 November 3, 2007 - 4:22pm | For the online character sheet generations to be robust enough for varied and interesting generations I believe that the following would help secure a high level of interest in people desiring to create and use the online generator: b) List 2 = Current History(marital status, employment, political/religious inclinations, associations, etc.) c) List 3 = Contacts (political, religious, friends, colleagues, back-channels, etc.) |
November 3, 2007 - 4:31pm | A thought on Character Generation applied to the online world and specifically this website... Generating a character should be a process that is exceptionally fun because of the numerous "rolls" and possibilities. Yes, there needs to be a down and dirty "quick" button where the entire process is done behind the scenes with an "instant" character that magically appears (including names) These instant characters use all of the exact same processes that the long version (player clicks on the dice beside every category and feels apart of the process). The "instant" characters will be useful to two sets of people, game masters (for generating instant NPC's) and a player that wants/needs to "jump" into the action of a game without holding up a game session by having to create their character. But, for the person who wants to "take their time" and go through all of the options and roll all of the dice, a robust character creation page will entice people to become more personally vested into SF, the website, and into the "world" gaming. |
November 3, 2007 - 4:36pm | Having a "website" version of the character sheet that is displayed and (especially) printed will be a great tie-in from the game to the website and ezine. When/if someone is gaming and they see a clever and good-looking character sheet that another player is sporting, interest will grow into the website quickly by word of mouth. There also exists the possibility that new players that havent got to play yet will make and print out a few character sheets and show their friends and colleagues which in turn may have a significant opportunity to "create" new groups of gamers and website/eZine users and fans. ~Duke |
 November 3, 2007 - 11:47pm | There's already a link to print the character sheet directly - it looks like a printer in the bottom right corner. If you click it - it'll take you to a printer-friendly version and pop up your Print dialog box automatically. The "Background" section is currently only able to give you a text area to type your own in. But if the community helps generate a list of backgrounds (please note I'm trying to do that here) then I can have a button that simply says "random background" where the person can click to get some inspiration to work from. The graphics already allow for an upload. But you're right - having a stock list of images isn't too bad I suppose. I wonder what the folks over at Hero Machine would charge for a custom dataset just for us? 3. We wear sungoggles during the day. Not because the sun affects our
vision, but when you're cool like us the sun shines all the time. |
 November 4, 2007 - 7:37am | 2) The "history" section should be at least a
3-stage process (3 rolls against 3 different d100 lists) or a
combination of d100 & d10 list-sets of individual categories for a
more varied, and hopefully, non-reproducible character back-history. Uncanny. I was producing just such a system. It has 1) Environment Table, 2) Culture Table 3) Life Table. The Culture and Origin tables I was making to provide particular subskills (what I prefer to call simply skills; one each) to the character. I hadn't decided if the life table would also provide a skill. At any rate, the skills can be optional, according to Referee's choice. |
November 6, 2007 - 4:39am | 2) The "history" section should be at least a 3-stage process (3 rolls against 3 different d100 lists) or a combination of d100 & d10 list-sets of individual categories for a more varied, and hopefully, non-reproducible character back-history. Uncanny. I was producing just such a system. It has 1) Environment Table, 2) Culture Table 3) Life Table. The Culture and Origin tables I was making to provide particular sub-skills (what I prefer to call simply skills; one each) to the character. I hadn't decided if the life table would also provide a skill. At any rate, the skills can be optional, according to Referee's choice. That is awesome. Are your lists complete yet? Are they/can they be integrated into the website's character sheet generation page? I do have a question though, on your set#2 (Culture Table), does that require a d100 table for each race? or is the "culture" geared more toward a socio-religious-planetary background? ~Duke |
November 6, 2007 - 4:50am | w00t, are you the spear-head guy for the on-line character sheet page? I was just wondering the status of it if you were and I would be interested in possible collaboration on designing an SFman/SF.us specific character-sheet if you are at that stage. |
November 6, 2007 - 7:12am | 2) The "history" section should be at least a 3-stage process (3 rolls against 3 different d100 lists) or a combination of d100 & d10 list-sets of individual categories for a more varied, and hopefully, non-reproducible character back-history. Uncanny. I was producing just such a system. It has 1) Environment Table, 2) Culture Table 3) Life Table. The Culture and Origin tables I was making to provide particular sub-skills (what I prefer to call simply skills; one each) to the character. I hadn't decided if the life table would also provide a skill. At any rate, the skills can be optional, according to Referee's choice. That is awesome. Are your lists complete yet? Are they/can they be integrated into the website's character sheet generation page? I do have a question though, on your set#2 (Culture Table), does that require a d100 table for each race? or is the "culture" geared more toward a socio-religious-planetary background? ~Duke |
November 6, 2007 - 7:29am | w00t, are you the spear-head guy for the on-line character sheet page? I was just wondering the status of it if you were and I would be interested in possible collaboration on designing an SFman/SF.us specific character-sheet if you are at that stage. What did you have in mind. I came up with the idea of online sheets and can modify the current version *somewhat*. Bill coded this version 100% and any advancded stuff would need Bill's attention.I also had questions on the "way" the character generation page would operate for the users: 1) would the page page present the user with a one-at-a-time dice roll that would then spawn into the next roll? or would it all be on one page? 2) would/could there be a small/mini view of the character sheet that updates as the character rolls the dice? 3) should there be a "not quite finished yet" feature of some-sort that would highlight & warn the user of which sections of the character sheet are not done yet? 4) Would a registered user be able to save his/her character sheets privately on their account? 5) what about a feature for on-line play where as the players wishing to join a game would "submit" their "registered" character-sheet to the GM and then that sheet is then "locked-out" from amendment until the GM updates it and releases it? Possibly have an "on line" only version character sheet where there are only certain update-able fields by the users (GM updates all locked data) such as the player could go to the web-store and use his/her currency to purchase equipment, etc. All good ideas. The next version of OCS will have some of the features you mention including options for Rule Sets (AD core, SF2K, Zeb's ect...) and will take some time to think out the logic and code. I like the idea of submitting a character to a game and "locking it". One of my goals is to have the GM be able to edit the character sheets to reflect current play. Maybe have some buttons, Dead, Out of Action, Passed Out or something. :-)
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November 7, 2007 - 3:08am | 2) The "history" section should be at least a 3-stage process (3 rolls against 3 different d100 lists) or a combination of d100 & d10 list-sets of individual categories for a more varied, and hopefully, non-reproducible character back-history. Uncanny. I was producing just such a system. It has 1) Environment Table, 2) Culture Table 3) Life Table. The Culture and Origin tables I was making to provide particular sub-skills (what I prefer to call simply skills; one each) to the character. I hadn't decided if the life table would also provide a skill. At any rate, the skills can be optional, according to Referee's choice. That is awesome. Are your lists complete yet? Are they/can they be integrated into the website's character sheet generation page? I do have a question though, on your set#2 (Culture Table), does that require a d100 table for each race? or is the "culture" geared more toward a socio-religious-planetary background? ~Duke Sure, I would work on that project with you but I would want to examine your structuring first and what you have done thus far to both catch up and to evaluate the cohesiveness of it. |
