what I need it for in the way that I need it to, yet, and that's mostly because of HARDWARE, not software.....

 

I've had too handle to many con disasters where the electronic orientated team members can't plug in the machine, have a battery die, lose the machine, lose the printer, fry the hard drive, one thing after another after another up to an including locking up an entire Kinkos for the better part of thee hours in Columbus Ohio. This is all after doing demo teams at conventions for the last twenty years, and going along with the growth of the electronic side of the business as well. Something along the lines of a google doc would work well as a saftey net that I can get access to with minimal effort, and multiple venues and methods of getting something to print me/share a character sheet when the inevitable happens.

 

So Again, nothing against HD, it's Great, It does what it's supposed to do. It doesn't do what I need it to do in the way I need it at the moment. When my Hardware situation changes that will be a different deal then, and I'm sure I'll be running it as much as everyone else.

 

So yes, I prefer to work by hand, but I also prefer to be able to discuss other methods (including Hero Designer) and what I would like to have in that sort of product without being attacked by a rattlesnake nest who are argueing a topic that's not pertinant to the thread nor even a point in the conversation. It's a great product, I'd like it better if it did other things as an internal function.

 

End of HD reply now please can we go back to discussing google doc's because I've got a lot of interested NEW folks to Hero that could benefit from this until they get to the point where they can afford a copy of HD and the hardware to run it.

 

~Rex....still interested in others takes on the Google Doc templates.....almost ready to post his own attempts for folks to look at.

 

~Rex

[Simon]

Re: Google Doc's Templates! Hero System templates: Character Sheets, Combat Record, E

 

You do not control threads. You do not get to make demands of other posters regarding what they can and cannot comment on. I would strongly suggest you keep that in mind.

[Tasha]

Re: Google Doc's Templates! Hero System templates: Character Sheets, Combat Record, E

 

I just want to talk about a google docs subject and not an HD subject. I like a lot of the aspects of HD, otherwise I wouldn't have shelled out the cash for it, but it doesn't work for what I need it for in the way that I need it to, yet, and that's mostly because of HARDWARE, not software.....

 

I've had too handle to many con disasters where the electronic orientated team members can't plug in the machine, have a battery die, lose the machine, lose the printer, fry the hard drive, one thing after another after another up to an including locking up an entire Kinkos for the better part of thee hours in Columbus Ohio. This is all after doing demo teams at conventions for the last twenty years, and going along with the growth of the electronic side of the business as well. Something along the lines of a google doc would work well as a saftey net that I can get access to with minimal effort, and multiple venues and methods of getting something to print me/share a character sheet when the inevitable happens.

 

So Again, nothing against HD, it's Great, It does what it's supposed to do. It doesn't do what I need it to do in the way I need it at the moment. When my Hardware situation changes that will be a different deal then, and I'm sure I'll be running it as much as everyone else.

 

So yes, I prefer to work by hand, but I also prefer to be able to discuss other methods (including Hero Designer) and what I would like to have in that sort of product without being attacked by a rattlesnake nest who are argueing a topic that's not pertinant to the thread nor even a point in the conversation. It's a great product, I'd like it better if it did other things as an internal function.

 

End of HD reply now please can we go back to discussing google doc's because I've got a lot of interested NEW folks to Hero that could benefit from this until they get to the point where they can afford a copy of HD and the hardware to run it.

 

~Rex....still interested in others takes on the Google Doc templates.....almost ready to post his own attempts for folks to look at.

 

~Rex

 

The things you are listing as negatives against HD are equally an issue with Google Docs, Excel or any other program. I always print out my HD characters. They print to any printer you have. You don't really play with HD open, it's really designed to help you create the character and then export it out to a pretty to print out print format. Just to be clear, I don't run games with my computer. I use my computer to help me develop adventures. When it comes time to run them, I print out everything (even combat phase charts, which is another thing that HD does for me). So I come to a game with a pretty good sized stack of paper.

 

Before I go to a Convention, new game etc. I always print out my characters. I saw too many people in the old days (in the 90's) who would try to run games on laptops that had perhaps 2 hours battery life etc. I also known for bringing my printer to cons, Which meant shlepping a Laserwriter 360 into my hotel room. It came in handy more than once.

 

I think what you are talking about is taking time to have your materials ready before you run a game. You may have great programs for running stuff, but you should always have a hard copy back up JIC your technology goes wrong.

 

Oh, and about HD. You were the one who brought it up and made many mis-statements about it's capabilities and hardware it could run on. I wanted to make sure that any new players knew that the program is dirt cheap and is a very good way to make by the book characters. So much so that I am not really sure who is served by making a spreadsheet. I guess it's possible for someone who can't run either XP, Linux or Mac OS 10.4.8ish to not be able to run java. I have seen HD run on some pretty old machines including netbooks.

 

So is this spreadsheet a Hero 5.x or Hero 6 entity? I have some simple excel spreadsheets for Hero 5 (In fact, there used to be one in the free Downloads area)

 

PS as for the artwork thing using CO or City of Heroes. I don't use anything but the print screen function built into windows. It saves a jpg of the screen, then I open it up in any freebie image program (windows includes 2 -3 different programs that can do this) and crop the image and resize it.

[Kaze9999]

Re: Google Doc's Templates! Hero System templates: Character Sheets, Combat Record, E

 

Huzah! Thank you, Razoric!

 

http://www.herogames.com/getHDExportFormat/235273/Razoric_Google_docs.hde

[Karmakaze]

Re: Google Doc's Templates! Hero System templates: Character Sheets, Combat Record, E

 

The last time (before this very last time) I tried importing a complex Excel sheet into Google Docs, I didn't have much luck. They must have improved the import because all I lost this time was some formatting. I realize that not everyone would want to use the sort of columnar arrangement I did (I originally did it that way so I could easily balance the pre-gens against one another by looking at them side-by-side.) If you do get a prettier format out of it, please post a link.

[Michael Hopcroft]

Re: Google Doc's Templates! Hero System templates: Character Sheets, Combat Record, E

 

Is that for 5e or 6e?

[Karmakaze]

Re: Google Doc's Templates! Hero System templates: Character Sheets, Combat Record, E

 

Is that for 5e or 6e?

 

It should be 6e - assuming I uploaded the right spreadsheet.