Online Character Worksheet - Alpha

[Jeckel]

Worksheet to output Dresden Files RPG characters into various formats such as, TXT, BBCode, HTML, and XML. Currently, Character and Player Name, Template, Musts, High Concept, Trouble, all five Phases, the twenty-five canon Skills, up to ten Stunts, up to ten Powers, and general notes can all be entered into the form. The values of Skills and the cost of Stunts and Powers can all range from ten to negative ten.

The entered data can be automagically formatted into TXT, BBCode, and HTML output. The output in XML format is under development and the loading in of data from output XML will also be supported. In addition, the output can be of either the simple type, which includes only Aspects of each Phase and omits all unset values, or of the full type, which includes all data fields and substitutes a single question-mark for all unset values.

The page is broken up into different sections, similar to the official character worksheet in the source books. Each section is made up of a header and a body. The visibility of the section body can be toggled at any time by clicking various places on the header, allowing sections to be hidden when they are not needed, and shown when they are.

The Worksheet page is written entirely in JavaScript, so if you have JavaScript disabled then you will have to enable it for the page. There are no advertisements of any kind and all scripting is done to provide the functionality of the page without requiring the page to constantly reload.

This project is in an active alpha stage of development. This means that the page may change. New things may appear and vanish just as quickly, the layout or colors may vary, but this will not happen often as the majority of development and testing is done offline. If something does happen, and the page blows up on you (or its just not there), just wait a few minutes, a new subversion is probably being uploaded and tested.

Online Character Worksheet - v2 Alpha (v2.0)

I seem to have a lot of problems connecting to this site, and I like to keep notes, ideas, and progress on my project threads, so I started a temporary one elsewhere. It contains random details of the page, what I'm working on, and various example outputs and what they look like when displayed. I will update this post, and add a new post about progress, when I can, but the following linked thread is where you can find the most up-to-date info.

OCW Information

[KOFFEYKID]

This is excellent, I'll be looking over this to see if I can offer suggestions, thanks for putting in the effort on this, really, I appreciate it.

[SoulCatcher78]

Looks good, how many lines of text can you input into the background and phase fields?  Will you be posting this on Mythweavers or some other character hosting site?

[Saedar]

This is brilliant! I love online forms. I wish my groups used them more... Would save on lost character sheets...

[Valarian]

Looking good so far. You need to allow positive figures in the Stunts and Powers section though, to allow for The Catch etc.

[Jeckel]

This is excellent, I'll be looking over this to see if I can offer suggestions, thanks for putting in the effort on this, really, I appreciate it.

I love suggestions and appreciation is what us free open-sourcers survive on.

Looks good, how many lines of text can you input into the background and phase fields?  Will you be posting this on Mythweavers or some other character hosting site?

I haven't put in any limit on the number of lines and a quick test worked for over a hundred or so lines. As for where it will be hosted. For development it will stay where it is, but when it reaches a reasonably usable point, the goal is for anyone to be able to download the files and run it from any computer or website they wish.

For those that care, it will be released under the Creative Commons Attribution, Non-Commercial, Share-Alike license. Basically, don't make money off it and give credit to me for making it.

This is brilliant! I love online forms. I wish my groups used them more... Would save on lost character sheets...

I love anything that simplifies record keeping, cause I'm lucky if my players write down a single word through-out an entire campaign.

Looking good so far. You need to allow positive figures in the Stunts and Powers section though, to allow for The Catch etc.

Good spotting that and fixed. Stunts and Powers can now have positive and negative values.

---------------------------------------------

Thanx to everyone. I'm taking the weekend off for family obligations, but will post an update Monday or Tuesday.

[SavageMage]

This look really good

I tested this on my iPad and would like to make some observations for additional functionality on that platform.

1. The skills are selected by clickable arrows which are a little difficult to manipulate unless you zoom way in. Would it be easier to instead use dropdown fields like you used in the Stress field?

2. is it possible to have the Stress field automatically calculate your stress based upon powers and skills? (This might bump heads with the OGL, so more of a question than a request)

On the whole though, this is an outstanding effort! Thank you for the hard work!
(you wouldn't happen to know how to program an iPad/iPhone app would you?) 

[Jeckel]

1. The skills are selected by clickable arrows ... to instead use dropdown fields like you used in the Stress field?

Yea, the current widget is called a spin control and I was just a little excited to find it on the web so I put it in there without proper consideration. Since it isn't really needed, for the next version I already have it replaced with drop-down boxes, like in the stress section.

2. is it possible to have the Stress field automatically calculate your stress based upon powers and skills?

It is possible, and I plan to implement this, but I haven't decided for sure, so we'll have to see how things go.

On the whole though, this is an outstanding effort! Thank you for the hard work!
(you wouldn't happen to know how to program an iPad/iPhone app would you?) 

Without getting into the Mac topic, I will just say, no, I don't support, or program for, any Apple product for pure ethical reasons.

I wish to support mobile devices from the browser side of things as much as I can though, so I thank you for your input about viewing the page on a mini touch screen and appreciate the support in general.

----------------------------------------------------------

I'm back to work on the next, much improved, version and hope to have it posted this week some time.

[Jeckel]

I have uploaded a new, much improved, version of the Worksheet. The layout has been updated to allow sections to be hidden and shown, reducing the scrolling needed to navigate the page. Output can now be generated for TXT, BBCode, and HTML. See the Opening Post of this thread for details and links.

I still need to add the Stress and Consequences Sections to the page, and I need to implement XML output and input from that XML output. The colors used on the Worksheet page are not final and will be updated in the next version. After this is done, I will address the issue of adding Template specific Sections like Specializations, Rote Spells, etc.

Just wanted to let everyone know that I'm still working on this and have made much progress over the past week.

[Saedar]

Outstanding work!

It looks like everything is working pretty well. Even cosmetically it looks good. Would there be any way that you could set it up to export as a downloadable pdf? I like working with pdf's because they are easy to copy, transport and such.

[Jeckel]

Outstanding work!

It looks like everything is working pretty well. Even cosmetically it looks good. Would there be any way that you could set it up to export as a downloadable pdf? I like working with pdf's because they are easy to copy, transport and such.

Thanx, I'm currently tweaking a few things on how it looks, replacing some solid colors with better looking background textures and such, but on the whole I like the layout and I'm happy you do to.

To PDFs, I total agree that they are great. To generating a PDF file that can be downloaded, the short answer is yes, no, and maybe. Since that doesn't really answer the question, I'll explain below.

Yes. The page linked in the opening post is on a server, so it can create a file for downloading. As to creating a PDF file specifically, see 'maybe' below.

No. The current goal of development is to create a page that anyone can download and use on any computer without the need for a server or the internet. As such, that has greatly restricted what I can do outside of the page itself, primary restricting me from including buttons to allow automatic downloading of the generated output. There is no acceptable way (without opening myself to legal issues or your computer to viruses) around it, a web-page hosted by your computer can not create a new file on your computer because browsers don't allow it.

Maybe. As I said earlier, I also think PDFs are wonderful, so I have intended from the beginning to include support for them. This is going to come by way of a server only version of the page that can take advantage of PHP (a web-page coding language that only works on servers) to generate files for download. Now I don't know if I would specifically be able to generate PDF files for download as I've never looked into automatically generating them on a server, or editing them from a web-page. If nothing else though, the server version should be able to generate postscript files and those are pretty easy to make PDFs from with free applications.

[SoulCatcher78]

Very nicely implemented!  I hope to punch one up with this tomorrow and see how well the exporting to html works (my brain is too tired right now, even for cut and paste).

[aumshantih]

Neato!
If you're looking for someone to help write a javascript to export things into MediaWiki format, let me know.

(My personal gaming wiki is a Mediawiki, and this tool is awesome.)

[SoulCatcher78]

Here's my output in html:

<b>Kim, Chung-hee</b> <b>(<i>Soulcatcher78</i>)</b>
<br />
<br /><b>High Concept:</b> The Invisible Man
<br /><b>Trouble:</b> Lonliness of the long distance runner
<br />
<br /><b>Other Aspects:</b>  Stranger in a strange land; 'm just a face in the crowd; lways root for the underdogs; Do unto others and then run away
<br />
<br /><b><u>SKILLS</u> (<i>+25</i>)</b>
<br />
<br /><u>Alertness:</u> Average (+1)
<br /><u>Athletics:</u> Fair (+2)
<br /><u>Conviction:</u> Fair (+2)
<br /><u>Discipline:</u> Good (+3)
<br /><u>Endurance:</u> Great (+4)
<br /><u>Fists:</u> Good (+3)
<br /><u>Investigation:</u> Average (+1)
<br /><u>Lore:</u> Fair (+2)
<br /><u>Rapport:</u> Average (+1)
<br /><u>Resources:</u> Average (+1)
<br /><u>Scholarship:</u> Average (+1)
<br /><u>Stealth:</u> Great (+4)
<br />
<br /><b><u>STUNTS</u> (<i>-1</i>)</b>
<br />
<br /><u>Tower of Iron WIll (<i>Discipline</i>)</u> [-1]: Allows use of Discipline during social checks
<br />
<br /><b><u>POWERS</u> (<i>-4</i>)</b>
<br />
<br /><u>Channeling</u> [-2]
<br /><u>Ritual</u> [-2]
<br />
<br />
<br /><b><u>Total Refresh Cost:</u></b> -5
<br />
<br />
<br /><b><u>NOTES</u></b>
<br />
<br />Focus items:
Ring #1 Block 5, specific rote (Hide in Plain Sight-Ocultar nosotros), increase to conviction +3
Pendant Block, specific rote (Hide in Plain Sight-Ocultar nosotros), increase to Discipline +2 
Ring #2 Defensive, increase to Conviction +1 when channeling spirit

Rotes:
Hidden "Oculto": Personal veil not requiring a focus.  This is his "go-to" rote for stepping out of situations that he feels are getting out of hand.

Hiding in plain sight "Ocultar nosotros": Allows him to veil more than himself but requires him to use a focus item if he has to cover more than 2 people.

<br />

And in text form:

Kim, Chung-hee (Soulcatcher78)

High Concept: The Invisible Man
Trouble: Lonliness of the long distance runner

Other Aspects:  Stranger in a strange land; 'm just a face in the crowd; lways root for the underdogs; Do unto others and then run away

SKILLS (+25)

Alertness: Average (+1)
Athletics: Fair (+2)
Conviction: Fair (+2)
Discipline: Good (+3)
Endurance: Great (+4)
Fists: Good (+3)
Investigation: Average (+1)
Lore: Fair (+2)
Rapport: Average (+1)
Resources: Average (+1)
Scholarship: Average (+1)
Stealth: Great (+4)

STUNTS (-1)

Tower of Iron WIll [-1] (Discipline): Allows use of Discipline during social checks

POWERS (-4)

Channeling [-2]
Ritual [-2]


Total Refresh Cost: -5


NOTES

Focus items:
Ring #1 Block 5, specific rote (Hide in Plain Sight-Ocultar nosotros), increase to conviction +3
Pendant Block, specific rote (Hide in Plain Sight-Ocultar nosotros), increase to Discipline +2 
Ring #2 Defensive, increase to Conviction +1 when channeling spirit

Rotes:
Hidden "Oculto": Personal veil not requiring a focus.  This is his "go-to" rote for stepping out of situations that he feels are getting out of hand.

Hiding in plain sight "Ocultar nosotros": Allows him to veil more than himself but requires him to use a focus item if he has to cover more than 2 people.

Have you considered putting a section in for Rotes or would it be easier to use the "stunts" section for that?

[Jeckel]

Neato!
If you're looking for someone to help write a javascript to export things into MediaWiki format, let me know.

(My personal gaming wiki is a Mediawiki, and this tool is awesome.)

Hmm, I hadn't thought about exporting to any wiki formats, but I will keep your offer in mind.

Here's my output in html:
And in text form:
Have you considered putting a section in for Rotes or would it be easier to use the "stunts" section for that?

Yep, the plan is to have, Specializations, Rote Spells, Focus Items, and Enchanted Items as their own Sections. I'm currently doing some tests with different ways to implement them.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

Since I'm already posting, here is an update on work toward version 3 Alpha.

I've added the Stress Section in. I've replaced several of the various background colors with simple textures.

Also, I've added a button that will fill the Worksheet with Harry Dresden's character sheet from the source books.

Lastly, as shown in SoulCatcher78's posted HTML output, there was an error and line-breaks weren't being preserved in fields that could have multiple lines. This has already been fixed in the next version.

That's where I'm at as of today. I'm not sure what else, if anything, will be included before I release v3 Alpha, but either way I am going to try and get this new version up by this weekend if only for the HTML output fix.